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Jason Reitman (born October 19, 1977 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) is a director, writer, producer, and actor. He is the son of Ivan Reitman and is best known in the Ghostbusters context as the co-writer and director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), which revived the live-action film franchise after nearly three decades. He grew up around the production of the original films and has carried that personal connection to the franchise forward into his own career.
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Reitman spent much of his childhood on and around his father's film sets. During the 1980s and into 2000, he appeared in minor acting roles, worked as a production assistant on Ivan Reitman's productions, and sat in on editing sessions. He was present during special-effects tests and during the recording of the first film's score. He also received a production assistant credit and had an acting role on Kindergarten Cop (1990).
His feature directorial debut came in 2005 with Thank You for Smoking, adapted from Christopher Buckley's novel. He followed that with Juno (2007), Up in the Air (2009), Young Adult (2011), Labor Day (2013), Tully (2018), and The Front Runner (2018). He also directed six episodes of the television series Casual (2015-2017) and served as a producer on that show for its full run of forty-four episodes.
Reitman has a brief cameo appearance in Ghostbusters II as "Jason (Brownstone Boy)." The Reitman family had originally been planned for a cameo in the original 1984 Ghostbusters, appearing as panicked residents fleeing from 550 Central Park West during the climax. That footage was abandoned after the first take, as both Jason and his sister Catherine became too frightened to complete a second take. The deleted footage was later found stored in salt mines in Kansas by the film studio, and a portion of it was incorporated into Ghostbusters: Afterlife, appearing in the scene where Gary Grooberson shows Phoebe and Podcast footage from the Manhattan Crossrip of 1984 on a laptop.
Reitman kept a piece of the shaving cream that was dumped on Walter Peck actor William Atherton in his bedroom for years.
Reitman served as co-writer, director, and co-producer on Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The film was co-written with Gil Kenan, who had previously collaborated with Reitman and who went on to direct the sequel. The production marked Reitman's return to the franchise as a creative lead rather than a peripheral participant.
Several story elements originated directly with Reitman. The line "There is no Mom, only Zuul" was his idea. The scene in which Phoebe Spengler explains to Trevor Spengler what a capacitor is was inspired by a real conversation in which Adam Savage once explained capacitors to Reitman. On the day of filming that scene, Reitman texted Savage to verify the correct delivery; Savage replied with two different reads for him to use.
The hardware store that appears in the film, Wertheimer's Hardware, is named after Reitman's lawyer, Alan Wertheimer.
In December 2012, years before Afterlife entered production, Reitman staged a live-read of the original Ghostbusters screenplay at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The cast included Seth Rogen as Peter Venkman, Jack Black as Ray Stantz, Rainn Wilson as Egon Spengler, Phil LaMarr as Winston Zeddemore, Kristen Bell as Dana Barrett, Kevin Pollak as Mayor Lenny and Walter Peck, Mae Whitman as Janine Melnitz, and Paul Rust as Louis Tully.
Reitman served as co-writer and producer on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, with Gil Kenan taking the director's chair. Reitman also directed the film's post-credits end tag sequence, though this contribution went uncredited in the final release.
Reitman's daughter Josephine appears in Frozen Empire as one of the teenagers trapped in the Wonder Wheel cab. The ghost character Pukey, a spectral pug featured in the film, was inspired by Reitman's own affection for pugs.
Reitman is attached as Executive Producer on the forthcoming untitled Ghostbusters animated series in development at Netflix.
On the variant cover of Ghostbusters: Dead Man's Chest Issue #3, one of the street signs depicted in the artwork reads "Reitman," serving as an acknowledgment of the Reitman family's central role in the franchise's history.
The following is a selected list of non-Ghostbusters credits.
