GEORGE Clooney is being tipped for an Oscar nomination for his role in comedy UP IN THE AIR (15), directed by Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of Juno. Ryan Bingham is a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road but is forced to figh

GEORGE Clooney is being tipped for an Oscar nomination for his role in comedy UP IN THE AIR (15), directed by Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of Juno.

Ryan Bingham is a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road but is forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget.

He is required to spend more time at home just as he is on the cusp of a goal he's worked toward for years - reaching 10 million frequent flyer miles - and just after he's met the frequent-traveller woman of his dreams (Vera Farmiga).

Reitman says: "I saw it as a story about a guy who has to deal with the fact that, even though he thinks his life is complete, he's been ignoring something very important, which is the responsibility to be part of something larger. Ryan Bingham is so scared off by the burdens of joining a community that he's been missing out on the value of that."

And of choosing the right actor for the role, he says: "If you're going to make a movie about a guy who fires people for a living and wants to live alone, he better be a darn charming actor. And there really isn't anyone better at that than George Clooney.