If you’re getting confused about what’s going on with the future of the Ghostbusters franchise, you’re not in the minority. Apparently even the people behind the scenes aren’t necessarily certain about what’s happening with their property, as writer Drew Pearce says one thing, producer Ivan Reitman says another and then Dan Aykroyd continues his babble over at the far right corner.
For some background, for years — decades even — passed away last year, Akyroyd’s latest passion project appeared dead in the water — or so you would think.
all-female re-interpretation of the property.
That idea stuck, stars like another all-male Ghostbusters was being cooked up with sights on Channing Tatum producing/starring in the project, Drew Pierce writing and Joe and Anthony Russo behind-the-camera. Where that movie stood became a mystery after its announcement, with Tatum suggesting it’s dead and Sony saying it was sitting around with its hands under its lap until the tallies for next year’s box office receipts were counted.
That made sense, and it was a pretty logical approach. Yet, Akyroyd continued to suggest there were more Ghostbusters coming in the future for sure, but that was just one guy talking. Following the money made the most sense, but now things are getting a little more complicated.
During promotional rounds for Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Pearce — who co-wrote the story for this weekend’s action blockbuster — now tells MTV the all-male Ghostbusters is not only very much in the works, but he recently “finished his work on that in the last couple weeks” and has some big ideas in store. He suggests the movie will come in about one year’s time, but then on Twitter he changed his words (slightly), suggesting he only wrote a “Bible” for the movie. Now Reitman is coming out to terminate talk of any Ghostbusters other than Feig’s upcoming film being in the works.
Although he acknowledges word on the other projects, he feels the “need to clarify” that “the rest is just noise.” Definitively he noted, “there is only one new Ghostbusters movie and that is the Paul Feig-directed version coming next July, presently filming and going fantastically,” but this goes against what he said back in March to Deadline. At the time, he praised the concept behind Pearce’s aforementioned project and suggested Feig’s movie was “just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”
Now, of course, investments can change — especially in Hollywood. But it looks as though Sony needs to sit everyone down at a table and figure out what exactly is the course of action at the moment. Reitman’s dismissal are likely a bit harsher than it comes off as he too is likely waiting to see where things go with 2016’s film and building things up accordingly if all goes well.
Pearce did stress this is all preliminary, but it’s safe to say what he’s doing is probably a little more than “just noise.”
