A new Ghostbusters movie is in the works that is set in the original universe of the classic ’80s films, which is being written and directed by Jason Reitman, son of original director Ivan Reitman.
The new Ghostbusters is not a reboot, but a new story set within the universe that first introduced audiences to Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddemore (think along the lines of Dwayne Johnson’s Jumanji, which Sony had huge success with).
Update: Watch the teaser.
It’s still too early to know if the original actors will be back, with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, or Ernie Hudson; Harold Ramis passed in 2014.
Sony has also given the new Ghostbusters movie a Summer 2020 release date with plans to start filming soon.
“I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set. I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans,” Reitman tells EW.com. “This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day. This is very early, and I want the film to unwrap like a present. We have a lot of wonderful surprises and new characters for the audience to meet.”
Ivan Reitman says he was a huge fan growing up.
“I love everything about it. The iconography. The music. The tone,” Reitman says. “I remember being on set and seeing them try out the card catalog gag for the first time when the library ghost makes them come flying out. I remember the day they killed Stay Puft and I brought home a hardened piece of foam that just sat on a shelf for years. I was scared there was a terror dog underneath my bed before people knew what a terror dog was. I’ve thought about this franchise and it has occupied a piece of my heart for basically as long as I can remember.”
His father, Ivan Reitman, is also producing the new Ghostbusters.
“It will be a passing of the torch both inside and out,” Ivan says. “It was a decision he had to come to himself. He worked really hard to be independent and developed a wonderful career on his own. So I was quite surprised when he came to me with Gil and said, ‘I know I’ve been saying for 10 years I’m the last person who should make a Ghostbusters movie, but…I have this idea.’ Literally, I was crying by the end of it, it was so emotional and funny.”
Jason Reitman is known for co-writing the screenplays for Monster House and the Poltergeist remake, is an Oscar-nominee for Up in the Air and Juno, and directed the Charlize Theron motherhood story Tully and the Hugh Jackman political drama The Front Runner last year.
Ghostbusters spawned three movies with the aforementioned 1984 flick and its sequel in 1989; most recently saw the all-female version in 2016, which didn’t do all that well.
Back in November also saw Dan Aykroyd state a Ghostbusters 3 is happening.
