Ghostbusters Is 'Reboot' Not Sequel, Says Director Paul Feig
The first trailer for ‘Ghostbusters’ has arrived and while the intro - “30 years ago, four scientists saved New York” - suggests it’s a sequel to the original films, director Paul Feig insists it’s not, even though it did begin life as 'Ghostbusters 3’.
“I was approached by [originals director] Ivan Reitman to come on board and direct a script that already existed as a sequel. It was an actual ‘Ghostbusters 3’” says Paul Feig.
“It was a great script, but Harold Ramis had just died and I knew Bill Murray didn’t want to do it.”
We spoke to the film’s director Paul Feig and writer Katie Dippold to find out more about the hugely anticipated movie, here’s what else we learned about 'Ghostbusters’.
It’s a hard reboot, not a remake
Feig was keen to describe the new movie as a reboot and not a remake.
“We’re not doing a remake,” he says. “When people heard about [the new ‘Ghostbusters’] they thought we were just going to be re-shooting the original script, which we’re not. It’s a clean reboot.”
“We wanted to make sure we gave nods to it and the fun thing for us was how we got those things in there in a way that people don’t expect. So things show up but it’s in a way that is different from the original. We wanted to make it for a new generation.”
Writer Katie Dippold reinforced the fact by pointing out that “the spirit of the original is in it, but the story line is not.”
The original films didn’t happen
Despite the trailer’s intro lines, the movie doesn’t take place in the same universe as the originals. Which is to say, there was no ghostly invasion 30 years ago, and these ghouls are making their presence felt for the first time.
Feig confirms that he wanted to create “a world where the events of the past hadn’t happened. In our world people believe in ghosts, but we haven’t really seen ghosts. I wanted to see what that would be like if ghosts suddenly existed.”
The new female characters are based on the actors, not the original foursome
Feig and Dippold both agree that the four characters they alighted on were written as women simply because they couldn’t think of four funnier people than Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
“They are all based on the actual actresses that we use,” says Feig. “I think some people might think that we [recreating the original characters as females], but no we took their personalities and made it our own.”
Katie Dippold agrees and suggests that “those characters are those characters, and so we wanted four new characters to put in this world and have a new story and new obstacles for them to face.”
“It would have felt weird to write a new Venkman,” explains Dippold.
Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin (Kristin Wiig) are old friends
Paul Feig gave us a little more backstory for Kristen Wiig (Erin) and Melissa McCarthy’s (Abby) characters and explained their fascination with ghosts.
He told us that “Kristen Wiig’s character had been visited by a ghost of a dead neighbor when she was a kid. Nobody believed her so everybody thought she was crazy. Melissa’s character is her best friend and they wrote this ghost book together, but Kristen’s character got tired of being called crazy so she separated herself away from Melissa’s character. When she comes back they see the ghost so it kicks it back off.”
Dippold adds further detail and reveals that “Erin went in the direction of pursuing straight science, and she became a particle physicist. She drifted from Abby, who’s the heart of the new Ghostbusters. She’s been following ghosts and chasing her dreams, and doesn’t care what people say about her.”
Who are Jillian and Patty?
Rounding out the newly-formed Ghostbusters are Jillian (Kate McKinnon) and Patty (Lesley Jones). “Abby has been working this whole time with Jillian,” Dippold explains. “That character is the weirdo in the lab. She doesn’t think about social norms and she thinks outside the box.”
“And then they meet an MTA (New York underground) worker named Patty, and she reads a lot of non-fiction in her MTA booth and she knows New York, so even though she’s the only non-scientist, she joins the group.”
Chris Hemsworth is hilarious
Feig gushed over the Aussie actor and highlights that he is incredibly funny.
“Chris Hemsworth is an amazingly funny comedic actor. Legitimately hilarious,” he says. “We have a scene where he’s interviewing for the job and we had a script but he would just come up with lines that were destroying us and they’re in the movie. A joke would come out of nowhere. He is really the new Cary Grant.”
Slimer DOES feature, but only as a 'large cameo’
Katie Dippold confirms that one of the most iconic ghosts from the original movies is BACK. Although fans might be disappointed that his role is described as a 'large cameo, not a part of the big story".
People seem to like it
“I always do test screenings” says Feig. “The studio was nervous because you don’t usually test big blockbusters, but I had to do it like my other comedies. This movie has to be funny. We can sit around all day going, ‘This is hilarious,’ and then you put it in front of an audience and the thing you thought was great gets silence. The reactions have been great, I have to say.”
More 'Ghostbuster’ movies are planned
Although both Paul Feig and Kate Dippold remained relatively tight-lipped on the future of the franchise, Dippold did reveal that she would love to make more of these movies and that there are definitely “places for it to go.”
We guess it will all depend on the box office return once the movie opens in July.
