JUNO director ditches Ellen Page for his next movie & casts a TWILIGHT unknown

by Matt Holmes

JUNO, that movie's director Jason Reitman has dropped the actress for his next movie UP IN THE AIR, choosing instead to go with relatively unknown actress Anna Kendrick to lead opposite George Clooney. The Hollywood Reporter say Page (and also Emily Blunt) were among the many actresses' who auditioned for Reitman's adaptation of Walter Kairn's 2001 comedy novel but in the end the director thought Kendrick, whose limited experience is a very small role in TWILIGHT and a slightly more substantial part in the Indie film ROCKET SCIENCE, was best suited for the part. Kendrick will play a women pulled into the orbit of a "career transition counselor" (i.e. professional firer) careening through the airless world of business travel. Clooney plays a guy trying to accumulate one million miles in his frequent flyer account. The movie is budgeted at around the $12 million mark. Page, who originally turned down Sam Raimi's horror film DRAG ME TO HELL earlier in the year when she was getting that quick post-Oscar acclaim, hasn't secured the high profile roles I thought she would just yet.

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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.