We are fast approaching the long-awaited release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and according to director Jason Reitman, the moment never would have come if not for Paul Feig first paving the way. Back in 2016, Feig released his Ghostbusters reboot which was not exactly met with the warmest reception from fans, putting it mildly. Though the controversial reboot certainly has its critics, Reitman is not among them, as the filmmaker feels that Afterlife wouldn’t have come to be if not for Feig first paving the way.
In a new interview with Inverse, Reitman addressed the 2016 reboot, retroactively dubbed as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. Reitman credits Feig for introducing a new team to lead the charge rather than falling back upon the original characters, as this set the stage for a new cast of characters to be the mains in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. In fact, as Reitman explains, he hopes to see other Ghostbusters movies from other filmmakers with their own new characters as well.
“When Paul made his movie, he kind of broke the doors open. Suddenly a Ghostbusters film did not have to be about those four original guys in Manhattan. That was a big moment… I want to see all kinds of Ghostbusters movies. I want to see Ghostbusters movies from all my favorite filmmakers, coming from all kinds of different cultures and different countries. Paul really did the hard work so that I could make this movie.”
Jason Reitman also says that production on Ghostbusters: Afterlife officially started in 2016, the same year Paul Feig released Ghostbusters: Answer the Call in theaters. While Sony was impressed with the pitch Reitman had for the movie, the agreement was that he had to keep its production a complete secret at the time. It wasn’t until much later when Afterlife was officially announced.
“I think only three people at Sony knew of its existence. Each executive had to come by themselves to Ghost Corps and read the script in a room and then leave. I really didn’t want it out there that we were writing this movie. Particularly after years of me saying I didn’t want to make a Ghostbusters movie.”
The director also says in the Inverse interview how the concept of Ghostbusters: Afterlife originally began with the vision of a young girl wearing a proton pack in a cornfield. When Harold Ramis passed away in 2014, Jason Reitman “suddenly knew who the girl was,” realizing he could make the character Egon Spengler’s granddaughter. The new movie follows Egon’s family as they discover his old ghost-busting equipment in an old farm left to the family through his will. Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon, and Finn Wolfhard play the family members.
Reitman co-wrote the screenplay for Ghostbusters: Afterlife with Gil Kenan. While it features several new cast members, which also include Logan Kim, Paul Rudd, and Celeste O’Connor, it brings back several original stars like Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Bill Murray. They just won’t be the main characters this time. Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released in movie theaters on Nov. 19, 2021. This news comes to us from Inverse.
Source: movieweb.com