ghost busters reboot with female cast

[Lagmonster]

I hope he doesn't fuck it up, because I would very much like to see a good movie set in the Ghostbusters universe. I know Bridesmaids was well-received, but I didn't enjoy it.

[LadyTevar]

I have a feeling Dippold will try to bring McCarthy in. While McCarthy is a good comic, she's extremely over-the-top raunchy with her comedy. I'd far prefer the BigBang girls.

[Darth Nostril]

... and the project would launch a new series instead of being connected to the earlier movies.

Oh great another fucking reboot.
I'll be giving this one a miss.

[Gandalf]

I have a feeling Dippold will try to bring McCarthy in. While McCarthy is a good comic, she's extremely over-the-top raunchy with her comedy. I'd far prefer the BigBang girls.

That's exactly why I want to see McCarthy in the film. The original actors all had strong comic backgrounds in both writing and performing, albeit with varying ratios. It made the film a wonderful collaborative piece.

There's plenty of great female comics out there. It's just a matter of getting ones that marketing wants to put on a poster.

[Lagmonster]

I don't doubt McCarthy's ability, but her brand of humour isn't exactly what I think of when I think "Ghostbusters". In all honesty, my top choices, assuming we're creating roles similar to the original movie characters, would be Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, Jessica Williams and Aubrey Plaza.

[Raw Shark]

McCarthy has more range than people give her credit for. She played a supporting character on Gilmore Girls, a show with no humor other than network-friendly banter, for seven years, and won the 2011 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role on Mike & Molly, which, from what little I've seen, is a very tepid domestic sitcom. I think she could pull off being the Stantz or the Zedmore easily, or as more of a longshot you could cast her as the Venkman and milk her appearance vs her sexual aggression for cheap but possibly awesome laughs (we only ever do see one woman actually give in to Peter's advances, after all...)

[Raw Shark]

[snip] my top choices, assuming we're creating roles similar to the original movie characters, would be Janeane Garofalo, Sarah Silverman, Jessica Williams and Aubrey Plaza.

Who plays whom? Seems like you've got a head-on collision between Garofalo and Plaza for two different "deadpan snarker" takes on the Venkman...

[Lagmonster]

Plaza doesn't have the chops to go up as the leader of the team, so that's Garofalo. She could pull a Venkman easy, a character that wasn't just snark, but also an irresponsible asshole. Plus she has the screen time experience to hold the film on her own. Silverman can curb her manic if she has too, but would do well wide-eyed as the Stantz. My first choice for the Egon wasn't Plaza, but was actually Christine Baranski, who would rock the fuck out of that role...twenty years ago. I think Plaza could do the serious anti-social straight comedy needed for Spengler; my only problem with her is that she's probably too young. Williams may not have the serious acting experience for a full feature film, but I consistently enjoy her work and I think she could handle the limited role called for to play Zeddemore.

[The Romulan Republic]

... and the project would launch a new series instead of being connected to the earlier movies.

Oh great another fucking reboot.
I'll be giving this one a miss.

I like reboots. They're a way for a long-lasting franchise to try new things without being bogged down by old continuity and mistakes.

[edaw1982]

I wonder if they'll try and go for the same dynamic?
The fanboyish giddy nerd like Ray, the dry Spock nerd like Egon, the creepy if oddly charming sleaze of Venkman, and the 'I-saw-shit-that'd-turn-you-white' in the Veteran Serviceman, with Winston (apparently the character was supposed to have been a Marine).

[Havok]

OK so who to cast...?
You gotta have Sara Silverman right?

[cmdrjones]

OK so who to cast...?
You gotta have Sara Silverman right?

for the villain? Oh yes please!

[cmdrjones]

I rather think if they DO another Ghostbusters movie of ANY kind they should get their cosmology down tight before they even write the script. for instance, I rapidly lost interest in the Supernatural show when it started to become more "monster of the week" and ran into the whole "apocalypse" plotline. It was more fun when the supernatural was kept in the closet. That being said, the idea of the Ghostbusters is about the supernatural going mainstream and being "proved" real. hence a Ghsotbusters movie written today where Ghosthunters is a popular show and many many more people Believe in the supernatural will HAVE to be radically different no matter who plays what.
In the original they had a hard time getting people to believe they weren't con men, THIS time around they may very well have "ghostpeacers" chasing them around in a rainbow truck trying to keep them from "killing the dead" or locking up "great great great grandma" or trying to get them to "check their live privilege"

[Lagmonster]

I've split out the cultural/biology discussion to the SLAM forum. You can find it here. This thread will be for discussion relating specifically to the new film.

[edaw1982]

THIS time around they may very well have "ghostpeacers" chasing them around in a rainbow truck trying to keep them from "killing the dead" or locking up "great great great grandma" or trying to get them to "check their live privilege"

The horror...the horror!

[dragon]

sorry to necro wasn't sure if it justified a new thread but they released the cast

O

n Tuesday, the Hollywood Reporter reported that the previously confirmed Ghostbusters reboot film, helmed by Paul Feig (Freaks & Geeks, The Heat), had secured its leading cast, and just as Feig had said last year, it's all ladies—and funny ones at that. Saturday Night Live alum Kristen Wiig and her Bridesmaids co-star Melissa McCarthy top the list, followed by current SNL actors Leslie Jones (Top Five) and Kate McKinnon.

The biggest sci-fi comedy franchise of the '80s never saw a third official film with its original cast; the closest that came to happening was with the 2009 video game, which included voice performances from all four original 'Busters (but no signs of either Rick Moranis or Sigourney Weaver; the game opted to cast Alyssa Milano as its leading lady instead). That game certainly didn't live up to fan expectations, a fact that Ramis hinted to in a 2009 interview about the game's "repetition of comedy."

Plans for a Ghostbusters 3 changed drastically after the 2013 death of Harold Ramis, after which the original film's director Ivan Reitman dropped out of any potential sequel. Bill Murray, who reportedly held up progress on a Ghostbusters sequel prior to Ramis's death, offered his own suggestions for an all-woman leading cast last year, and two of his choices—McCarthy and Wiig—apparently made the cut. ("I would go to that movie," he added.)

In interviews, Feig has insisted that the movie, which the Hollywood Reporter says could begin filming as early as this summer in New York City, will be a total timeline reboot. "We can have new dynamics," Feig told Entertainment Weekly last year. "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?'"

link

[Lagmonster]

I still don't like McCarthy, although I suppose her casting was inevitable. I'm hoping she can show some kind of versatility, because her other characters have been more embarrassing than funny. The other three I don't know anything about - I've never seen any of their stuff. Which is good; I'd like to see some gutsy unknowns make the roles theirs, but I would have been more enthusiastic if they had chosen at least one older actress, with some experience and real acting chops, to hold them all together.

[Raw Shark]

I still don't like McCarthy, although I suppose her casting was inevitable. I'm hoping she can show some kind of versatility, because her other characters have been more embarrassing than funny. [snip]

Probably inevitable, yeah. On the plus side, she manages to plausibly shit uncontrollably into a sink and control nuclear weapons as the same character in Bridesmaids.

[Patroklos]

I still don't like McCarthy, although I suppose her casting was inevitable. I'm hoping she can show some kind of versatility, because her other characters have been more embarrassing than funny. The other three I don't know anything about - I've never seen any of their stuff. Which is good; I'd like to see some gutsy unknowns make the roles theirs, but I would have been more enthusiastic if they had chosen at least one older actress, with some experience and real acting chops, to hold them all together.

I think its a stretch to all three SNL veterans "unknowns". Whig for instance has 20+ films under her belt, granted many are bit roles.

[Lagmonster]

I still don't like McCarthy, although I suppose her casting was inevitable. I'm hoping she can show some kind of versatility, because her other characters have been more embarrassing than funny. The other three I don't know anything about - I've never seen any of their stuff. Which is good; I'd like to see some gutsy unknowns make the roles theirs, but I would have been more enthusiastic if they had chosen at least one older actress, with some experience and real acting chops, to hold them all together.

I think its a stretch to all three SNL veterans "unknowns". Whig for instance has 20+ films under her belt, granted many are bit roles.

To be honest, I was wrong when I typed that. I do know Wiig's work, and was thinking of the other two, who I've never seen in anything (I haven't watched SNL since 1990).

Dippold's writing may be the turning point needed to hook old prejudiced assholes like me into the film; she's an experienced improv team comic, so I can trust her to be witty. On the other hand, The Heat was a competent but bog-standard buddy-cop comedy.

[Patroklos]

Well that's the thing. I am not steeped in Ghost Busters lore but when I watch it I don't see actors playing roles, but rather roles written for specific actors. The shtick of Dan and Bill in that movie is pretty much their normal comedic routine. I am sure they were filling an archtype already written but I imagine they were given a lot or leeway to use their own material and improve was encouraged which is what brought them to life.

There is no reason that can't be done here. Indeed that's sort of a necessity for a successful comedy. So I'd say it not so much the writing has to be good (it should be of course), but whether they will give the talent enough maneuvering room within it to do their thing. Which is not the same as letting them run roughshod over it, just that it should be collaborative.

[Borgholio]

The humor in the original Ghostbusters wasn't so much slapstick as it was dry, sarcastic, and subtle. It was very..."natural"...humor. In other words, they didn't try too hard and just let it be funny on it's own. If the new cast can pull that off without re-using old jokes or simply being corny or stupid, then the movie could be quite entertaining. I will give it a chance.

[Lagmonster]

I'm sure it'll be all right as long as the actresses have the guts to go off-script where it would be awesome and the wit to know when to do so.

Though there are some prejudices I have about art which are never going away. I grew up watching Peter Sellers movies, and my brain categorically denies that anyone of any gender or competence can replicate what he did in his films. Nobody on fucking earth could recast, say, Dr. Strangelove.

Or Drill Sergeant Hartman. Or Alex DeLarge. Or...hmm. There are a lot of irreplaceable characters in Kubrick films.

[Elheru Aran]

Kubrick, I think, was pretty good at matching characters with actors, and drawing a quite specific performance out of them. Ghostbusters was very different; in that case, it was actors playing their own characters, rather than having to actually manifest a serious performance. It was a bunch of buddies being directed by one of their buddies; they knew how to play off each other with ease. The original American Pie films run on a similar principle, although the 'acting' there is a bit more forced. As for the Ghostbusters reboot... well, I'm not a fan of Melissa McCarthy. She does best as a supporting character, not a lead. Although that's probably more my opinion due to the past few lead roles she had being in abominable barely-funny comedies... Don't know much about the other two girls, but Kristen Wiig is actually OK.

[biostem]

I just hope Dan Aykroyd has a cameo in the film, and that they don't try to make this an FX film, with ridiculous super proton packs or some Gadgetmobile Ecto-1. The FX should compliment the story, not make up for bad writing or acting. I also hope they make the ladies lug around those packs - let them really experience the effort it takes to be a ghostbuster - it shouldn't be glamorous, and it shouldn't be fun. The deadpan humor, smarminess, dripping sarcasm, and biting wit are what made the ghostbusters so great. You can transpose things to a new time and cast, but don't forget what made the first movie so memorable!

That being said, it would be interesting to see them explore the ramifications of ghosts being found to be real - like people intentionally trying to conjure them for personal gain, or people perhaps committing suicide in hopes of coming back as an immortal ghost...