Over the weekend, original Ghostbuster, Dan Aykroyd, spoke unceremoniously on Sunday Brunch about Paul Feig's female-led GHOSTBUSTERS reboot. On the show, Aykroyd vented the following statement regarding what he deemed to be Feig's poor decision making:
The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad – the director, he spent too much on it. He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said “nah, we don’t need them”. Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon.
Sony has gone on record to clarify the reshoot costs that Aykroyd is claiming and show support for director Paul Feig, saying: “Sony has a strong relationship with Paul Feig, and we have incredible respect for his work. The cost of reshoots were 3-4 million.”
Now, rather than depositing the issue into a proverbial containment unit, Aykroyd has taken the matter to his personal Twitter account with the following message:
Hmm, I don't know about this one. I think Aykroyd might be spinning his own wheels a bit, here. After all, Feig did find a way to shoehorn Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver into his reboot. I think that part of the issue is that Aykroyd has had his own plans for a GHOSTBUSTERS 3 for some time now, with a plot that finds the original Ghostbusters relinquishing the reigns of the business over to a rag-tag group of young paranormal investigators. The issue here is that GHOSTBUSTERS, at the end of the day, is a Sony-owned property. In dissecting the particulars of the matter, Sony did what they thought was wise at the time: Hire a notable comedy director, round out the cast with a grouping of high-profile comedians, and upgrade the ghost busting effects for more modern times. Regardless of how you feel about the reboot, it was a solid plan.
While I like Aykroyd's idea of passing the torch, the fact of the matter is that his scenario was missing several of its key components from the beginning. For starters, actor Bill Murray was extraordinarily weary about reprising his role as Peter Venkman. Secondly, there was the sad and unfortunate passing of Harold Ramis (Dr. Egon Spangler) to contend with as well. So, at the end of the day, if his plan was for the reboot to center around the "originators" of the franchise, I'm not entirely sure that would have worked out for the best either. I think it's a shame that the reboot didn't go down the way that Feig, Aykroyd, or Sony had hoped. It would have been cool to see the GHOSTBUSTERS brand resurrected into a rebooted but fresh franchise, though unfortunately for now, it would appear as if fans hopes for a different kind of re-imagining are busted.
Both GHOSTBUSTERS films are available via Digital, DVD, and Blu-Ray formats right now.