Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of Thank You For Smoking and Juno, has a new film starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. Up in the Air, which premieres December 11, will introduce audiences to Ryan Bingham, played by Clooney, whose job is to fire people.

More interested in making connections between flights than meaningful connections with friends and family, Bingham believes moving is living, and finds freedom in the fact that he can fit his life in a carry-on backpack. But when he falls for another frequent flyer, played by Vera Farmiga, and finds his role as a downsizing expert at risk after a young upstart, played by Anna Kendrick develops a video conferencing system that will allow termination without ever leaving the office, Bingham must contemplate what it means to have a home.

“What started out as a movie about a guy who just fired people for a living became about a man who was trying to figure out who and what he wanted in life,” said Reitman in a phone interview.

Although Reitman has said that this is not a movie about firing people, the timeliness of a story set in tough economic times carries more weight when so many are feeling the effects of economic recession. And while the typical university student may not have directly felt the effect of the downturn, the lay-off scenes are still potent. Some of these were scripted, but others were based on the real-life testimony of people who had been fired in the St Louis and Detroit areas, where ousted employees showing pictures of their children or expressing a loss of purpose would resonate with anyone.

“I have a few friends that have lost their jobs, more than a few,” said Reitman. “It is a tough time in the movie business and certainly, independent film divisions have shut down.”
But Reitman, who has been hailed by Roger Ebert as the “hope of the cinema,” remained optimistic about the future of the film industry.

“The film business has gone through tricky times before and it’s usually when filmmakers feel pressure that they often come out with their most creative materials. So I said to myself, ‘I hope that whatever pressures we’re feeling will actually lead to more interesting films’.”

Reitman is known for using his films to humanize characters that are usually easy to hate—a lobbyist for big tobacco in Thank You For Smoking and a corporate downsizing expert in Up In The Air. He is always looking for characters that do more than fill theatre seats.

“If Thank You For Smoking and Up In The Air were two parts of a trilogy, and I needed, you know, my third angry white guy to fill it in. Tobacco lobbyists, corporate termination executive, what is the third slot?” he mused. “I’ve thought about that often.”

He cited high-powered lawyers or representatives of big pharmaceutical companies as possible case studies for a new take on the human condition. But at least for now, everything is still up in the air.