Today’s story brought to you courtesy of the “Guardians of Peace”, aka the anonymous group that hacked Sony, brings news surrounding Sony’s new Ghostbusters film with details peppered throughout a variety of reports.
As you probably know, Paul Fieg (Bridesmaids) is attempting to put together an all-female team of ghost hunters, but we’ll get to the ladies in just one second as today’s story begins with a seemingly abandoned idea from a couple of rising Hollywood actors as well as an actor interested in starring in the reboot.
Michael De Luca, co-president of production for Columbia Pictures, told Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, news that Ryan Gosling was interested in the project while also adding Feig wants Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone for the project. In addition to that, The Daily Beast reports Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer and Lizzy Caplan have also shown interest in what is described as a complete reboot with all new characters and not a sequel to the ’80s feature.
Of course, while the all-female version seems to be what’s moving forward an idea that would have brought friends, Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt, together was also proposed by none other than Tatum himself.
The Daily Beast also brings us this news detailing a back-and-forth from Tatum to Pascal suggesting a movie in which Tatum teams with Chris Pratt in starring roles, re-inventing the Ghostbusters franchise, supposedly in the same way Christopher Nolan reinvented Batman with Anthony and Joe Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) producing.
What exactly does it mean to go the Nolan route with the franchise? Well, I guess it depends on how you interpret that statement. Apparently it means both a movie that’s really scary as well as really funny and apparently Hannah Minghella, co-president of production for Columbia Pictures, liked the idea so much she suggested possibly making both the Tatum-Pratt team-up and Feig’s all-female version side-by-side, creating a Ghostbusters universe in which both films could exist. Remember folks, today’s blockbuster cinema is about world-building and this seems right up that alley. Suffice to say, Pascal seemed enthused.
Since then, Feig’s ideas for the all-female version have come to light and be warned, this news should be considered as a spoiler.
The film has already seen interest shown by not only Jennifer Lawrence (see video), but Rebel Wilson who told Today, “I have had a meeting. But who knows? They will have to look at the script when it’s finished… I’d do that for free.” So what would they be doing?
Vulture has the rundown of the latest information, detailing a back-and-forth between Feig and Pascal discussing his plans for the reboot, which would be not only scarier than the original, but more hi-tech. The villain would be a convicted murderer, whom Feig suggests would ideally be played by Peter Dinklage, who’s eventually turns into a ghost, eventually raising an army of ghosts made up of famous villains throughout history. A comparison to the Ben Stiller Night at the Museum comedies is made.
All-in-all, this sounds like a project dependent not only on story, but even more so on casting and with the names lined up and Feig’s history with female comedies I actually expect this to be a reboot idea that just might work. How great would it be if they even managed to make it rated R?
