Thanks for the heads up. I'm gonna try to make it. "Thank You For Smoking" was quite good, and Jason Reitman has proven it was no fluke with "Juno".

Tom, if you do go, perhaps you'd be kind enough to follow up here with some thoughts about Diablo Cody, the event, etc.

Scott:

I made it to Friday’s double feature of STRIPES and THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, with Diablo Cody interviewing Ivan Reitman, then son Jason Reitman, after each viewing.

STRIPES, directed by Ivan Reitman

This was supposed to be a Cheech & Chong vehicle, and was written specifically with them in mind. But their manager wanted, in addition to the salaries, a 25% cut of Ivan’s next five movies. Ivan later became friends with Cheech, who said he and Tommy Chong had no idea that Ivan wanted them for this movie.

So in a pinch, Ivan talked Bill Murray, whom he directed in MEATBALLS, to take a lead days before filming was scheduled to begin -- though he wasn’t convinced Bill would actually show up. Bill did – one day after filming began.

The other lead was of course filled by Harold Ramis, with whom Ivan worked with on National Lampoon productions.

The writers – not the producers – convinced the US Army to cooperate with the filming, telling them it would help recruitment. It did. Recruitment spiked after STRIPES was released.

So the Army let Ivan film at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, and provided all the equipment and soldiers. The Parade Grounds scene for boot camp graduation day, where Murray’s platoon shows up late after pulling an all-nighter – took one day. All the other platoons were real soldiers. The whole scene took only one day to film. Per Ivan, soldiers are a dream to direct, as they take direction extremely well. They go where told, no complaints. The city scenes, by the way, were shot in nearby Louisville.

Son Jason was four years old during filming, and according to dad, was smitten with all the tanks. Jason’s only memory is of watching Elmore Bernstein conduct the film’s score while the footage played in the background. Jason also pointed out a scene at beginning, where Bill Murry’s girlfriend just happens to go topless. “Perv” is what son called dad.

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, adapted and directed by Jason Reitman

Jason not only knew he wanted to direct a film, but knew this was the first project he wanted to do. The studios ignored him.

But he hunted down the rights to the book by Christopher Buckley, finding that Mel Gibson owned them. Mel had planned to play the lead and direct. (Tidbit: When Jason talked to Mel about buying the rights, Mel was cruising on his jet.) So Jason wrote about 30 pages of the screenplay in one weekend and sent it to Mel. Mel liked it, and agreed to let Jason film it.

Jason said he was drawn to the project by its anti-pc, anti-government over-regulation theme. A major chunk of the plot in the book was devoted to the search for the kidnappers who slapped nicotine patches all over the tobacco lobbyist protagonist, played by Aaron Eckhart. Jason cut the hunt out of the screenplay, as he believed it didn’t matter who the kidnappers were -- nobody liked the Eckhart character. The better story was in the theme.

The original ending, which occurred at the press conference right after the Eckhart testified in congress, had Eckhart’s grade school son light up a cig. Eckhart slaps the cigarette away, thus killing his cigarette lobbying career. Test audiences didn’t like it, so it was cut.

Per Jason, directing is 50% management, 50% creativity, though that creativity is somewhat limited to things like setting up shots. Though nobody seemed to buy it, he maintained that directing isn’t that hard.