There’s plenty of haters out there (who we’re sure will make themselves known below…), but as far as this writer’s concerned, Jason Reitman is three-for-three after “Thank You For Smoking,” “Juno” and “Up in the Air,” a trio of smart, assured, well-executed comedies. All’s been quiet on the Reitman front since the release of “Up in the Air,” but today brings news of a potential new project for the helmer, according to The Hollywood Reporter
Reitman’s Right of Way Films have picked up the rights to the first novel by 26-year-old “Saturday Night Live” writer Simon Rich, a coming-of-age book entitled “Elliot Allagash,” about an eighth-grade kid in an exclusive private school who comes under the wing of the titular Allagash, a new transfer whose crimes include “vandalism, truancy, unprovoked violence, drunkenness, hiring an imposter to take a standardized test, and blackmail.” Between the “Rushmore”-like setting, and the background of Rich (the Harvard-educated son of New York Times writer Frank Rich), it seems like Reitman’s either unafraid, or unaware, of some of the brickbats hurled at him; it’s a bit like Sofia Coppola optioning the rights to a book about a sad movie star in a hotel.
Rich will adapt his own novel, and Reitman’s producing, but there’s no word if he’ll be directing. He’s got a number of other projects lined up, including a movie about a hockey referee, a project entitled “See Also: Sambo,” from “Rachel Getting Married” writer Jenny Lumet, and football pic “Whispers in Bedlam,” but the most likely candidate seems to be an adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s novel “Labor Day.”
We’re sure that Reitman will confirm his next project in the next few months; he’s kept to a fairly clockwork one-movie-every-two-years schedule so far, so we imagine he’ll be filming on something at the end of this year, or early next. In the meantime, you can watch a trailer for the book (via /Film), featuring Rich and Bill Hader (who teamed with Rich on the horror-comedy “When A Stranger Calls A Dude” for Judd Apatow), and take comfort in the fact that while the young writer might be way more successful than you, he will never stop getting ID’d in bars.
ugh this kid has privileged douche written all over him, obviously fits in well with Reitman
'harvard-educated','son of a NY times columnist' 'jason reitman'. pot meets kettle. nepotism meets elitist.
i seriously can't wait to illegally download this film in the future!
I think Simon Rich's short pieces for the New Yorker are funny. Does that make me a douche, too? Oh gosh, I hope not.
Depends, Abhay. Go grab your driver's license and check out your last name. Is it "Krugman" or "Friedman?"
Did your father slip a copy of your novel to his agent?
If you answered yes to all of the above, then yes, you are a douche.
At this point, I'd like to defend Reitman, but unfortunately I can't; I only got this job at The Playlist because Devin Faraci is my uncle.
Heard the book sucked.
Another unncessary dig at Coppola, a filmmaker who this site breathlessly reports on and then decides to turn on once they see one frame of the trailer.
Nice work on all the question headlines too, it's so nice that this place is turning into fucking /Film.
But I get it, it's so fun to speculate…
"Is The Playlist dumbing down their style to appeal to a broader audience of people at work and teenagers while simultaneously slagging off filmmakers who it has become unfashionable to like in the hermetic cocoon of low traffic internet critic circles?"
See, it's fun!