Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
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HOLLYWOOD — The 2014 movie gossip machine went into overload following the now-famous Sony hack.
Instead of rehashing everything that was leaked and the personal ramifications of said news, let’s just gather up the “Ghostbusters” files, along with some recent interviews and talk about what we know concerning this property's future.
Watch the links throughout the article because we’ll be pulling from all over the Web, and of course, take everything with a grain of salt as the project is still in the early stages of development.
One last note that should be obvious — there are potential spoilers ahead. Stop reading now if you don’t want to know probable story elements.
A complete reboot
It’s been widely reported, even before the leak, that director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) is set to take over the franchise, and he plans to pretend the original films never happened.
“I have too much respect for the original one,” Feig told Empire (via Comingsoon.net). “There’s also the feeling that once the world knows ghosts and has seen them busted on such a large scale, they run the risk of becoming pedestrian. There’s something fun about introducing our world, which has never seen ghosts to the phenomenon of ghosts. I love origin stories and to introduce new characters.”
Related:
Third 'Ghostbusters' film confirmed by Feig
Paul Feig confirmed rumors that a new "Ghostbusters" film is in the works.It’s going to scare you
Vulture.com reported a few details on the Sony leak a few weeks ago, including details about the main villain being a convicted murderer, “ideally played by Peter Dinklage.” The article goes onto quote Feig as saying the movie will be "scarier and more hi-tech than the original Ghostbusters.”
Feig also added to that in the Variety interview, “I want ours to be scarier than the original, to be quite honest. Katie Dippold and I are so focused on wanting to do scary comedy. We don’t want to hold back.”
The cast
This is obviously wildly speculative at this point, but we do know from several sources that Feig is wanting a female team to lead this new franchise.
According to thedailybeast.com, one leaked email from Sony co-Chariman Amy Pascal to director Ivan Reitman said, “Paul’s movie is gonna be the first one and from what I’m hearing Jennifer Lawrence and Emma Stone and Melissa McCarthy and Amy Schumer and (Lizzy) Caplan just to name a few have already said they wanted to be in.”
Since then, Rebel Wilson and Lawrence have confirmed they've been approached about the project, and as previously noted, we know Dinklage is an actor they’d like to include. There’s also been mention of Cecily Strong joining the cast, which we’ll discuss in a little more detail under the premise section, and Kristen Wiig's name has been thrown around for a while now.
Feig has also extended an open invitation to the original cast. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he said, “Well, I mean, look, those are my comedy heroes. So as far as I’m concerned, anybody wants to come back I welcome with open arms. It would just be in different roles now, but it would be fun to figure out how to do that.”
One interesting casting note we learned from the Vulture article is Channing Tatum is eager to do a spin-off “Ghostbusters” film with Chris Pratt. I think we can all agree that sounds amazing, and I’d love to see that idea folded into Feig’s current project.
The premise
We discussed a little about the villain above, but what seems to stand out regarding recent news, is the direction Feig seems to be heading with the origin story.
Again from the leaks Vulture reported on, “For greater franchise opportunities, Feig tells Pascal that the Ghostbusters will work for the U.S. government, but, because ghosts don't officially exist, the government will have to continually disavow its relationship. He sees Strong as their bureaucratic nemesis who's 'always saying terrible things about them in press conferences and then apologizing to them behind the scenes.’”
That is definitely a different direction than a group of unorthodox college professors starting a small business, and sadly, would mean we won’t get any “We’re ready to believe you,” commercials.
Travis Poppleton has been covering movie news, film reviews and live events for Deseret News and KSL.com since 2010 and co-hosts the FlixJunkies podcast. You can contact him at tspoppleton@gmail.com.
