GHOSTBUSTERS Reboot To Partially Film In New York City

Good news for the Ghost Busters purists: Paul Feig’s upcoming Ghostbusters reboot will indeed shoot its outdoor scenes in the franchise’s classic locale, New York City.

In a recent interview, Feig revealed that several exterior scenes in his 2016 Ghostbusters film will take place in the city that never sleeps. Many of the film’s interior scenes, however will be shot in Boston. While New York City is an important part of the Ghostbuster lore, Feig said that it’s ultimately too expensive to film a majority of the movie at the actual location. Manhattan played a large role in both Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2, providing an iconic location for the busters to save mankind in. Indeed, it’s hard to forget the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man marching down the streets of Mid Town Manhattan.

Feig also revealed when the cameras would start rolling on Ghostbusters, telling Collider that filming officially begins on June 15. What’s more, the re-imagined installment will also earn a PG-13 rating. This will be the franchise’s first, as both original films were only rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America.

Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon in a female-led cast, opens on July 22.

Russo Brothers To Helm Male-Led GHOSTBUSTERS

Sony are setting up a new production company – “Ghost Corps” – which will include Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd to create a whole new series of Ghostbusters movies. The first of these has scored some major talent, with Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo set to direct and produce, while Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3, Mission: Impossible 5) will write. Meanwhile, Channing Tatum will produce and star if all goes to plan with Chris Pratt rumoured to be in it also.

“We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment,” Reitman tells Deadline. “This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy. Paul Feig’s film will be the first version of that, shooting in June to come out in July, 2016. He’s got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come. The second film has a wonderful idea that builds on that. Drew will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers’ next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following hear. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”

Feig’s movie comes first and will star Kristen Wiig. Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. What this means for the Russos possibly helming Avengers: Infinity War isn’t clear.

Source: Deadline

Plot Details For The All-Female GHOSTBUSTERS

According to HitFix, with the cast of the all-female Ghostbusters is set; they’re now confident to share details on the plot and potential casting for other roles in the film.   Melissa McCarthy (Mike & Molly), Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), Leslie Jones (Saturday Night Live), and Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live) are not simply playing new versions of Spengler, Stantz, Zeddmore and Venkman.  Instead, this will be a complete remake, with no connection to the original Ghostbusters films as Sony would like original Ghostbuster Bill Murray to play the villain.  Here’s a rundown of additional details on the remake.

+Kristen Wiig is playing Erin Garber, a published author on the subject of the paranormal.  Erin now works for Columbia University.

+Leslie Jones is playing Abby Bergman, who co-authored the book with Garber.  Since publication, the two former colleagues had a falling out and went their separate ways. Abby more actively chases ghost a la Ghost Hunters.  This tension between academic investigation (Wiig’s character) and mainstream media investigation (Jones’ character) is central to the story.

+Kate McKinnon is playing Abby Berman’s new partner, Jillian.

+Melissa McCarthy is playing Patty, an NYC subway worker who stumbles across the main, supernatural threat in the film.

+Sony wants Peter Dinklage to play the main villain in the film.  Whether this role is as a ghost or human is unclear.

+Sony also wants Bill Murray to play a character named Martin Heiss, a man who is “a professional supernatural debunker who is out to prove that the Ghostbusters are frauds.”

Source: ComicBookMovie / Hitfix

GHOSTBUSTERS: Paul Feig Confirms New York Setting for Ghostbusters Reboot, ‘Fun Nods’ to Original

Director Paul Feig has not been shy about his plans for his upcoming reboot of Ghostbusters, and now speaking with Empire, he’s revealed a few more details on the film including that it will in fact still be set in New York City.

“To me it’s such a New York movie and the biggest sin would be to pull it out of there,” Feig said. “I just love New York and, selfishly, I just want to shoot in New York.”

Feig goes on to mention the film will feature “fun nods to the old movie,” though it won’t venture into the realm of parodying the franchise.

“We’re not recreating the old movie, but we want to do just enough fun nods that the fans will go, ‘Oh, okay, they’re acknowledging that the other movie existed.’ I like to watch parodies, but I don’t want to do them because they’re too referential. Comedy that’s too referential has such a short shelf life, whereas comedy that’s based around characters will be relatable 2000 years from now because people won’t change that much.”

Every time the film is mentioned, however, the question of “Why reboot Ghostbusters?” is inevitably asked, and Feig has an answer.

 “A lot of people ask why I didn’t create my own thing, but Ghostbusters never ran out of steam, it’s such a great idea, It’s such a fun franchise so why not bring it to a new generation? The old movie is never going to not exist. It’s not my plan to erase every copy! Hopefully they can all live together.”

Feig is currently co-writing the script for the film with his The Heat screenwriter Katie Dippold. No release date has been set for the film, and the cast is still being assembled with Rebel Wilson having met for a part and Melissa McCarthy in early talks to join.

GHOSTBUSTERS: What GHOSTBUSTERS 3 Title & Cast Could Have Been

Exactly one year ago, Ivan Reitman, who directed Ghostbusters (1985) and Ghostbusters II (1989), sent Sony Entertainment Chairman Amy Pascal an email containing the second draft of the Ghostbusters 3 script and notes on the potential cast. At that time, Reitman was attached to produce and direct. We don’t know much about the plot, but it would have featured ‘Ray Stanz’ (Dan Aykroyd), ‘Egon Spengler’ (Harold Ramis) and ‘Winston Zeddemore’ (Ernie Hudson) passing the baton to a younger generation of Ghostbusters. Sadly, a month after this email was sent out Harold Ramis passed away. Soon after, Reitmen stepped down as the director, citing Ramis’ death and Bill Murray’s lack of interest in reprising his role of ‘Peter Venkman’ as being the reasons. So, the information below should be viewed as a “would’ve, should’ve, could’ve.” Keep in mind, the brief character descriptions below are not from Reitman’s email. They are from a character breakdown, which was reported in April by The Wrap’s Jeff Sneider, that match the characters listed in Reitman’s email.

Ghostbusters 3 would’ve been titled, GHOSTBUSTERS: ALIVE AGAIN. For the role of ‘Chris,’ the son of Bill Murray’s ‘Peter Venkman,’ Reitman was considering Adam Pally (“The Mindy Project”), Charlie Day (“Pacific Rim”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice”). Reitman told Pascal, “I have met with all three, and frankly this is the piece of casting I’m the most unsure about.” The ‘Chris’ role is a bit of a surprise as it was assumed ‘Oscar,’ the son of ‘Dana Barrett’ (Sigourney Weaver) in Ghostbusters II would be considered or treated like Venkman’s son. Maybe he was left out of the script to distance itself from the last film, which was poorly received.

The other male lead was ‘Jeremy.’ He was described as the leader of the younger generation of Ghostbusters. Reitman only had Jonah Hill (“22 Jump Street”) listed for the part, and said he was meeting with Hill soon to give him the lastest script to read.

The female lead would have been a doctor by the name of ‘Anna.’ Reitman met with Brie Larson (“The Gambler”) and Anne Hathaway (“The Dark Knight Rises”) and he said both had “expressed a strong desire to do it.”

The film’s comic relief was an older male named ‘Dean,’ but the agency breakdown in April listed his name as ‘Eean.’  Reitman had Zach Galifianakis (“The Hangover”) listed for the role, and mentioned that he was going to meet with him in a month.

The film’s main villain was named ‘Gniewko’ on Reitman’s list, but ‘Eniewko’ on the casting agency breakdown. Close enough! Reitman wanted Sacha Baron Cohen (“Borat”) to play the part, but hadn’t approached the actor. He was hoping to fill out the rest of the cast before pursuing him. Though, Pascal had someone else in mind for the role. She wanted Will Ferrell (“Elf”), but Reitman didn’t believe he would be ‘effective’ as the film’s villain.

There were three more minor roles listed that weren’t apart of the agency character breakdown, so we don’t know anything about them except for which actors Reitman had in mind. For the role of ‘Ashley,’ Reitman met with Rebel Wilson (“Pitch Perfect”), who said wanted to do it. Lastly, Parks And Recreation actors, Aubrey Plaza and Aziz Ansari, were penciled in for the roles of ‘Joni’ and ‘Jon.’

GHOSTBUSTERS Spinoff Starring Channing Tatum & Chris Pratt Is Being Developed

Director Paul Feig is currently working on his female-led Ghostbusters reboot for Sony, which we know from recent leaked emails could feature Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, Lizzy Caplan or even Ryan Gosling. Though, that might not be the only Ghostbusters film in Sony’s pipeline. According to emails that The Daily Beast has viewed, Channing Tatum (“21 Jump Street”) pitched Sony executives on a Ghostbusters film that would be a spinoff of Feig’s. Tatum wants to star in it, alongside his 10 Years co-star, Chris Pratt (“Jurassic World”).

An email from Tatum to Pascal concerning Ghostbusters dated August 21 says, “Let us show the world The DarkSide and let us fight it with all the glory and epicness of a HUGE BATMAN BEGINS MOVIE. I know we can make this a huge franchise. Fun adventure craziness. COME OONNNN!!!”

The next day, Hannah Minghella, co-president of production for Columbia Pictures, sent an email to Amy Pascal outlining Tatum’s plan, which also includes the Russo brothers (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) as the film’s producers. Who would possibly direct it? Sounds like Paul Feig is prepared to do a Ghostbusters double dip, he’s negotiating to helm it.

“So… in a curious turn of events – the Russos and Channing want to develop Ghostbusters as a vehicle for Channing and Chris Pratt to do together,” wrote Minghella. “The Russos, Channing and Reid have been brainstorming ideas and want to create a whole new mythology that would support multiple movies (the way that Nolan reinvented Batman). To be clear – the Russos want to produce (not direct) and while Channing and Chris are looking for a movie to do together they haven’t mentioned this to him yet because they weren’t sure how we’d react.They want to make it simultaneously super scary while also super funny. They love the idea that they are mortal heroes who are believers in the paranormal and the only people who can defend mankind from a paranormal threat. I know we’re mid negotiations with Paul [Feig]. I’m not sure whether we’d ever develop two different versions simultaneously. Joe Russo is open to the idea that both movies could be developed in partnership so they compliment one another within the same Ghostbusters universe. Apparently the Russos are very close to Paul and Joe suggested Paul could be attached to direct both. Personally I think it’s possible for the female version to co-exist with this other version so maybe they’re not mutually exclusive.”

THIS MOVIE WOULD BE COMEDY GOLD!!

‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot: Sony Wants Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone & More

Sony is looking to add Ghostbusters to that ever-expanding list of revitalized properties. One of the most popular films of the 1980s, the studio has called upon Bridesmaids helmsman Paul Feig to bring it back to the spotlight. As a way to differentiate the new take from what came before, the director is planning to reboot it by using an all-female cast to fight the paranormal. Casting rumors have popped up over the past few months, but now we know Sony’s A-list wish list.

The hacking of Sony’s servers have made a lot of the studio’s plans public lately, and when executives weren’t talking about potential Spider-Man deals with Marvel Studios or 21 Jump Street and Men in Black crossovers, they were discussing who could lead their new Ghostbusters film. As it turns out, they have their eyes set on some big names. Sony Co-Chairman Amy Pascall revealed a star-studded lineup in an email (hat tip Daily Beast) to Ivan Reitman, director of the original Ghostbusters:

“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] Kaplan just to name a few have already said thy wanted to be in….”

The email in question was sent on October 8, 2014, which was about two months before Pitch Perfect star Rebel Wilson said that she had a meeting with Feig about a role in the film. That could explain the absence of her name from this list, since a few of the actresses in the message have been, in one way or another, connected to the project before.