We still know very little about what's in store for 2021's new "Ghostbusters" sequel,
"Ghostbusters: Afterlife," but we're very excited about what's next.
Here's what we know so far about director Jason Reitman's foray into a new neighborhood
with somethin' strange.
The first reports of Jason Reitman's involvement in a new Ghostbusters film arrived in January
2019. Reitman soon confirmed via his Twitter account that the film would hit theaters on
July 10, 2020. Then COVID-19 happened, and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" has been moved
back multiple times since. The film was initially bumped to March 5, 2021. Then a new release date
of June 11, 2021 was set. After those both fell through, Sony moved the release date back first
to November 11, then to November 19. That would seem to be the date that will finally stick.
It seems like a lifetime ago now, but when the initial teaser that announced the film
dropped in January 2019, it didn't give a title. Fans simply started referring
to the upcoming film as "Ghostbusters 2020," assuming that the movie would
actually come out that year. The title remained a mystery until December 2019,
when the British Board of Film Classification, which has to approve all trailers in the U.K.,
revealed that the approval notice for the new trailer gave the title "Ghostbusters: Afterlife."
It's an appropriate title, given that the film is not only about ghosts, but also about legacy.
Reitman has noted that his idea for the film began with a 12-year-old girl carrying a proton pack,
and that image ultimately expanded to include a whole family. That 12-year-old, Phoebe,
will be played by Mckenna Grace, a rising young talent who's been seen in everything from "Captain
Marvel" to "Chilling Adventures of Sabrina" to "The Haunting of Hill House." Carrie Coon,
who's shown her talents in TV series like "Fargo" and "The Leftovers" as well as films like "Gone
Girl" and "Avengers: Infinity War," plays Phoebe's mother, Callie. Finn Wolfhard, who's
probably best known for "Stranger Things" and the "It" movies, plays Phoebe's brother, Trevor.
In September 2019, producer Ivan Reitman
revealed comedy superstar turned superhero Paul Rudd's role in the film, saying:
"[He's] a seismologist who's come to this
small town because they've been having mysterious earthquakes."
The earthquakes are likely tied to paranormal events.
Rudd's character, Mr. Grooberson, also ends up working as a summer school teacher,
likely creating his connection with the family at the film's center.
In June 2019, Sigourney Weaver seemed to confirm in an interview
that she was indeed reprising her role as Dana Barrett. She said,
"It's going to be crazy working with the guys again."
"Either I have a monster in my kitchen or I'm completely crazy."
"I don't think you're crazy."
"Well, that makes me feel so much better."
Those "guys" are obviously Bill Murray,
Dan Ayrkroyd, and Ernie Hudson. Aykroyd confirmed in September 2019 that he would
be returning to the franchise along with "most of the original people." By the end of 2019,
Murray, Hudson, and Annie Potts were also all confirmed to be on board.
In early 2020, Vanity Fair ran a report from the set of "Afterlife." While the publication
was strictly banned from revealing anything about the plot, an extended conversation with
Murray confirmed that something special was in store for the iconic characters. He said,
"The script is good. It's got lots of emotion in it. It's got lots of family in it,
with through lines that are really interesting. It's gonna work."
Jason Reitman's feature film directorial career began in 2005 with "Thank You For Smoking."
Since then, he's become known for a particular style that often walks the
line between comedy and drama in films like "Juno," "Up in the Air," "Tully,"
"Young Adult," and most recently "The Front Runner." His films are often small in scale,
exploring the intimacy and absurdity of human relationships rather than big set pieces.
His comedy usually comes out of interaction between characters rather than gags.
Though he's undoubtedly formed his own writing and directing style, Reitman's interest in filmmaking
has its roots in family. He's the son of actress Genevieve Robert and writer/director Ivan Reitman,
who notably directed the original "Ghostbusters" and "Ghostbusters II."
The "Ghostbusters" franchise is an integral part of Jason Reitman's life. He even had
a cameo in the 1989's "Ghostbusters II," when he was around 11 years old.
"You know, my dad says you guys are full of crap."
A sci-fi comedy about ghost hunters isn't exactly in line with his previous films,
but when it was announced that he would helm "Afterlife," his familial
ties to the franchise helped it all make sense.
It took a while to see more than a few images related to Reitman's new
take on "Ghostbusters," and what we did see consistently leaned heavily
on nostalgia. The first teaser begins with a wide shot of a large metal building in
the middle of a wooded area. The camera pushes in closer and closer to the door,
eventually revealing the Ghostbusters' old ride, ECTO-1, just sitting in storage.
The first real trailer arrived in early December 2019. It largely follows the two
kids at the heart of the story, Trevor and Phoebe, as they get used to their new life
at their inherited farmhouse in a small Oklahoma town. But things get weird when
an eerie green light starts to emit from an old pit outside of town. Mr. Grooberson
explains they're also experiencing weird seismic activity that there's no logical explanation for.
Then the kids finally bring an old ghost trap they found in their farmhouse to school,
and Mr. Grooberson realizes they must have a connection to the Ghostbusters.
It's revealed that there hasn't been a real ghost sighting in three decades,
and the Ghostbusters, once regarded as heroes, are now forgotten legends. Phoebe and Trevor
begin to seek out more information about their long-lost grandfather who owned the farmhouse.
The trailer reveals he was indeed Dr. Egon Spengler, one of the original Ghostbusters.
While the trailer doesn't have any new footage of the returning "Ghostbusters" cast,
it does provide a nostalgia kick by playing Bill Murray's speech about fate from the 1984 original.
"Call it fate. Call it luck. Call it karma. I believe that everything happens for a reason."
The second trailer, released in July 2021, has much of the same material as the first,
but it does include a scene with Annie Potts' Janine Melnitz,
and a quick look at the arms of what definitely seems to be Dr Raymond Stantz. Ray appears to
have some numbers tattooed on one of his arms, and Jason Reitman told IGN that the numbers reference
the conversation about Judgment Day between Ray and Winston Zeddemore from the first film.
"I remember Revelation 7:12.
'And I looked, as he opened the sixth seal. And behold, there was a great earthquake."
For Jason Reitman's planned sequel, recreating the same look and feel he remembered from the
original films was important. With his father's connections to the beginnings of the franchise,
he had the resources to make it all work. The younger Reitman went to great lengths to replicate
key details from the 1980s for the sequel, up to and including finding the original letters used
to make the film's posters. He explained on Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast:
"We went back to the work files for the sound of the proton pack. And we went back to the stems
of Elmer Bernstein's score. [...] We went back and found the original physical vinyl
letters they used to create the 'Ghostbusters' poster in 1984. [...] We shot physical titles
with a light and smoke effect, because that's how they would have done it back in the day."
When Reitman sat down with IGN to break down the second trailer, he said that,
instead of trying to mimic the aesthetic of the original films using modern-day visual effects,
he and his team went right back to the source. He said,
"We actually found the original special effects 70mm footage and scanned it. We were always
attempting to go back to the original recipe and recapture as much as humanly possible."
That approach particularly applied to the ghosts in the film. The second
trailer contains a gang of mini Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men going wild in a Walmart,
a giant spectral version of a Terror Dog, and a skeletal ghost created with a puppet
"meant to echo the taxi ghost from the original," according to Reitman. He said,
"There's nothing like shooting with practical ghosts, with having something
right there that the actors can work with."
The biggest nod comes in the form of new ghost Muncher,
who is similar to Slimer and pays tribute to the classic character. Reitman said,
"The original Slimer was an angry dude and very scary, and we really wanted to get back to that."
A complete reunion of the original four Ghostbusters is sadly no longer possible,
since Harold Ramis, who played Dr. Egon Spengler in the first two "Ghostbusters" films,
died in 2014. His death was devastating for his former castmates,
who couldn't help but feel his absence while filming the latest installment.
Aykroyd, who co-wrote the original films with Ramis, told Entertainment Weekly,
"To have that formation without that man standing right there on the line with us
was a pretty serious adjustment. He will be very well represented in the new film,
I can tell you that. He's very honorably represented."
Spengler's family honors his legacy in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," which will end
with a dedication to the man who played him, Jason Reitman confirmed to Empire magazine. He said,
"This movie is for my father, for my daughter, and for Harold. For a long time,
I had the idea of a girl finding a proton pack in a barn ... and I
just didn't know what to do with it. When Harold passed all of a sudden,
I knew who she was: it was Egon's granddaughter. [...] It became a Spengler story."
The 2016 "Ghostbusters" reboot, which featured a title team of four women,
sparked controversy virtually from the moment it was announced.
Some longtime "Ghostbusters" fans felt that the film was somehow damaging to what came before, and
a wave of social media vitriol followed throughout its development and up through the film's release.
Jason Reitman had nothing to do with that film, though his father was credited as a producer.
Jason Reitman's new "Ghostbusters" project is a direct sequel to the original two films,
so it will ignore the reboot. That fact, plus "Ghostbusters" 2016 star Leslie Jones' anger
at being excluded from future films, meant Reitman caught flak in February 2019 when
he said that he was making an effort to, quote, "hand the movie back to the fans."
Many took his comments as an insult to the 2016 movie and its cast led by women.
Just days later, after hearing the response his comments received,
Reitman clarified his remarks, noting he had, quote, "nothing but admiration" for
the reboot and calling it an "amazing movie." The director later said that "Ghostbusters:
Afterlife" was actually inspired by the 2016 film in a way. He told SFX Magazine,
"I think that the remake proved, at least to me, the idea that the Ghostbusters could be
anyone, and I expanded on this idea with 'Afterlife' while always focusing on the
family aspect and the history that was created by the original films."
"Are you the Ghostbusters?"
"Actually, we're the conductors of the--"
"Yes. We're the Ghostbusters."
Dan Aykroyd in particular had been trying to get the "Ghostbusters" series back on the big screen
years before the 2016 reboot, and it does seem that the door is now open to some ideas.
Those ideas apparently include a prequel called "Ghostbusters High," which Aykroyd
has written as a potential feature film that could launch a TV series chronicling how Peter,
Ray and Egon first met as teenagers in 1969 in New Jersey. Though he was excited about the idea,
Aykroyd also cautioned that "Ghostbusters High" is just one of a number of ideas he
and the Reitmans are exploring. Aykroyd explained to The Canadian Press,
"We have other stuff after the Jason Reitman-helmed movie. We have at least
one or two other concepts for the Ghostbusters, and then we'll look at doing the prequel,
which will be a perfect button on all we've done up to that point."
In other words, if you like "Ghostbusters," just keep an eye out,
because we seem to be far from finished with the franchise.
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