Friends with Benefits starts production in May

Production Weekly reveals to us that the new Ivan Reitman feature Friends with Benefits will be filming a lot sooner than expected, starting up this May in Los Angeles. The story revolves around a guy and girl who try to keep their relationship strictly physical, but it’s not long before they learn that they want something more. Elizabeth Meriwether wrote the script for this feature, already starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Ivan Reitman will be producing with Tom Pollock and Joe Medjuck for Montecito Picture Company.

This can pose as a delightful distraction for the folks at Columbia Pictures, who already were hoping that Reitman would become too busy to handle directing Ghostbusters 3. There’s a bit of a tussle going on between the two, mainly due to the fact that Columbia Pictures wants a young director to tackle the third installment. Reitman refuses to budge, mainly due to the fact that he not only has a great hand of creative control over the property but because he directed the previous two features.