Career
Reitman's first producing job was with the then-new station CITY-TV in Toronto. CITY was also the home of the first announcing job of his later friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd. However, Reitman's tenure at CITY was short and he was fired during his first year by station owner Moses Znaimer.
Spellbound (1972), directed by Ivan Reitman, with music by Howard Shore, magic by Doug Henning and co-starring actress Jennifer Dale, a musical that combined an intense storyline and Henning's magic tricks. The show opened in Toronto and broke box office ticket records in that city.
Reitman worked on a number of films after graduating from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He produced two films for director David Cronenberg, Shivers/They Came from Within/The Parasite Murders (1974) and Rabid (1976). His big break came when he produced National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 and directed Meatballs in 1979. From there, he directed and produced a number of comedies including Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Legal Eagles (1986), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Dave (1993), Junior (1994), Six Days Seven Nights (1998), Evolution (2001), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), and No Strings Attached (2011).
In the early 1990s, Reitman began to direct fewer films, but increased his role as a producer and executive producer. He helped to produce the animated film Heavy Metal (1981), as well as the live-action films Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), Beethoven (1992), Beethoven's 2nd (1993), Space Jam (1996), Private Parts (1997), Road Trip (2000), Old School (2003) EuroTrip (2004) and Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006).
Reitman is a founder of the McMaster Film Board at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. In 2007, Reitman was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. Reitman founded The Montecito Picture Company, a film production company located just south of Santa Barbara, founded in 2000.
He next produced the comedy I Love You, Man (2009), starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Also in 2009, he produced the Academy Award-nominated film, Up in the Air, directed by his son Jason Reitman. Later, Reitman had planned to direct the erotic thriller Chloe (2009), but he couldn't attract the cast he wanted; so Reitman decided to only serve as a producer and asked Atom Egoyan to direct the film. Chloe had since enjoyed commercial success and became Egoyan's biggest moneymaker ever.
New York magazine, citing no sources, claimed in March 2007 that Sony Pictures Entertainment wanted to replace Reitman on Ghostbusters III with a younger director, but that Reitman's original contract precluded this. In early 2010, Reitman confirmed he will be directing the film. He was also the producer of Howard Stern's film Private Parts.
He coproduced the biographical Hitchcock, a film to be released November 23, 2012.
Read more about this topic: Ivan Reitman
Famous quotes containing the word career:
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