For what it's worth, we're finally getting some rock-solid news on what's going with GHOSTBUSTERS 3, although from the sound of it, 3 is not going to be anywhere near the title. Yesterday we confirmed who would be writing and directing. Now director Paul Feig spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the direction they're headed in and as to not muck around in the fantastic universe already established in the first, Feig says that they're going full reboot on this one. You can check out the article here, but I've listed the highlights below.
Feig's thoughts on another GHOSTBUSTERS:
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. It’s always hard if the world has gone through this big ghost attack, how do you do it again? I wanted to come into our world where there’s talk of ghosts but they’re not really credible, and so what would happen in our world if this happened today?
Whether or not this would be a reboot:
Yeah. I love origin stories. That’s my favorite thing. I love the first one so much I don’t want to do anything to ruin the memory of that. So it just felt like, let’s just restart it because then we can have new dynamics. I want the technology to be even cooler. I want it to be really scary, and I want it to happen in our world today that hasn’t gone through it so it’s like, oh my God what’s going on?
Whether or not classic GHOSTBUSTERS actors may make an appearance:
Well, I mean, look, those are my comedy heroes. So as far as I’m concerned, anybody wants to come back I welcome with open arms. It would just be in different roles now, but it would be fun to figure out how to do that.
Whether or not Paul and screenwriter Kate Dippold plan to inject some scares:
Both she and I are obsessed with how do we make comedy really scary? The sequel to The Heat was going to be pretty scary and funny. Almost like in a Silence of the Lambs type thing but funny. I think funny people in peril and in danger is one of the best forms of comedy, and I really like things to play very real while funny things are happening. So that’s what both Katie and I really want to do with this one is make it crazy funny but also you’re scared at the same time.
How this world will differ from the original GHOSTBUSTERS:
Everything is up for grabs right now. I look at this the same way a superhero movie launches where it’s always fun to see, like, what are they going to do with the costumes this time? What are they going to do with the hardware this time? It’s not going to be, here is the exact same stuff. It’s also not going to go, screw you, if you like that stuff, it’s all completely different. We’re going to have fun with it, but again, bring it into our time period. I’m a big hardware nerd when it comes to sci-fi and all of that so I love all the gear and I love all that. We’re really going to have fun with playing with the science of it. I think fans will be very happy with what we do because it has fun with what came before but it’s new. It’s just a new, fun take on it.
Feig's final thoughts:
Everything’s got to live on it’s own merits. It would be terrible if we just go, oh we’re just doing an update where we use the same dynamic and scripts. If we just flop four women into the exact same personalities and roles as original, then that’s lazy filmmaking on my behalf, and who wants to see that? I don’t want to do a shot by shot update of a movie that existed. It’s the difficult thing about remaking a great movie. So that’s why we’re not remaking a great movie. We’re doing our take on it.
At the very least, Paul Feig is all too aware of the thoughts and feelings of fans regarding a new GHOSTBUSTERS film. While a part of me is said that it won't be taking place in the same universe and that we wont see the classic characters, it just wouldn't be the same without Bill Murray or Harold Ramis. No one really has any great expectations for this, so I'm curious to see what they can cook up.