Rumor: Will Chris Pratt join Channing Tatum in the Ghostbusters reboot?

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Yesterday we got the surprising news that Joe and Anthony Russo were at the head of yet another GHOSTBUSTERS reboot with Channing Tatum producing and possibly starring. The Paul Feig reboot with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones is still happening obviously, but this new reboot was said to be “male-centric” as opposed to Feig’s “female-centric” version. Why do we have dueling GHOSTBUSTERS films? What the heck is going on here?

Badass Digest dug a little deeper into the story and discovered several surprising things; first off, this new reboot isn’t “male-centric” it will merely have these two guys at the center of it. Which two guys you say, well apparently the whole project was designed to team up real-life friends Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt. Did you know they were buddies? Why didn’t anyone tell me?

As we mentioned yesterday this movie will apparently stand alongside the Paul Feig film in the same universe. That’s right; another franchise, another shared universe. A third film would then join both casts together ala THE AVENGERS. A fourth film, said to be a prequel, is also in the works.

Here's what producer Ivan Reitman had to say about the franchise yesterday:

“We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment,” Reitman told me. “This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy. Paul Feig’s film will be the first version of that, shooting in June to come out in July, 2016. He’s got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come. The second film has a wonderful idea that builds on that. Drew will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers’ next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following hear. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”

Now…that’s a lot of GHOSTBUSTERS, and I know the “cool” thing to do these days is to plan out your universe for the next twenty years but could we not just wait and see how Feig’s reboot turns out? Announcing another reboot (especially when the “male-centric” bit was mistakenly played up) before the first has even begun shooting really feels like a slap in the face to the so called “female-centric” film. The strange backlash towards the new GHOSTBUSTERS being female-driven has always puzzled me, so long as it ends up being a good film I could care less about what gender the heroes are.

Obviously these films will be distinct from each other and not just two versions of people strapping on proton packs and blasting ghosts, at least I hope they wont. I could see Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS being more of a traditional reboot with the four women coming together and forming a Ghostbusters team, similar to the original film. The Russo's film might step away from the world of ghosts and deal with some other supernatural threat before both films collide and we get our grand team-up. Or both films could fail and that's the last we'll hear of Ghostbusters for a while.

Are you ready for Chris Pratt to join another blockbuster? What do you make of this potential Ghostbusters shared universe?