Ghostbusters 3 is shaping up to be quite the revival. After the deeply disappointing Ghostbusters (2016) (which was crappy for reasons entirely unrelated to the genders of the leads), there’s a sense that this is the franchise’s chance to prove it’s got what it takes. Up until now, all we’ve seen is an enigmatic teaser trailer and a plot description about a family moving back to a small town, but director Jason Reitman appeared at last weekend’s Ghostbusters Fan Fest where he dropped some very intriguing hints about what’s to come.
One of the most reassuring was when he explained that “I want to scare children.” While the 1984 original is generally considered a comedy, I remember watching it when I was a kid and the librarian ghost scene scared the bejeezus out of me (as did the Terror Dogs). One of the many reasons the 2016 reboot didn’t work was that it leaned way too far into bad comedy, with the ghosts never being taken particularly seriously.
But there’s another very interesting development revealed in this panel, with Reitman also saying the following:
“In making this movie, we found something kind of extraordinary. We went to Sony, and we said, ‘We’d really love to get back into the original dailies from 1984. Do you still have them?’ And we found them. They were in a mine in Kansas, and we shipped the boxes to Burbank. We’ve been going through the footage for reasons I cannot tell you, but along the way we found some really cool stuff.”
Now, leaving aside the awesomeness of there being a Kansas mine full of Ghostbusters dailies, what possible reason could Reitman want these for? My bet is that the film may feature members of the classic team with a bit of CGI de-aging applied to them.
Nick Fury in Captain Marvel proved that this technique can be used throughout a movie, and if they were going this route, the multiple hours of dailies will give the artists the reference material they need in order to bring Stantz, Venkman and Zeddemore back…and maybe Spengler if they can be absolutely sure they can do it tastefully.
We should find out very soon, as more of Ghostbusters 3 will no doubt be revealed over the coming months. Either way though, I hope we get to see some of this unseen footage ourselves. There’s a tiny bit here in this video (at 1:20) and it’s awesome, but I really want it all.