Comments on: Reitman Vs. Sheldon Turner Controversy: We Compare The Two ‘Up In The Air’ Scripts

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:30:38 +0000

I saw Sheldon Turner at The Office in Brentwood a few years ago; I was surprised to see him win the Golden Globe. I was not very impressed with The Longest Yard or The Texas Chainsaw remake; however, the dialog on Up In The Air is very well written. Sheldon Turner is a very funny and charismatic guy; seems like he has a really good chance to win an Oscar now 🙂 According to IMDB – he is working on a long list of projects now.

BTW, I had no idea about the controversy until reading this blog; I thought Jason Reitman discovered the book at Book Soup just like Wikipedia says 🙂

By: Rabi

Rabi — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:08:00 +0000

Way too many words spent on such a mediocre film.

By: cineastejohn

cineastejohn — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 23:01:43 +0000

To Anonymous:

I'm not necessarily defending Reitman, although I've listened to several different interviews with him recently and never got that feeling, but I'm wondering what specifically you're pointing to when you say he has been tacky in discussing the matters of credit or his view on Turner? I just want to see where you're coming from, and right now I'm ignorant to that and curious to know.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:47:56 +0000

whatever the credit situation, I kind of feel like the WGA ruled. The reason Reitman is being given shit about all this is because he's behaving in a really tacky manner..I can't even recall when a writer, after the WGA ruled as been this tacky.

By: cineastejohn

cineastejohn — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:15:29 +0000

Believe it or not, Reitman has no say in the matter. The WGA system of determining credit is complicated, but it solely rests with them. I have not read both version of the script, but it sounds like they have their basic similarities in story/structure to the novel. It totally makes sense that both would be credited. I worked for a development company very recently and had to make several calls to the WGAw for questions on how credit is given and determined. Reitman, any producer, his dad, any writer or even the writer of the book has absolutely zero say in the matter. The WGA takes all versions of the script and reads through them and determines where credit should lie.

By: terraling

terraling — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:44:42 +0000

Loved the film, when I saw Sheldon Turner's name on the credits I was, ermm, surprised. My only experience of him before is reading the woefully average script for Orbit (due 2012, I think). By the numbers, completely lacking in imagination, it took a great concept (another book adaptation) and went nowhere with it. The main character has an 'arc' that is resolved without reference to anything actually happening in the film. Screenwriting by numbers with a few classes skipped. It actually made me angry reading it. So, interesting to hear your take on the Up in the Air drafts. Thanks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:37:04 +0000

This was an absolutely fantastic read. It was like looking at the opportunity cost (nerd economics term) of Reitman's script versus some director picking up Turner's script.

I actually imagined Clooney saying, "You're not. Anymore. Dude."

I winced.

By: fatwelles

fatwelles — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:05:11 +0000

yea like in shakepearian times!
…wait, didn't they rewrite the same stories over and over back then?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:47:50 +0000

fuck reitman. im sick of multiple screenwriters overall. whatever happened to personal storytelling. fuck fuck.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 04:22:42 +0000

The Turner draft introduced elements not in the book that are in the film. The Nick and Ted Griffin drafts did as well.

It's one thing for Reitman to think he deserved sole credit. I get that. His crime is going around and acting like he discovered the book and just started writing when in reality his Dad had bought the project and developed it with the Griffin brothers already.