Ghostbusters director Paul Feig poses with the Ecto-1 on the Sony lot. All photos by Caryn Bailey
In a city where movies are made and stars are born, it isn't uncommon to find yourself unexpectedly stumbling onto the set of the latest film or brushing shoulders at the Ivy with your favorite sitcom star. And yet, spotting the Ecto-1 on the streets of L.A. on a recent morning turned heads and left people speculating on social media about Sony's upcoming original film Ghostbusters, slated to debut in theaters in July.
Recognizing the important voice of Ghostbusters fans across the country, Sony debuted the first trailer of the long-awaited film on the Sony lot to an eclectic mix of journalists, influencers and proton-pack wearing Ghostbusters fans, hailing from across the country (some are pictured above).
Set 30 years after the events of the last film, director Paul Feig, producer Ivan Reitman (who directed and produced both original films) and writer Katie Dippold collaborated on an original story starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones as the new Ghostbusters. Embracing all of the slime and paranormal activity you loved about the original film, Ghostbusters is a fresh reboot filled with supernatural humor and action. After Sony debuted the trailer (twice) to an approving audience, Feig, Reitman and Dippold sat down to answer burning questions about the new cast, how the filmmakers approached the delicate balance of nostalgia and originality, and the inventive design of the ghosts.
Ghostbusters are for everybody
If they don’t know already, fans may be pleasantly surprised to learn that the next generation of Ghostbusters are female. But rather than focus on gender, the filmmakers approached casting from a place of wanting to find the funniest people. "The first movie worked because of the cast of the funniest people, and the funniest people I happen to know are these women."
Since people really love the original quartet, the filmmakers were challenged to find a similar combination. "We just wanted to get these characters right, and I had to get four different distinct personalities,” Feig said.
After two months of searching, they finally decided on four women who had all worked together in some capacity on Saturday Night Live. “Nothing is better in a movie than when your cast has a relationship with each other," Reitman said.
He recalled the moment when he saw the original Ghostbusters walk down Madison Avenue on the first day of shooting, and likened it to how he felt when he saw the new cast together. "There was a little tingle in my back and I got the same feeling. Paul did an extraordinary job of putting these four together and there is something very startling about them.
As the filmmakers developed these characters, they knew they had to be scientists. "I loved that about the first one. The idea Ivan, Dan and Harold had of funny people fighting the paranormal with science really resonated with us and we needed to treat them as scientists,” Feig said. Kristin Wiig plays Erin Gilbert, a quantum-particle physicist, Kate McKinnon is a nuclear engineer who creates the team's inventions, Melissa McCarthy is an expert in the paranormal and Leslie Jones is a New York City resident (the everyman, introduced in the original) with extensive knowledge of the city.
An origin story
The filmmakers were intentional about creating an original story for a new audience. "It was very important to both of us to make sure we captured the heart of what we loved so much about the original. But we were still called to bring something new,” Dippold said.
The filmmakers knew that fans would be "bummed" if they didn't see Ecto-1, for example, so they wanted to make sure that they gave a nod to those iconic pieces. In doing so, Feig said they strived to give them their own story as well, as Feig reassured fans: "There are a lot of things you'll be happy to see, but they're coming at you in a slightly different way that we hope will be fun."
"I wanted these ghosts to be what I considered ghosts to be, which is dead." - Director Paul Feig
Technology continues to change the way audiences are immersed in the worlds and characters portrayed on-screen. "It's scientifically based," said Feig. "I don't want my actors acting with tennis balls as they do in some CGI movies." In one particular scene, Bet Strauss plays the first ghost, and you see ecto projected all over her. Strauss was filmed wearing an LED suit with a dress that contained LEDs. She was then picked up and pushed forward while the CGI team played with that look. Similarly, you'll see the auras and particulates coming off of the ghosts, which the CGI team played with to create a "real ghost quality." While you will see other types of ghosts, the filmmakers vision was for the main ghost to be "humanoid." Feig assured us we would see every kind of ghost, including a reemergence of Slimer.
With sufficient slime, ghosts and humor to have us wanting more, the new Ghostbusters trailer builds excitement for the latest reboot. See the movie in theaters starting July 15.
