Yesterday came the major news that Paul Feig was officially directing Ghostbusters 3 (which we'll now just be referring to as the Ghostbusters reboot since that's what it really is). Katie Dippold has been hired to co-write the script with Feig and it will center around a cast of "hilarious women." All of this sounds really good to me, as it won't have anything to do with the tired "handing over of the torch" concept we'd been hearing about for years.
And now it's also confirmed that this will not be a sequel of any kind, but rather a hard reboot. It won't follow the events of the first two films, which I think is a wise choice. Paul Feig recently opened up about the film and the logic behind the choices he's making. Hit the jump for more on the Ghostbusters reboot.
Feig told EW that the casting choices he's making come purely from a place of creative inspiration:
"I just don’t understand why it’s ever an issue anymore. I’ve promoted both Bridesmaids and The Heat and myself and my cast are still hit constantly with the question, “will this answer the question of whether women can be funny?” I really cannot believe we’re still having this conversation. Some people accused it of kind of being a gimmick and it’s like, it would be a gimmick if I wasn’t somebody whose brain doesn’t automatically go to like, I want to just do more stuff with women. I just find funny women so great. For me it’s just more of a no-brainer. I just go, what would make me excited to do it? I go: four female Ghostbusters to me is really fun. I want to see that dynamic."
This will also be a hard reboot, it won't take place in a world where the Ghostbusters as we've come to know them even exist.
"And then I thought, well, what if we just make it new? It’s not coming into the world that existed before. It’s always hard if the world has gone through this big ghost attack, how do you do it again? I wanted to come into our world where there’s talk of ghosts but they’re not really credible, and so what would happen in our world if this happened today... Everything is up for grabs right now. I look at this the same way a superhero movie launches where it’s always fun to see, like, what are they going to do with the costumes this time? What are they going to do with the hardware this time? It’s not going to be, here is the exact same stuff. It’s also not going to go, screw you, if you like that stuff, it’s all completely different. We’re going to have fun with it, but again, bring it into our time period. I’m a big hardware nerd when it comes to sci-fi and all of that so I love all the gear and I love all that. We’re really going to have fun with playing with the science of it"
In what I consider to be something of a surprising development, they're going to amp up the scares. This won't be just a pure comedy. I'm really hoping they can pull this off:
"Both she [Dippold] and I are obsessed with how do we make comedy really scary? The sequel to The Heat was going to be pretty scary and funny. Almost like in a Silence of the Lambs type thing but funny. I think funny people in peril and in danger is one of the best forms of comedy, and I really like things to play very real while funny things are happening. So that’s what both Katie and I really want to do with this one is make it crazy funny but also you’re scared at the same time."
I don't know about you guys, but if they're going to do another Ghostbusters movie, it feels like this is one of the better ways to go around it. Feig also says some of the original cast may come back, but in different roles:
"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."
