Paul Feig’s 2016 Ghostbusters was intended to reboot and revitalize a long-dormant franchise. The director of hits Bridesmaids and The Heat pitched a modern action-comedy with the twist that this new team would be played by some of the funniest women working in Hollywood. How could it possibly fail? Well, it did.
Yes, the film had to battle uphill against a deluge of misogynistic online criticism, but its main problem was that it simply wasn’t very good. The movie went on to lose money at the box office and sequel plans were quickly shelved. That paved the way for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which ignores the 2016 effort and acts as a sequel to the two originals.
Since Feig’s pic hit theaters, there’s been quite a bit of bad blood between the Ghostbusters 2016 and Ghostbusters: Afterlife teams. Star Leslie Jones even slammed the project back in January, saying:
“So insulting. Like fuck us. We dint count. It’s like something trump would do. (Trump voice)”Gonna redo ghostbusteeeeers, better with men, will be huge. Those women ain’t ghostbusteeeeers” ugh so annoying. Such a dick move. And I don’t give fuck I’m saying something!!”
Paul Feig backed her up as well, stating: “Leslie spoke her truth and I support her.” But now, he’s clearly warmed to the movie over the last year and in response to the new trailer has said the following:
This looks so awesome. Huge congrats to @JasonReitman and his amazing cast and crew. I cannot WAIT to see this! #weareallghostbusters ???❤️ https://t.co/hsUAaxYS9E
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) December 10, 2019
While the Afterlife trailer didn’t exactly set my world on fire, I’m at least interested to see where Reitman is going with it. On the plus side, the cast and crew clearly know their Ghostbusters (did you spot Egon’s collection of spores, moulds and fungus?). On the other, though, a gang of precocious kids zooming around town in Ecto-1 looks a teeny bit cutesy for my tastes.
But with everyone who’s read the script extremely positive about it and the original cast returning for one last(?) hurrah, I’ll definitely be putting my money down for a ticket for Ghostbusters: Afterlife on July 10th, 2020.
