Ivan Reitman

Big-time director Ivan came to Canada from Czechoslovakia (a country that has since been divided up) when he was only four years old. His family had survived the Holocaust and was looking for a new life in a new land. He grew up to win awards for directing both from his fellow professionals and fans… both in Canada and America.

Ivan likes using special effects for comedy. Like in his recent film, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, about a guy who dumps his girlfriend only to realize that she's really a superhero... who is now super-mad at him: "Honey, I'm sorry... please don't throw that car at me!"

His other super-funny sci-fi comedies include Evolution with alien beasties, the Ghost Busters movies with wacky ghosts, and Space Jam with Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes loopy 'toons.

How did Ivan get so good at using special effects? Well, for one thing, he once directed a live magic show on Broadway!

Ivan's earlier comedies, without so many effects, include Father's Day (with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal), Six Days and Seven Nights (with Harrison Ford), and the Beethoven movies (with Charles Grodin and a big, slobbery St. Bernard dog). He also directed Kevin Kline in Dave, one of our Movies of the Month!

Ivan also likes directing Bill Murray in comedies. Aside from the Ghostbusters films, Ivan directed Bill in the military mayhem of Stripes (with Harold Ramis) and the summer-camp romp Meatballs.

And then, Ivan has the, um, distinction of directing Arnold Schwarzenegger in three comedies: Twins, Junior, and Kindergarten Cop. These days, Governor Arnold attends a Chanukah menorah lighting with his friend Ivan and other Hollywood celebrity Jews. That never happened in old Czechoslovakia!

All along, Ivan has been producing, too. But he seems to be focusing on that more and more, with five producer credits in 2009 alone (so far!). These include I Love You, Man and Hotel for Dogs. But he produced a lot of the movies we've mentioned already, or you have just heard of : The Ghostbusters series (including part 3), the Beethoven movies, the Arnold ones, Road Trip and Eurotrip, Old School, Evolution, Six Days, Father's Day, Space Jam, Dave, Stripes... and Animal House, his first, back in 1978.

Bonus:

Ivan's son, Jason, has gone into the family business. A movie he directed, Thank You for Smoking with Adam Brody, was a big hit. And Juno was noimated for an Oscar, and so was Jason for directing it!

His new one is called Up in the Air, about a high-flying executive who's about to be brought back down to earth!