'Up In The Air' premieres at Mann Village Theater in Westwood, California (with slideshow)

  Jason Reitman looks forward to tonight's Up In The Air premiere at
  Mann Theater in Westwood on his twitter stream today.

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They rolled out the red carpet again tonight for Up In The Air, this time at Mann Village Theater in Westwood, which director Jason Reitman extolled as “the greatest movie theater in the world” on his twitter stream earlier in the day. 

Reitman and his wife, Michele Lee, along with stars George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick and Jason Bateman attended the screening. Guests also included Reitman’s parents, producer Ivan Reitman and his wife Genevieve Robert, Clooney’s mother, Nina Bruce Clooney, and Clooney's girlfriend, Elisabetta Canalis.  Other familiar Hollywood faces, like Rebecca DeMornay and Cindy Crawford with husband Rande Gerber, were also present at the event.

Jason Reitman is without question one of this decade’s most promising directors, having already enjoyed extraordinary success with his first two films, Thank You For Smoking and Juno.  With this latest endeavor, however, he also earns new “movie location” stripes.  Unlike the single filming location necessary for his previous films (Los Angeles and Vancouver, respectively), Up In The Air was shot in five different cities’ airports – Omaha, Detroit, St. Louis, Miami and Las Vegas.

On top of that, shooting in airports presents a slew of TSA-related headaches.  We all know how much we enjoy “the drill” at airports is these days, right?  You can imagine, then, how a large production crew and all the necessary equipment – not to mention George Clooney on location in a public space swarming with real travelers – might exacerbate those headaches.

And, speaking of headaches, there was also the Omaha airport’s Musak to contend with, which, according to the film’s executive producer Michael Beugg, drove George Clooney “so nuts that he and the locations department were all up on ladders trying to disconnect the speakers."

Good times.

With detailed planning on the part of the film’s regional production managers and cooperation from their airport liaisons, Reitman succeeded in turning those five cities’ airports into what appears in the film to be more than a dozen.  He shot it all in a mere 50 days, too, with only an additional 10 days factored into the equation to get from Point A to Points B then C then D then E.

Is it just me, or are you also getting tired just thinking about this?

Fortunately, Reitman loves to travel, and commented on the subject in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview, saying, "There's a reason why I made this movie: I actually enjoy it."

Up In The Air initially premiered to rave reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, and since that time has done a bit of traveling, itself, with special screenings in Austin, Mill Valley, Rome, London, Orlando, St. Louis and Stockholm.  

The movie will land in a limited number of theaters this Friday, December 4th, with more screens added the following week, before touching down nationwide on Christmas Day. Clear sailing all the way through to the Academy Awards is predicted.

(By the way, do you think stars sometimes see photos of themselves at events like this and think, “Man, did I ever have a goofy look on my face in that one!” – please let me know in the comments if any of the slideshow images make you wonder the same thing.  The images are even numbered for your convenience in playing along!  And, don’t get me wrong:  in my opinion, Clooney’s handsome even when he’s looking goofy!)