Jason Reitman Adapting Walter Kirn’s Up In The Air
By Peter Sciretta/May 14, 2008 11:28 am EST
Jason Reitman will be making a big screen adaptation of Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air, which tells the story of Ryan Bingham, a guy with a simple goal: to accumulate one million miles in his frequent flyer account.
“Bingham’s job as a Career Transition Counselorâ€"he fires peopleâ€"has kept him airborne for years. Although he has come to despise his line of work, he has come to love the culture of what he calls “Airworld,” finding contentment within pressurized cabins, anonymous hotel rooms, and a wardrobe of wrinkle-free slacks. With a letter of resignation sitting on his boss’s desk, and the hope of a job with a mysterious consulting firm, Ryan Bingham is agonizingly close to his ultimate goal, his Holy Grail: one million frequent flier miles. But before he achieves this long-desired freedom, conditions begin to deteriorate. With perception, wit, and wisdom, Up in the Air combines brilliant social observation with an acute sense of the psychic costs of our rootless existence, and confirms Walter Kirn as one of the most savvy chroniclers of American life.”
Jason has said that he plans to direct Up in the Air for around $112 to $15 million, later this year before he moves on to Pierre Pierre. Jason has already revealed that he wrote one of the roles for Reitman regular J.K. Simmons (who played Ellen Page’s father in Juno and Aaron Eckhart’s boss in Thank You For Smoking).
