ComingSoon.net/SuperHeroHype caught up with director Paul Feig today at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) to talk about his upcoming film Spy. In the interview, he also revealed why he decided to do a reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise for his upcoming film instead of a sequel.
“I’m having a lot of fun playing with genres. Especially since I like working with women,” he told us. “I like to ask, ‘What haven’t I seen women in that would be a cool role for them to play?’ ‘Ghostbusters’ kind of just came about, because they were talking to me about doing the sequel and I just couldn’t figure out how to do it. You have to carry over something that started 25 years ago and you have an already-established mythology. I don’t know. I couldn’t get my head around it. I’m sure someone else could have, but it was sitting dormant forever. I was only when I realized that I love this property and I love the idea of this. I mean, I love the original film, but I also just love the idea of busting ghosts and kind of paranormal warriors. I thought, ‘You know, if I could do this with the funny women I know and kind of just do a new origin story…’ I’m more interested in what would happen today. You know, you see things on TV about ghosts, but none of it’s real. What if, suddenly, something started happening? What happens when that just begins to happen to people? Also, how do they develop their technology? It’s not as fun if they’re just handed their proton packs. It’s why it’s not as fun to do a sequel. The fun is getting there. The first ‘Iron Man’ is so much fun because the road to becoming Iron Man is so much fun. ‘Iron Man 2’ wasn’t as much fun, because we already knew what he could do. This just, to me, felt more fertile.”
When pressed about the recent developments of a “Ghostbusters cinematic universe,” Feig revealed that it is in fact being planned but he’s focusing solely on his own film for the time being.
“I’m just concentrated on mine. That’s kind of the big plan that Ivan [Reitman] and Sony have. We’ll see if mine ends up tying into theirs. I’m not involved with that right now at all. My only goal is to get my ladies doing their thing.”
Headlining the supernatural comedy are Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon. Feig will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Katie Dippold. Ghostbusters will hit theaters on July 22, 2016.
