Jason Reitman Saw The Signs of the Apocalypse, Turned Down Justice League

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 11, 2008

Here is a little tidbit of news that won’t surprise you, at least, if you are a Jason Reitman fan. Reitman visited the Howard Stern show yesterday to talk about his upcoming projects and ended up talking a little bit about his involvment with the now ill-fated Justice League of America film. Here is what he had to say when he was asked about the quality of the script:

“Good, FINE… You know, I mean. I had to sign something, they send me the script and it comes on this spy paper which cant be xeroxed,” revealed Jason Reitman. “They have a time when I have to have the script back to them and the script is fine and I could be spending…” Jason later continued: “What am I going to do with Justice League of America? So Basically I’ll make a movie that is not as good as X-Men, then I’ll be the guy who made a movie not as good as X-Men. Where just like you talking about, going to smaller stations, if I make another small movie, and it’s really good, it performs well…” “Right now I’m thought of as a particular type of director. I’ve got an oscar nomination. I’ve made two indie films that play film festivals that are considered thoughtful. I want to stay in that world, I like making those type of films.”

So as we I’ve suspected for a long time now, Jason Reitman is one of those precious few people in Hollywood with his head on straight. Why would he ever want to do a movie like Justice League — I say leave that monumental failure to the likes of George Miller. Reitman is great when it comes to delivering smart, well-scripted little movies that grow on people over time. I see no reason for him to get away from that, at least not now.

As well, according to the report over at Slashfilm, Reitman also let it slip that the budget for Justice League would have been near $150 million. Again, I don’t think that any amount of money can make this one a winner, but that is me.

Sound Off: Do you think Reitman made the right choice to stay away from Justice League? As well, do you think George Miller was the right pick?

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