Spoiler alert! If you haven’t yet seen “Up In The Air” there are some plot details here that you’re probably best not knowing until they’re revealed in the film. Proceed with caution.
Over the weekend, “Up in the Air” writer-director Jason Reitman and his credited co-writer Sheldon Turner won Best Adapted Screenplay at both the Broadcast Film Critics Awards and the Golden Globes, but what should have been a great weekend for the pair, now presumptive Oscar favorites, was marred by an article in the LA Times, which talked about a lack of acknowledgment for credited writers on some of the biggest movies of the awards season.
While Michael Tolkin, who went to Anthony Minghella’s family to strike a deal to share credit with the late writer/director on “Nine,” and “Shutter Island” scribe and James Cameron protege Laeta Kalogridis, who performed uncredited writing work on “Avatar,” both feature in the piece, the bulk of it is given up to the relationship between Reitman and Turner, whose previous produced films were the prequel to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and Adam Sandler’s remake of “The Longest Yard,” as well as the now-buried “X-Men Origins: Magneto.”
The project was originally being developed by “Meet the Parents” helmer Jay Roach, whose writers struck out, at which point Turner, who had written a draft of an adaptation of Walter Kirn’s book on spec, sold it to Dreamworks, with Jason’s father Ivan Reitman set to direct. Turner was replaced fairly swiftly by Ted Griffin (“Ocean’s Eleven”), who retains a producer credit on the finished film, until eventually Reitman, a fan of the novel, took the project on.
According to the LA Times, several of Turner’s inventions survive in the finished film, including Anna Kendrick’s character (although the character was originally a man; the gender was changed by a later writer, most likely Griffin), the plot point of a fired worker committing suicide, and George Clooney’s firing spiel about ‘founding empires.’ When it came to the arbitration process, Reitman allegedly refused to share credit with Turner, until the WGA forced it on him.
Reitman doesn’t necessarily do himself any favors in public — his Twitter feed can be self-indulgent, his interview technique can be less than charming, and the face he pulled when “Avatar” won Best Picture at the Globes last night wasn’t particularly gracious (although perfectly understandable — we’d probably look the same if our film got beaten by the Blue Man Group in space). But we’ve got to say, we sort of side with him on this one. Turner’s previous credits don’t inspire a great deal of confidence in him, and the examples that his supporters have quoted to the LA Times seem to be quite minor (it doesn’t take William Goldman to realize that, if your character is travellng around on planes for most of the movie, he’s going to need someone to talk to, so the invention of Kendrick’s character isn’t exactly a smoking gun, particularly in the wrong gender). Plus, if you find Reitman’s attitude snotty, Turner’s doesn’t exactly seem a man of the people — his opening line in an interview with Script magazine says “Look, I can’t even fire my maid.”
Added to this is the fairly broken nature of the WGA arbitration process, which requires a writer-director to prove that he’s responsible for over 50% of a screenplay in order to get a writing credit at all. Which is fair enough — after all, it’s designed to protect writers from control freak auteurs, but the system currently doesn’t work, as proven by the case of “The Hangover” this summer. Original writers Jon Lucas & Scott Moore received sole credit for the screenplay of the sleeper hit, despite the fact that the draft we have (dated September 30, 2007) contains almost none of the most memorable elements; the tiger, the baby, the police car, Mike Tyson. Zach Galifianakis’ character is absent in all but name — there is an Alan, but he bears no resemblance to the final character. This is because the WGA judged that Todd Phillips, and his co-writer Scot Armstrong, hadn’t achieved the necessary level of changes to be granted any credit at all.
The first writer on an adaptation will tend to be given credit, because, when working from the same source material, it’s more likely that two independent screenplays may look similar. Now, it’s possible that Turner’s drafts are close to the film (and if anyone has a copy, we’d love to see it with our own eyes), and we’re sure he contributed to the film in some degree, but our gut tells us that the writer received credit more from WGA loopholes than from an influence on the finished movie. Yes, Reitman could be a little more mature about it all, but the whole story stinks of publicist-planted “A Beautiful Mind” style Oscar season Swift Boating to us.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/fashion/03ford.html?_r=2&8dpc=&pagewanted=all Read towards the end about an encounter between Reitman and Tom Ford. It's pretty amusing and might give a little more insight into the guy.
love your take on this story finally!
But I don't think it's a swift boating of the Reitman or the film's chances..I think it's all finally catching up with him. He's been a totally insane person on 'the circuit' these last few months. True, I found the film to be very 'meh' but I can't remember a time when a writer/director has so publicly been so rude to the person he's had to share credit with…once the WGA rules..people kind of just go with it..I guess the fact he's from a wealthy family maybe makes me think he has manners and would be more polite in public.
What Jason is totally missing is how EVERYBODY is laughing at him about this..I've been there when people pass the blackberry with his latest self-serving tweet.."Just caught the last 10 minutes of Juno..boy did a do a great job with that on that."
and it's all totally irony free.
I'm real happy to see Sheldon Turner getting credit and accolades for his work. He's a true work horse screenwriter, and as far as personality goes, definitely one of the most interesting ones around. It's only a matter of time before he's at the forefront of writers to look for.
I see you don't know much about Mr. Turner beyond some recent articles and his IMDB credits, so I gotta recommend a DVD with a GREAT 90 minute interview with him: http://www.amazon.com/Dialogue-Interview-Screenwriter-Sheldon-Turner/dp/B000GALHPG/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1263874876&sr=8-2 – you can cop it on Netflix too.
UITA has Sheldon Turner written all over it. He's a huge Cameron Crowe fan, and it reminded me of Jerry Maguire in more than a few ways. I don't think Reitman's a bad guy at all, but all this talk of the way he acts is knocking him down on the douche radar.
Given the history of even the best directors in Hollywood, I tend to assume that at any given moment, the director of any given film is undervaluing the actual contribution of the writer, at least in public and usually in their own ego-soaked minds. It's right more often than it's wrong.
turner doesnt have his daddy to bail him out. granted reitman has done respectable work on his own. i have zero sympathy for him. yeah turner wrote some shitty stuff but he also had to break in somehow. reitman did not. so spare me.
Honestly, I can't understand what the fuss is all about; the credits say "screenplay by J.R. and S.T", NOT "written and directed by J.R.". They're both acknowledged, whatever the relationship between them is. If anyone's spotting arrogance in acceptance speaches or in the faces of nominees, how about QT? Granted, he's QT, but was he more gracious than J.R? I don't think so.
"Thank you For Smoking" was wonderfully written and that was JR's alone, so I personally don't have an inch of doubt that at least 50% of UITA is his. If you want an extra clue to his defense, the whole "backpack" skit- it's in his draft of 08/19/08 and that draft is credited only to J.R. I think it's yet another case of bashing a man on rise…
I'd be pretty pissed too, if the guild I was a member of ruled that I had to share credit with a writer I'd never met, who wrote a draft I'd never read.
to Anon 7:54 I don't know if they ever met..but based on the LA Times article (link included in the story featured here) there are MANY elements from Sheldon's script that are in the finished film. Elements he created that were not in the book. So obviously JR **did read the draft.
Funny story: I wrote "A Serious Man."
"Turner's previous credits don't inspire a great deal of confidence in him"
Uhh, neither do Jason Reitman's. Have you seen the man's movies?
"Turner's previous credits don't inspire a great deal of confidence in him"
You understand that the produced work of a screenwriter is usually just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what he or she's written, right? You know the kind of garbage that Hollywood develops and greenlights–you report on it every day–so it's a bit unfair to just kneejerk write people off like this. Not everybody gets the kind of opportunities to be an "auteur" by their daddy that Reitman did. They have to pay their dues building a career in the sweatshop of Hollywood.
Just sayin'…
Man, there are some scathing comments on here. I had no idea Reitman had this much animosity against him. I have loved his last three films and find he is a nice guy.
Then again, most of my and everyone else's interaction are with what he puts out there. A sorry excuse for knowing the character of someone.