Jason Reitman turned down JUSTICE LEAGUE!

He didn't think he could make a movie that lived up to X-MEN. Maybe it's a good thing he turned them down then!

Academy Award nominated director Jason Reitman claims that he turned down the opportunity to direct the Justice League of America movie last Summer. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds. He fits the criteria of director that Warner Bros. sought after originally... someone young and ambitious who has proven himself with a strong character driven film. You may remember David Slade was hired for two weeks before George Miller came on board.

So why did Reitman turn the film down? Well he didn't think he could make a movie that would live up to the audiences expectation and for now he's quite happy to say in the Indie film genre. This is what he said to Howard Stern when asked "How's the script"...
€œGood, 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. €œThey 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: €œWhat 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€€ €œRight 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.€
He also revealed the budget would be $150 million, a number which we believe has gained another $50 million at least at this point. He may be telling the truth and fair play to him and everything but reading between the lines (I haven't heard the audio from the interview so I can't be sure) it sounds like he didn't think much of the script did he? So instead of JLA, Reitman's next movie will be Pierre Pierre - an adaptation of one of last year's black listed unproduced scripts with Jim Carrey in the lead role. It's a black comedy about a self-indulgent French nihilist who transports a stolen painting from Paris to London. Reitman is a smart guy who cares about the filmography he is putting together. He will only make movies from the best scripts. It would have been real interesting if a really good JLA script fell into his hands, then would he have turned them down? source - /film
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.