This week, bustin’ makes us feel good, with the release of the new and improved ‘Ghostbusters’ in Irish cinemas. This remake focuses on Erin (Kristen Wiig) and Abby (Melissa McCarthy), a pair of friends who write a book theorising that ghosts are real. When Erin lands a teaching job at Columbia, the book resurfaces and Erin laughed out of the university, just in time to set up a ghost hunting business to save New York from a supernatural invasion.
To celebrate the release of ‘Ghostbusters’, Movies.ie brings you 10 facts about the movie you really need to know.
1. ‘Ghostbusters 3’
Back in the 1990s, original Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd had a concept for a third ‘Ghostbusters’ film that revolved around the Ghostbusters travelling to an alternate, hellish version of New York City. The film had a proposed budget of a whopping $150 million, which meant it never got off the ground. Ultimately, this reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ ended up with a $154 million budget, although inflation means it cost less than Aykroyd’s proposed sequel.
2. 27 Year Itch
The first ‘Ghostbusters; film was released in 1984, with ‘Ghostbusters II’ following in 1989. This means it has been a whopping 27 years since there has been a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie on the big screen.
3. Thanks but no thanks!
Emma Stone was approached to star in this new ‘Ghostbusters’ film, but turned it down. Apparently Stone felt that getting involved in another franchise so soon after ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ was a big commitment for her.
4. Wrong Direction
Jason Reitman, son of original ‘Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman is also a filmmaker, and has directed such films as ‘Up In The Air’, ‘Juno’, ‘Thank You For Smoking’ and ‘Men, Women & Children’. When Jason was asked in an interview if he would consider directing this reboot, he joked that based on his existing work, the film would be more about people talking about ghosts than actually hunting them down.
5. Casting
The four leads in this gender-swapped reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ are played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. Instead of a female assistant, Chris Hemsworth is taking on the gender-swapped version of Janine; a character named Kevin Beckman.
6. Unlike
Within weeks of the trailer for ‘Ghostbusters’ being released on YouTube, it was the most disliked trailer on the site, and 18th most disliked video of all time, with 221,400 likes and 649,900 dislikes. ScreenCrush suggested that the reason for this was a concerted effort of “a certain subset of people” to downvote the trailer deliberately.
7. Cover Version
Ray Parker Jr famously sang the theme song for the 1984 ‘Ghostbusters’ film. This time out, Missy Elliott and Fallout Boy have done the honours, with their new song being heavily influenced by Parker Jr’s track.
8. Coincidence
In her 2011 book “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)”, Mindy Kaling put forward the idea of an all-female ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot. This seems to have been coincidence though, as Kaling is not involved with the film.
9. Reunited
Several of the cast members have worked together on other projects before ‘Ghostbusters’; Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig worked together on ‘Bridesmaids’, and Wiig and Sigourney Weaver worked together on the Simon Pegg and Nick Frost alien comedy ‘Paul’.
10. When can I see ‘Ghostbusters’?
‘Ghostbusters’ hits Irish cinemas on July 15th 2016. Watch the trailer below…