Jason Reitman is really stepping out of his father’s shadow. Of course, when I write it like that, it sounds like I just re-watched Juno, Reitman’s most recent film. But, I’m talking about his newest, called Up In The Air. It features George Clooney as a corporate downsizer who is obsessed with collecting frequent flier miles.

Reitman’s pre-Juno film, Thank You For Smoking starring a single-faced Aaron Eeckhart was a humorous musing on PR lackeys for Big Tobacco. Juno was about teen pregnancy, and Clooney’s involvement in a film about a corporate lackey shot in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the great depression has me psyched for more quirky looks at socially relevant topics.

Yeah, these pictures are of George Clooney in a suit. So, if no one else, my Mom will click ‘em.

Feast your eyes on Russell Crowe as Robin Hood in Ridley Scott’s upcoming Robin Hood flick, possibly called Robin Hood, and possibly dealing with Nottingham’s relationship with the French, while under their control. I know, I know, that sounds weird, but I swear I’ve read all this in the trades. Check the Dregs, it’s there.

USA Today debuted the picture of Crowe in his Hood getup, notably without tights but with semi-historically accurate thick leather armor.

I’m kidding, I have no idea if that is historically accurate. I don’t think Ridley Scott does either.

Yes, officer! Yes, officer!

Sorry, that’s just my reaction to seeing a police that isn’t Lt. Daniels from The Wire. Obviously, I’d call him “sir.”

Horton Foote, the guy who won an Oscar for the screenplay for To Kill A Mockingbird and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1995 for his play The Young Man From Atlanta, died in March. His final screenplay was called Main Street, and it is filming now in Durham. N.C under the direction of Tony Award winner John Doyle.

Ellen Burstyn, Andrew McCarthy, Patricia Clarkson and Colin Firth join Bloom in the piece, produced by Reliant Pictures.

More fun from the set of the Rum Diary, the Hunter Thompson adaptation, where Johnny Depp as Paul Kemp drives a “classic” Fiat 500. The man in the car with him isn’t named in the photo credits, but my best guess is that it’s Michael Rispoli, who plays Bob Sala in the film.

There’s something very comical about two big men in a little car.

If you missed the previous Rum Diary pics click HERE. Also, click the thumbnails to make them bigger:

Scarlett Johansson is currently training, slimming, and squeezing into whatever costume Jon Favereau has cooked up for the Iron Man II version of the Black Widow, and she’s blogging about body image issues over at The Huffington Post…

Kevin Costner: “All I’m saying is, don’t make a Waterworld like mistake, you know?”

Ben Affleck: “Are you kidding? Did you see the numbers on Daredevil? or Jersey Girl? I’m already there, bro!”

Costner and Affleck are in Boston, MA shooting for their new pic Company Men, which, in such a timely manner, is about the financial crisis. Sorta. Affleck plays a white collar jackass who wakes up on day to find his job and his salary have gone the way of Lehmen Bros. Kevin Costner is is brother-in-law who offers him a blue-collar construction job. Tommy Lee Jones (not pictured, sadly) is set to star as one of Affleck’s previous employers who slowly sees the evil actions of his corporate peers for what they really are.

The film will be the film debut of director John Wells (previously ER). Check for this one around 2010.

If Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman can’t get a cab in the city, something is really wrong.

Or, they’re on set for a new romantic comedy called The Baster.

Jason plays Wally and Jen plays Kassie. Wally learns that Kassie plans to become pregnant through artificial insemination, he replaces the donor’s semen with his own and must live with the secret that he is the father of her child.

So, yes, “The Baster” might actually be referring to a turkey baster full of semen. Which, admit it, was what you were thinking about in the first place.