Yesterday, the Interwebs lit up like a Christmas tree with the news that Sony’s Ghostbusters reboot has finally locked down its core cast. Confirmed by writer-director Paul Feig via his Twitter account, we now know that Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones will be strapping on the proton packs for next year’s feature. Later on, a spray of details concerning their characters arrived, and most film fans got rather excited.
One of those included original ‘buster, Dan Aykroyd, who also co-created the comedy franchise. A long-time supporter of the third Ghostbusters film, he responded to the casting news in a magnificent fashion (via THR):
The Aykroyd family is delighted by this inheritance of the Ghostbusters torch by these most magnificent women in comedy. My great grandfather, Dr. Sam Aykroyd, the original Ghostbuster, was a man who empowered women in his day and this is a beautiful development in the legacy of our family business.
Coming from one of the series’ main actors and writers, his enthused support for the reboot is no doubt music to Feig’s ears. However, not all of the original team are happy to hear that the Ghostbusters will be resurrected with an all-female leading cast.
Ernie Hudson, who played fourth Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore, has spoken out in the past on the fact that having women leading the movie means it shouldn’t be called Ghostbusters. It’s difficult to see his logic, as the monicker isn’t gender-assigned. He then went on to say that he “loves females” and if “they’re not funny, hopefully they’ll be sexy.” He is of course entitled to his opinion, but it doesn’t mean his casual sexism has got unnoticed.
Today, he has further cemented his reputation as a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. On his official Facebook page he posted a link to a news article on the topic with the caption: “Two words: no comment.”
The Ghostbusters reboot arrives in theaters on July 22, 2016. Tell us, who do you agree with, Aykroyd or Hudson?
