Jason Reitman Says His ‘Ghostbusters’ Will ‘Hand the Movie Back to the Fans’
UPDATE: Jason Reitman tweeted that his comments about giving Ghostbusters “back to the fans” “came out wrong” and he has “nothing but admiration” for Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters. You can see his comments and Paul Feig’s response below.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Jason Reitman made some curious comments about his upcoming sequel to the original Ghostbusters franchise (directed by his father Ivan in the 1980s) on a recent episode of Bill Burr’s podcast (via The Playlist). Insisting that Ghostbusters devotees will appreciate his take on the material, Reitman claimed that he and his team are “in every way, trying to go back to the original technique and hand the movie back to the fans.”
He continued:
We went back to the work files for the sound of the proton pack. And we went back to the stems of Elmer Bernstein’s score. Just for where it says, in the teaser, ‘Summer 2020,’ we went back and found the original physical vinyl letters that they used to create the Ghostbusters poster in 1984. Rescanned them and then our titles guys reprinted them. We filmed the titles. Not like in a computer. We shot physical titles with a light and smoke effect because that’s how they would have done it back in the day.
He also called the project a “love letter to Ghostbusters” and promised he’s “not making the Juno of Ghostbusters movies.” (Bill Burr, by the way, didn’t know what Juno was.)
As a guy who’s roughly Reitman’s age and grew up watching those movies, I share his enthusiasm for them — even Ghostbusters II! Some of his wording here, particularly the notion of how he will “hand the movie back to the fans,” gives me pause. I hope Reitman didn’t intend the comments this way, but it sure sounds like a subtle dig at the last Ghostbusters, directed by Paul Feig, and starring an all-female cast of Ghostbusters including Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, which was dismissed before it was even seen by many online “fans” simply because of the gender of the cast. Feig’s Ghostbusters wasn’t a masterpiece, but it was very much for fans of the original movies. (If not, what was the point of all those cameos from the original cast?)
Reitman’s Ghostbusters opens in theaters in the summer of 2020. The full podcast is below.
Gallery — Great Movies That Became Terrible Franchises: