Just yesterday, news arrived that Bridesmaids director Paul Feig was confirmed to direct a new take on Ghostbusters, with his Heat** collaborator, writer Katie Dippold hired to tackle the script for the female-centric reboot. To check in with Feig’s thinking on the matter, Entertainment Weekly got him to talk about his vision for the new film.
Feig explains that he was contacted by Sony, but joined the ranks of filmmakers unsure about tackling what was then either a new sequel to the film or a variant on the reboot idea. “It just felt too difficult. How do you do it and not screw it up? But then it was bugging me for the next few days because Ghostbusters is such a great thing and everybody knows it, and it’s such a great world. It’s a shame to just let this thing sit there. I want to see another one. My favorite thing to do is work with funny women. I was like, what if it was an all female cast? If they were all women? Suddenly, my mind kind of exploded: that would be really fun. And then I thought, well, what if we just make it new? It’s not coming into the world that existed before.”
Though there have been predictably knee-jerk reactions to the idea of a female-focused reboot – naturally before a single frame has been shot – Feig is unconcerned by any backlash. “I just don’t understand why it’s ever an issue anymore,” he says. “I’ve promoted both Bridesmaids and **The Heat **and myself and my cast are still hit constantly with the question, 'Will this answer the question of whether women can be funny?' I really cannot believe we’re still having this conversation. Some people accused it of kind of being a gimmick and it’s like, it would be a gimmick if I wasn’t somebody whose brain doesn’t automatically go to like, 'I want to just do more stuff with women.' I just find funny women so great. For me it’s just more of a no-brainer.”
As for where the project stands at the moment, it’s early days but coming together quickly. “We have a very rough, rough outline that we’re working with, but definitely know the basic story, know what we want the basic characters to do, know what we want the world to do and what the rules of our world are, but nothing I want to discuss obviously. It’s cool. I think it’s a really strong origin story that feels real—as real as a ghost story is. It’s going to be really fun and real. We’ll make it scary and funny.” For more from Feig, head to EW.
Though there might still be an argument to be made that Ghostbusters doesn’t need either another sequel or a trip through the reboot machine, the original films will still stand. And given Feig’s enthusiasm for his plan, this could end up being something truly entertaining, with the right cast. Can it match up to the originals? That's a question bigger than your average Marshmallow Man...