More Ghostbusters to Call are Coming Your Way

It seems like only a few years ago another Ghostbusters movie would never happen. In 2009, Atari (presumably with Aykroyd’s blessing) marketed their Ghostbusters video game as the third movie; the only movie fans would get. Later, ideas were batted around and rumors were started, but for one reason or another nothing happened. At one point, Dan Aykroyd hinted that things were going to happen with another Ghostbusters movie.

However, in 2014, the death of Harold Ramis seemed to have stalled any movement on another Ghostbusters movie. All of that changed during one fateful Bill Murray interview. During the interview, Murray commented if there was ever another Ghostbusters movie he would love to see an all-female Ghostbusters cast.

The powers-that-be must have been listening because it wasn’t too long after the interview Sony announced an all-female Ghostbusters cast for a new movie.  It wasn’t Murray’s original cast, but it’s an all-female cast none the less.

When the casting choice was announced we discussed what we thought. Now Sony has dropped another bomb and we thought we would drop our two-cents on this announcement too.

Sony and Ivan Reitman recently announced plans of expanding the Ghostbusters “Universe.” According to Reitman, “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.”

While that sounds like a great idea, it’s the same concept Disney has for Star Wars. The only difference is Star Wars has a vast universe to pull characters and stories from to populate trilogies, stand-alone films, and a television series.

Ghostbusters, on the other hand, has the one set of characters in one city. That’s not really too much of a “universe.” It also seems like quite a leap for a “franchise” that didn’t even have greenlit movie a few short months ago. Which makes me think that it’s another studio gimmick akin to Marvel’s Movie Universe.

Reitman also announced another Ghostbusters movie would be made with Channing Tatum. The movie, directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, would be an all-male Ghostbuster cast. So, now we have two series of movies to cover a wide demographic. Like I said, “gimmick” and “cash grab.” This is all based on Sony’s confidence the all-female Ghostbusters is going to be a home run.

Sony has a lot of plans based on something that isn’t a guaranteed hit. I’m not convinced it’s a good idea or that I will see any of the movies coming out. As I mentioned in our roundtable, I don’t think the all-female cast is funny. I’m not a Channing Tatum fan either. Sure, the guy has twelve-pack abs, but he can’t act and has zero range. His best role has been playing the nimrod in Twenty-One and Twenty-Two Jump Street. I’m not excited about any of this nor can I even fake it.

My inner child is disappointed he will never see Ghostbusters 3.

 

Mike:  A Ghostbusters universe similar to Marvel’s doesn’t move the needle for me. But I’m not willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Not yet at least.

So far both movies are starting off on decent footing. I laughed at Bridesmaids, so I’m not concerned if there’s going to be funny parts. The Tatum version will be directed by two guys who did Captain America: Winter Soldier. A movie I thought was better than the original. So yeah, I’m cool with what we know so far.

Alisha Grauso from MoviePilot.com had some good points when she wrote how Marvel avoided failure in their universe. Expanded universes are tricky because every aspect has to be solid and advance toward one single event. Any flops and the entire world crumbles.

That’s a huge gamble. I’m surprised Sony had the intestinal or testicular fortitude to try an ambitious project.  If Sony really is going to turn Ghostbusters into an expanded universe, then I’d recommend putting their big boy pants on and call Marvel for tips.

The way I see it, Sony has a lot of decisions to make. They need to figure out if the original films are cannon or starting from scratch with the reboot. If they haven’t done it already, Sony needs a road map and an epic story quick as the reboot starts filming this year.

As a Ghostbusters fan, I get why some fans are hesitant to get on board with either of these movies. They were Murray, Ramis, Aykroyd and Hudson. They will always be the Ghostbusters. I have two DVD’s in the man cave that say that they were.

 

But the key is “were.” The group had chemistry, but they don’t corner that market. As much as it sucks, another “Original” Ghostbuster film isn’t happening. We have two movies and a decent video game from them. That’s it.

Getting essentially three movies isn’t bad. That’s more than some franchises dream of, but it’s time to put that era of ghosts and ghost busting to bed. I think these new movies are just what the franchise needs to keep it going past our generation.

At the end of the day, I’m going to see these movies either in the theater or on Netflix. And that’s not because I’m a fan of the franchise, I am, but I believe both movies have a chance of being entertaining. I don’t know to what degree.

 

Andy: I am not terribly concerned with the idea of putting together a third movie. I loved the first two and the chemistry those guys had is hard to replace. My biggest concern in this latest announcement is why is Sony biting off so much in such a short time?

The movie everyone wanted to see when Ramis was still alive was something being rolled toward an end result, but things happen and life happens. I am not upset with the fact they went ahead and moved along with a new cast. I have voiced my concerns over who the cast, but that is a different story.

However, doing this all male cast in addition to the all female feels less like Marvel creating a universe and more like a gimmick. Why did we need one of both? Also, why is it so important that it be an all gender specific cast?

In order to create a Ghostbusters universe, they will need to do something quick to setup why we need both and why they are the way that they are. I will still give this movie a shot, but why is it that they needed to do it in this way?

I am excited about Joe and Anthony Russo coming about to do this movie. Captain America: The Winter Soldier would probably go down as my favorite Marvel movie if not for Guardians of the Galaxy last year, but there is still one major problem lurking in the shadows: Sony.

I know it is not necessarily a comic book movie, but it has always had that comic book movie feel to me. Let’s take a look at the series Sony has done in the genre: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, and X-Men.

Sony has now screwed up two sets of Spider-Man movies so bad they actually had to call in Disney to produce their movies. The Fantastic Four duo of movies were just as bad and the trailer for the third one holds little hope for me at the moment. X-Men III: The Last Stand almost killed the franchise. The studio had to ignore the entire movie and go back in time to fix the series.

Sony is becoming a problem for me and the fact they seem to be lost at the moment scares me for the Ghostbusters franchise. The fact Sony now have a pair of very gimmicky casts doesn’t help my opinion.

 

In a final analysis, it seems two of us think the new Ghostbusters is a straight gimmick, two of us have no confidence in Sony’s creative endeavors, and two of us won’t be seeing the new releases. More surprisingly, in a coming-of-the-entertainment-apocalypse sort of way, we all agree Sony may be biting off more than it can chew.

Sony’s track record over the past few years has not been impressive. For every American Hustle coming out of Sony (and it’s subsidiaries) there’s a Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Sure, every studio has a stinker or two in their history. However, Sony has three in the specific genre we care about and concern ourselves with on this site.

We’ll be keeping track of Ghostbuster stuff as its released, but in the meantime let us know what you think about the new Ghostbusters “universe.”