Thank You For Smoking Trailer Watch the trailer for Jason's comedy, starring William H Macy.

Thank You For Smoking Clip Watch a scene from the satire about America's lobbying industry.

"I grew up on film sets, I grew up in editing rooms... that was my film school." Yet Montreal-born Jason Reitman is one of the few children of directors who have decided to maintain the family tradition (along with the likes of Sofia Coppola, Nick Cassavetes, Mario Van Peebles, and Jennifer Lynch). His father, Ivan, enjoyed success with Ghostbusters, Twins, and Dave, but even he must have been impressed by his son's debut feature, Thank You For Smoking.

A savage yet hilarious satire on America's lobbying industry, the comedy features an all-star cast - Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, William H Macy, Robert Duvall - and proves how many actors will work for scale when the product is right. Indeed, Thank You For Smoking's $6.5million budget was actually matched by 20th Century Fox when it won a distribution bidding war for the film at the Toronto Film Festival.

Smoking only really ignited, though, after PayPal founder David O Sacks decided to go into the movie business, rescuing the movie from years of development hell. He's also the person Reitman cites for the film retaining its sharp satiric eye. "I wasn't working with a corporation which was terrified of its stockholders," Reitman notes. "I was dealing with one guy who believed in my vision for the project."

In the video Jason talks about the battles to get the film made and the importance of short films on his career.

Thank You For Smoking is released in UK cinemas on Friday 16th June 2006.

Adrian Hennigan | Published 15 June 06

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