Interview With Jason Reitman, Director of “Up In The Air” Starring George Clooney

Last month Jason Reitman was in town for the 18th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival. It was at SLIFF that his latest film “Up In The Air” made it’s St. Louis premiere.

“Up In The Air” is the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), a man who has made a career of flying around the country doing the dirty work of companies that don’t want to deal with laying off their employees. The movie was shot in five different cities, with St. Louis and Lambert Airport being used for many of the scenes. Reitman felt that St. Louis was an underutilized city for filming, and was very happy with the people and quality of life here while the movie was in production.

In the interview Reitman talks about deciding to become a director, how the film came to be made, his thoughts about the future of film, and much more. Enjoy the full interview below. “Up In The Air” opens in St. Louis this Friday, and Nationwide on Christmas.

Kevin Brackett

Kevin Brackett is a professional film and theatre critic. He is also a member of the St. Louis Film Critics Association (SLFCA). Since founding Review St. Louis in 2008, he remains editor and operator of the online publication. Kevin is also a co-host of the Reel Spoilers podcast, and former National Vice President of the Technology Student Association (TSA), comprised of over 200,000 members worldwide. E-mail: kevin [at] reviewstl.com.

View Comments

  • Congrats on the interview, Kevin! Jason seems so likable. Can't wait to see Up in the Air.

    It's also fantastic to hear that the tax incentives are working. A movie like this could do wonders for raising St. Louis' profile.

  • This was an interesting interview, you asked some good questions; however I wish you would have been able to follow up on a few of them and develop some better conversations. I'm a big fan of what Jason has done with his past films and I am definitely looking forward to seeing "Up in the Air". Keep up the good work!

    • Yeah, that is one of the sad things about press interviews like this. Jason had multiple interviews, and he had to be at the Tivoli later in the night to show 'Up in the Air' at the St. Louis International Film Festival. Hopefully some day we can get a longer one on one with him.

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