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.
