Calling Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot divisive would be selling it short, when it turned out to be one of the most polarizing blockbusters in recent memory. The female-led continuation of the franchise was mercilessly and vociferously trolled, down-voted and blasted at every turn, even though critics thought it was pretty good.
Shortly after that brief experiment ended, Jason Reitman was announced to be following in his father’s footsteps by co-writing and directing Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a direct sequel to 1989’s second installment. We’re just weeks away from the movie coming to theaters, but it turns out the project has a longer history than Sony were initially willing to divulge.
As revealed by Reitman in an interview with Insider, Afterlife was in development at the same time as Feig’s Ghostbusters, but the filmmaker was sworn to secrecy about the film’s existence.
“I think only three people at Sony knew of its existence. Each executive had to come by themselves to Ghost Corps and read the script in a room and then leave. I really didn’t want it out there that we were writing this movie. Particularly after years of me saying I didn’t want to make a Ghostbusters movie.”
Reitman admitted that he’d spent his whole professional career actively avoiding Ghostbusters, before eventually wielding the megaphone on Afterlife. The early reviews have been strong, and a healthy box office total is virtually guaranteed when you consider longtime fans of the property have been waiting over 30 years to see it, never mind the new audiences to have discovered the classic 1984 original in the generations since.