Ivan Reitman is coming home this September to see how his baby is doing. The director and producer of such hits as Ghostbusters, Kindergarten Cop and the recent rom-com No Strings Attached, will be in Toronto for TIFF — which moved into shiny new digs in the Bell Lightbox just one year ago. The TIFF HQ at the corner of King and John sits on a plot of land (valued at $22 mil) that was donated by the Reitman family and dubbed Reitman Square, in honour of Ivan Reitman’s parents, Clara and Leslie.
“It’s going to be a bit like a first birthday celebration,” he says, adding that the centre is well beyond taking baby steps. “It’s spectacular how the Lightbox has become not just a focal point for film and film lovers during the festival, but year-round. It’s attracting huge crowds … and has become an important cultural centre.”
And there’s another reason why Reitman will be in town to soak up the best that cinema has to offer at the 36th festival of festivals. “I love movies and I love going to movies, and there’s really no better movie-going experience than to be in a packed theatre at a festival watching some new film no one’s ever heard of just capture your imagination. It’s like when I was eight-years-old and I saw Ben Hur at the old University theatre at Bloor and Yonge, and I was just blown away.”
Reitman, who was born in Slovakia and grew up in North Toronto, has been a driving force in the film industry, both at home in Canada, where he produced everything from the early films of David Cronenberg to the Trailer Park Boys: The Movie, and in Hollywood, where he shepherded Animal House, Old School and Up in the Air (directed by his son Jason Reitman) into cinemas. But he is best known, of course, for directing the first two Ghostbusters films. “We’ve talked about making a third one for a long time, and I am now working really seriously on making it happen,” he says, tight-lipped about plot details.
In the meantime, Reitman is excited by what this year’s TIFF has to offer. “It’s the pre-eminent festival. It’s a jumping off point for independent films and international films looking for a North American audience. It’s the jumping off point to films that will be up for awards at the end of the year. And like the Cannes Film Festival, it offers a great marketplace for films looking for distribution,” he says. “It’s a film lover’s paradise and something I look forward to being a part of.”