Paul Feig talks Ghostbusters, confirms New York setting

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Director Paul Feig is once again talking GHOSTBUSTERS, this time to Empire with whom he shared his logic for taking the job in the first place, the rumors of Melissa McCarthy's involvement, and how pulling the setting from New York would be "the biggest sin".

Feig explains that he's comfortable taking on the all-female reboot, stating…

“A lot of people ask why I didn’t create my own thing, but Ghostbusters never ran out of steam, it’s such a great idea, It’s such a fun franchise so why not bring it to a new generation? The old movie is never going to not exist. It’s not my plan to erase every copy! Hopefully they can all live together.”

As far as word that talks have begun with Feig's THE HEAT and BRIDESMAIDS star Melissa McCarthy for a major role in GHOSTBUSTERS (which we reported on HERE), the director cautions…

“It came out publically that we’re in talks with Melissa but there’s a lot to work out."

He also talked about the kind of jokes that will be in the piece, sharing that there will be 'fun nods to the old movie' without going into parody territory.

“We’re not recreating the old movie, but we want to do just enough fun nods that the fans will go, ‘Oh, okay, they’re acknowledging that the other movie existed.’ I like to watch parodies, but I don’t want to do them because they’re too referential. Comedy that’s too referential has such a short shelf life, whereas comedy that’s based around characters will be relatable 2000 years from now because people won’t change that much.”

Feig also shares that GHOSTBUSTERS will be staying put in its traditional home in the Big Apple,stating…

…to me it’s such a New York movie and the biggest sin would be to pull it out of there. I just love New York and, selfishly, I just want to shoot in New York.”

More on GHOSTBUSTERS as we hear it.