Ivan Reitman

Ivan Reitman OC
File:Ivan Reitman 2011.jpg Reitman in 2011
Born	(1946-10-27)October 27, 1946 Komárno, Czechoslovakia
Died	Montecito, California, U.S.
Resting place	Santa Barbara Cemetery
Nationality	Canadian
Alma mater	McMaster University
Occupation	Film director producer screenwriter
Years active	1968–2022
Spouse(s)	Geneviève Robert (m. 1976)
Children	3, including Jason and Catherine

Ivan Reitman OC (/ˈraɪtmən/; October 27, 1946 – February 12, 2022) was a Canadian film director and producer. He was known for his comedy films, especially in the 1980s and 1990s. Reitman was the owner of The Montecito Picture Company, founded in 1998.

Films he directed include Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Dave (1993), Junior (1994) and Draft Day (2014). Reitman also served as producer for such films as National Lampoon's Animal House (1978), Heavy Metal (1981), Space Jam (1996) and Private Parts (1997).

Early life

Ivan Reitman was born in the town of Komárno, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia), on October 27, 1946, the son of Klara (Raab) and Ladislav "Leslie" Reitman. Both of Reitman's parents were Hungarian Jews; his mother survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, and his father was an underground resistance fighter. His family arrived in Canada as refugees when Reitman was four years old. Reitman attended Oakwood Collegiate in Toronto and was a member of the Twintone Four singing group. He attended McMaster University, receiving a Bachelor of Music in 1969. At McMaster he produced and directed many short films.

Career

Reitman's first producing job was with the then-new station CITY-TV in Toronto. CITY was also the home of the first announcing job of his later friend and collaborator Dan Aykroyd. However, Reitman's tenure at CITY was short and he was fired during his first year by station owner Moses Znaimer.

In Toronto, he produced the stage production Spellbound (1973) starring his university friend, magician Doug Henning, with a script by David Cronenberg and score by Howard Shore. This show evolved into the 1974 Broadway production The Magic Show, which ran for four and a half years at the Cort Theatre. Reitman and Henning also collaborated on the 1983 musical Merlin, for which Reitman was nominated for the Tony Awards for Best Musical (as a producer) and Best Direction of a Musical.

File:Ivan Reitman with prop from Ghostbusters.jpg

Reitman in 1984

Reitman's first commercial film ventures were as producer of two films for director David Cronenberg, Shivers (1975) and Rabid (1977). His big break came when he produced National Lampoon's Animal House in 1978 and directed Meatballs in 1979. From there, he directed and produced a number of comedies including Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Legal Eagles (1986), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Dave (1993), Junior (1994), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Evolution (2001), My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006), and No Strings Attached (2011).

In the early 1990s, Reitman began to direct fewer films, but increased his role as a producer and executive producer through his company, Northern Lights Entertainment. He helped to produce the animated film Heavy Metal (1981), as well as the live-action films Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983), Beethoven (1992), Beethoven's 2nd (1993), Space Jam (1996), Howard Stern's film Private Parts (1997)

In 1998, Reitman (alongside former Universal Pictures chairman Tom Pollock) founded The Montecito Picture Company, a film production company located just south of Santa Barbara. In 2007, Reitman was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame.

He next produced the comedy I Love You, Man (2009), starring Paul Rudd and Jason Segel. Also in 2009, he produced the Academy Award-nominated film, Up in the Air, directed by his son Jason Reitman. Later, Reitman had planned to direct the erotic thriller Chloe (2009) but he couldn't attract the cast he wanted so Reitman decided to only serve as a producer and asked Atom Egoyan to direct the film. Chloe has since enjoyed commercial success and became Egoyan's biggest moneymaker ever.

In his final decade, Reitman also co-produced the biographical film Hitchcock, released on November 23, 2012, directed the 2014 sports drama Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner, and served as executive producer on 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy as he had done for the first film.

In mid-January 2019, news of a new Ghostbusters film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, came through with Ivan's son Jason Reitman taking over as co-writer and director. Ivan remained producer, and stood in for the late Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler using visual effects. The film was released on November 19, 2021, marking his final film before his death. However, Reitman received a posthumous producer credit for the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, which was released on March 22, 2024. The film is also dedicated to his memory.

Unmade projects

In the early 1980s, Tom Mankiewicz wrote a script for a film titled The Batman, with Reitman attached to direct. He planned to cast Meatballs star Bill Murray as Batman, David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth, William Holden as Commissioner James Gordon, and singer David Bowie as Joker. Following the deaths of Holden and Niven and rewrites of the script, Reitman left the project and was replaced by Gremlins director Joe Dante, but the film was never made.

In the mid-1980s, Reitman was in contention to direct Memoirs of an Invisible Man, but departed from the project due to creative differences with star Chevy Chase.

File:Labor Day 20 (9766111984).jpg

Reitman in 2013

In February 1996, it was reported that Reitman was planning a remake of Creature From the Black Lagoon at Universal with a script by Herschel Weingrod and Timothy Harris, as well as a potential Marx brothers feature, but neither materialized.

In April 1996, it was reported that Reitman was attached to produce, and possibly direct, a Wonder Woman film. However, three years later, he passed the project on to writer Jon Cohen and left for unknown reasons.

In 2000, Reitman along with Wolfgang Petersen, Rob Reiner, M. Night Shyamalan, Alan Parker, Tim Robbins, Terry Gilliam, Brad Silberling and Peter Weir were considered to direct Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone but the directing job was given to Chris Columbus instead.

In 2001, Reitman revealed he would direct MGM's remake of The Pink Panther, with Mike Myers in the role of Inspector Clouseau. A 2006 iteration starred Steve Martin in the role instead.

In March 2007, New York magazine, citing no sources, stated that Sony Pictures Entertainment wanted to replace Reitman on Ghostbusters III with a younger director, but that Reitman's original contract precluded this. In early 2010, it appeared as if Reitman would direct the film, but in September 2014, after Harold Ramis' death, Paul Feig was officially set to direct a new film, which was released in 2016 as a reboot of the franchise.

In March 2012, it was reported that a sequel to Twins, titled Triplets, was in the works, and that Reitman would co-produce the film. Deadline reported in September 2021 that Reitman would both direct and produce Triplets and that shooting was scheduled to begin in January 2022. The status of the film is unclear following Reitman's death, with Arnold Schwarzenegger suggesting that Reitman's son Jason "stopped the project when his father died" and that the younger Reitman "never liked the idea."

In 2013, it was revealed that Reitman had plans to make a sequel to Evolution, but they never came to fruition.

File:Front Runner 08 (44849853362) (cropped).jpg

Reitman in 2018

In June 2016, it was reported that Reitman would produce a prospective animated series Ghostbusters: Ecto Force. In July 2017, Reitman stated that Ecto Force had been postponed to focus on an animated Ghostbusters film that he would produce and co-direct alongside Fletcher Moules.

Personal life and death

Reitman married Geneviève Robert in 1976. He had two daughters and a son, Jason, who is a film director best known for his films Juno, Thank You for Smoking, Up in the Air and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. His daughter Catherine is the creator, executive producer, writer and star of the CBC comedy series Workin' Moms. His other daughter, Caroline, is a nurse in San Diego, California. He and his French-Canadian wife, who converted to Judaism, brought up their children in the same tradition.

In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions as a director and producer, and for his promotion of the Canadian film and television industries". In April 2011, he received the Mayor's Prize at his native city of Komárno, Slovakia. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.

In 2014, he said "I've always been something of a conservative-slash-libertarian." Reitman had previously appeared in the 2004 documentary, Rated R: Republicans in Hollywood.

Reitman died in his sleep at home in Montecito, California, on February 12, 2022, at the age of 75.

Filmography

Film

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1968	Orientation	Yes	Yes	Also writer, editor, cinematographer and composer

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Producer	Notes
1971	Foxy Lady	Yes	Yes	Also editor and composer
1973	Cannibal Girls	Yes	Executive	Also story writer
1979	Meatballs	Yes	No	Golden Reel Award
1981	Stripes	Yes	Yes
1984	Ghostbusters	Yes	Yes
1986	Legal Eagles	Yes	Yes	Also story writer
1988	Twins	Yes	Yes
1989	Ghostbusters II	Yes	Yes
1990	Kindergarten Cop	Yes	Yes
1993	Dave	Yes	Yes
1994	Junior	Yes	Yes
1997	Fathers' Day	Yes	Yes
1998	Six Days, Seven Nights	Yes	Yes
2001	Evolution	Yes	Yes
2006	My Super Ex-Girlfriend	Yes	No
2011	No Strings Attached	Yes	Yes
2014	Draft Day	Yes	Yes

Ref:

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1984	Ghostbusters	Zuul / Slimer	Voice role
1989	Ghostbusters II	"Man Walking Outside Firehouse / Slimer"
2011	No Strings Attached	"Secret High" director	Cameo
2021	Ghostbusters: Afterlife	Egon Spengler's ghost	Motion capture body double

Executive producer only

• The Magic Show (1974)
• Rabid (1977) (Also music supervisor)
• Blackout (1978)
• Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)
• Big Shots (1987)
• Casual Sex? (1988)
• Feds (1988)
• Beethoven (1992)
• Beethoven's 2nd (1993)
• Commandments (1997)
• Road Trip (2000)
• Killing Me Softly (2002)
• Old School (2003)
• EuroTrip (2004)
• Trailer Park Boys: The Movie (2006)
• Disturbia (2007)
• Hotel for Dogs (2009)
• The Uninvited (2009)
• I Love You, Man (2009)
• Godmothered (2020)
• Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

Producer only

Year	Title	Notes
1969	The Columbus of Sex	Also cinematographer
1975	Shivers	Also music supervisor
1976	Death Weekend
1977	Ilsa, the Tigress of Siberia	As "Julian Parnell"
1978	Animal House
1981	Heavy Metal
1992	Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot
1996	Space Jam
1997	Private Parts
2009	Post Grad
	Up in the Air	Nominated- Academy Award for Best Picture
	Chloe
2012	Hitchcock
2016	Ghostbusters
2017	Baywatch
	Father Figures
2020	A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting
2021	Ghostbusters: Afterlife
2024	Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire	Posthumous credit, dedication

Television

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Executive producer	Notes
1997	Metropolitan Hospital	No	Creator	Yes	Unsold pilot
2004	Cooking Lessons	Yes	No	No	TV movie

Executive producer only

Year	Title	Notes
1979	Delta House	13 episodes
1994	Beethoven	13 episodes
1996	The Late Shift	TV movie
1997	Mummies Alive!	42 episodes
1999	The First Gentleman	TV movie
2001–02	Alienators: Evolution Continues	13 episodes
2006	That Guy	TV movie

Producer

Year	Title	Notes
2006	That Guy	TV movie
2008	Atom TV	5 episodes (segments "Border Patrol")

Music video

Year	Title	Artist
1984	"Ghostbusters"	Ray Parker Jr.

External links

• Ivan Reitman at the Internet Movie Database
• Ivan Reitman at the Internet Broadway Database
• Ivan Reitman at Find a Grave