Man, Roger Dodger/Campbell Scott should have continued his teachings, rather than setting Jesse Eisenberg loose on the school cafeteria. It looks like he hasn't learned the delicate intricacies of women and romance quite yet!

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Jason Reitman and Daniel Dubiecki are producing a new romantic comedy called The Wedding, which will star Eisenberg and Pushing Daisies star Anna Friel. Eisenberg will play a young man who is so infatuated with Friel's 30-something character that he crashes her wedding. Hmm. Maybe Roger should've steered completely clear of the kid, since escorts and Elizabeth Berkley seem to have led the kid right to Benjamin Braddock territory.

Reitman has cooked up a lot of interest for the film, but as of yet, no studios have signed to get this project in gear. I imagine it's only a matter of time. Reitman has a knack for picking solid films, and I've got a feeling that Eisenberg and Friel will play well off each other. But at the very least -- it'll give her something to do post-Daisies.

What does last year's most talked-about teen flick have in common with this year's most talked-about pre-teen flick? Here's a hint: A director and an actress. Yes, Juno director Jason Reitman has finally chosen the female lead for his follow-up flick Up in the Air -- based on Walter Kim's (Thumbsucker) 2001 novel -- and he's chosen none other than Anna Kendrick. Who? Oh wait, I forgot to put this next to her name: Twilight actress Anna Kendrick.

The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Kendrick, who played one of Bella's friends in the poetic vamp tale, beat out other actresses like Emily Blunt and Juno herself, Ellen Page. Go figure! In the film, Kendrick will play "a young woman who finds herself pulled into the orbit of a "career transition counselor" (i.e. professional firer) careening through the airless world of business travel." Oh, and that "career transition counselor" will be played by George Clooney. I haven't seen Twilight, but Kendrick was excellent in the small indie Rocket Science, and from what I remember she's got a sort of Emma Stone thing going on. Ya know, cute, girl-next-door-but-intelligent kinda personality. I dig her. Paramount will shovel it into theaters, but there's currently no word on a release date.

For the longest time -- until earlier this week, in fact -- I was convinced that Jason Reitman's next directing project was Diablo Cody's horror flick Jennifer's Body. Maybe that's because at a Team Juno roundtable interview last year, the two of them talked about it like it was their project (which it is, sort of -- Reitman's producing). Anyway, it's actually Karyn "Aeon Flux" Kusama who is directing Cody's follow-up, while Reitman is moving on to helm an adaptation of Walter Kirn's Up in the Air.

I strongly recommend the novel, which is a terrific satire about a perpetually transitory businessman obsessed with collecting a million frequent flyer miles. I liked it better than Kirn's more popular Thumbsucker which was already adapted into a film. The movie could be very funny in the hands of a guy like Reitman -- sharp and insightful. It should be closer in tone to Thank You for Smoking than to Juno.

Reitman has already shifted the project into a higher gear by setting his sights on George Clooney, who's in talks to star as the narcissistic protagonist. While I'm pretty sure the character is quite a bit younger than the actor, Clooney has precisely the effortless comic chops this project needs. His profile won't hurt, either.

Above: Rainn Wilson lets his hair down for The Rocker.

Fans of Rainn Wilson's offbeat, hilarious and strangely endearing performance as Dwight Schrute on NBC's The Office might expect him to transition into film work with straightforward comedy, and The Rocker confirms that suspicion. However, they might not realize the serious professional motives behind his choice. In the movie, directed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Grown Monty), Wilson plays a grown-up dolt named Fish with a scary fixation on classic rock. Abandoned by the band Vesuvius in his teens -- before they became a commercial phenomenon -- Fish spends the next twenty years working deadbeat jobs and wishing things happened differently. Naturally, he gets a second chance: When the opportunity rolls around to drum for his nephew's high school, Fish goes for it. Ageism and slapstick humor ensue.

While not exactly a classic, The Rocker proves Wilson has the charisma to carry a movie. The script could use some polishing, but Wilson manages to play a completely dysfunctional human being without ever becoming an annoyance. It's a testament to his skill as an actor with calculated timing. The humor emerges from the naturalism of his performances, which make you believe in the outlandish characters he portrays. In a conversation with Cinematical recently, Wilson elaborated on his particular strategies as his career advances, reminisced about his days as a New York theater actor, and shed some light on a few upcoming projects.

Here's the set up: Folks have been a bit puzzled over the alarming rise in teen pregnancies at North Shore High School in Gloucester, Massachusetts. In the past year alone, 17 girls have tested positive for a little bun in the oven, and officials (as well as school administrators) were baffled as to why, all of a sudden, the girls in Gloucester were all sorts of knocked up. Crazy, right? And weird. I'll fully admit that to wind up with 17 girls pregnant in one high school at the same time seems a bit strange, especially when it's four times the level from the year before. Four times!

Completely baffled, officials turned to the only feasible explanation: Blame the movies. And when they looked around at popular movies within the past year -- whaddya know -- there was an Oscar winner with teen pregnancy scribbled all over it. Juno ... written by that teen pregnancy supporter Diablo Cody, and directed by a pregnant teen himself, Jason Reitman. Of course! The ridiculous rise in pregnancies had to do with Juno -- a film that made teen pregnancy look about as comfortable and enjoyable as stuffing yourself in a piece of old luggage and rolling down a mountain. There's the answer!

But should we talk to the girls? Maybe see if there's another explanation for all this? Nah. Leave it all on Juno ... after all, Fox Searchlight didn't hand out condoms outside movie theaters screening Juno (I sure as heck never got any condoms!), so, really, it's their fault for not paying closer attention. Right?

Ahem, and that's when the twist comes in ...

Ever since director Jason Reitman knocked one out of the ballpark with Juno, folks have been itching to see what the man takes on next. Yes, he's taken to producing a few things (like the Diablo Cody-penned Jennifer's Body), but what, exactly, will be his next directorial project. Well, according to Latino Review, they've heard from a source that the younger Reitman will direct an adaptation of the novel Up in the Air, written by Thumbsucker author Walter Kirn. Apparently, some digging reveals that Jason's dad Ivan Reitman is already executive producing the film after picking up a script from Sheldon Turner back in 2003.

Recently, Reitman told MTV that he was "writing something" and would "direct it at the end of the year." When pushed to reveal something, anything, Reitman said "it's a comedy and a drama [book adaptation]. Think Thank You For Smoking, but instead of political it's corporate." And if you look at the synopsis for Up in the Air over on Amazon (I've never read the book personally), it fits right into the above description.

Here's a taste: "Officially, Bingham is a management consultant, specializing in the lugubrious field of career transition counseling (i.e., he fires people for a living). But what Kirn's airborne protagonist is really doing is pursuing his own private passion, his great white whale: accumulating one million miles in his frequent-flyer account. As Up in the Air opens, Bingham has set out on a final, epic traveling jag. He intends to visit eight cities in six days, thereby achieving his own vision of Nirvana somewhere over Sioux Falls, South Dakota."

No official word on this one yet, but the pieces definitely seem to be coming together. Anyone read the book? Is it a good fit for Reitman?

UPDATE: LR provides the following update: I just got off the horn with Jason Reitman's publicist. She did in fact confirm that Jason is adapting the book but that no deal is YET in place for him to direct.

Here's a little something to take with you into the weekend: While on Howard Stern recently, Jason Reitman spilled a few beans on the upcoming horror/comedy he's producing called Jennifer's Body. Now, one would expect that with a film called Jennifer's Body, at some point we'd actually get to see, well, Jennifer's body. Good news everyone (if everyone included horny males between the ages of, say, 13 and 84) -- Reitman says Jennifer (played by Transformers hottie Megan Fox) will be going topless for a scene in the film; one that calls for her character to lure an unsuspecting teen male into the woods.

Unfortunately, you guys -- and some girls, I imagine -- won't be able to see her two friends because her hair will be covering those areas. As the Diablo Cody-penned script probably reads, "Totally unfair, square chair!" Starring Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons and Johnny Simmons, Jennifer's Body centers on a possessed cheerleader (Fox) who specializes in killing her male classmates (specifically, those who follow her naked body into the woods). As things spiral out of control, her best friend Needy (Really? Needy?) steps up to try to save the day.

Jennifer's Body arrives in theaters next year.

[via Shock]

Here's something for you Justice League fans to chew on, and wonder what might have been. Jason Reitman revealed on Howard Stern that he was offered the director's chair for Justice League Is Mortal, and turned it down. Let's hear from the man himself, thanks to Slashfilm:

"I had to sign something, they send me the script and it comes on this spy paper which cant be xeroxed. They have a time when I have to have the script back to them and the script is fine and I could be spending ... What 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." Later in the show, he revealed that he would have been given a budget of $150 million.

No, this isn't an acting gig for the two directors, nor is it a new collaborative effort to come after a little Zack and Miri porno. It is actual, real-life sports blogging. Yahoo/AP reports that both Jason Reitman and Kevin Smith will join The Hills' Lauren Conrad, and country music star Dierks Bentley to write blogs professing their love of hockey for the National Hockey League's website. This is cool and all, but where's Mike Myers?

Well, at least there's the Juno director and a man who loves watching kids say "aboot." Reitman says: "I'd come to really love the game and I was just a little upset because I felt there was more of an opportunity, for particularly Americans, to know about the game and follow the game." For the director, who is a fan of two teams that didn't make the playoffs (the Canucks and the Kings), he plans to "write a kind of mythical blog about what the Canucks and Kings would be doing had they still been in. In my version, for the first time in NHL history, the Canucks and the Kings will be the first two Western conference teams to actually meet in the Stanley Cup finals." There is no word on what Smith's plans for the blog are, but considering the fact that the filmmaker is an old-school blogger, it should be fun.