The famous Ghostbusters Ectomobile, as seen in the teaser trailer for the 2021 film
Who you gonna call? Jason Reitman, that’s who. A new Ghostbusters film is coming in 2021 from the son of the 1984 comedy film’s director, Ivan Reitman.
A first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was released all the way back on Dec. 9, 2019. That’s because the re-boot of the franchise was scheduled to arrive in theaters on July 10, 2020. It’s since been delayed four times and is now scheduled to be released on Nov. 19, 2021. The cast includes Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon, with appearances from many of the original film’s stars. Watch the updated trailers and a detailed clip below.
Sigourney Weaver, one of those original stars, told Parade in a June 2019 interview that she’ll be in it. She also revealed that other prominent stars will return, noting: “It’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!”
A scene from the original Ghostbusters film
Since then, it’s been confirmed that Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts are reprising their roles from the original two films. It’s not known yet if Rick Moranis will appear. Harold Ramis died in 2014.
A teaser trailer was released on January 16, 2019, and the 41-year-old director himself tweeted a message: “Finally got the keys to the car. #GB20.” (Watch the teaser trailer below.)
The original movie earned $295 million, making it the highest-grossing comedy at that time.
The film, written by Aykroyd and Ramis, starred the pair, along with Murray and Hudson, as parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business. Weaver and Moranis were among its co-stars.
Watch the 1984 original film’s trailer
Jason Reitman co-wrote the “next chapter” with Gil Kenan. Reitman told Entertainment Weekly: “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. 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.”
The young Reitman is a two-time Academy Award nominee for Best Director, receiving the honor for the 2007 film Juno and 2009’s Up in the Air.
His father produced the new Sony Pictures edition. “It will be a passing of the torch both inside and out,” he told EW.
Watch the teaser trailer, released on Jan. 16, 2019
An all-female version of Ghostbusters was released in 2016 from director Paul Feig. It starred Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
Watch the first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife
On April 7, 2021, a new clip from the film was released featuring the ageless Rudd, who turned 52 the day before.
Watch a new trailer, released July 27
Yet another trailer was released on Oct. 18.
And if you’re looking for more, here’s Jason Reitman with plenty of details.
The theme song from the original, performed by Ray Parker, Jr., was #1 for three weeks in August 1984.
1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationDifficult to gauge how this will do. There are pros and cons about doing sequels/ prequels/re-boots to begin with…..much like doing cover versions of songs….it can often be risky…..it can be excellent……but there is also a chance of it backfiring. Whatever happens, will be on a much larger scale, since it is a movie.
The fact that there was a “Ghostbusters” movie in 2016—and one that was neither liked by critics or fans—doesn’t help matters. People simply got a bad taste from that one, and it will make it more difficult to sell this one.
The fact there is also confusion, related to this, doesn’t help. “Spider Man 3” and “The Amazing Spider Man 3” were made 5 years apart….yet many think it is the same movie. And no surprise that people think “we saw this one already”, and plain not show up to the theaters.
Some re-done movies have are not really thought out or written well( “Staying Alive”, the sequel to “Saturday Night Fever”). In the case of the “Mamma Mia” sequel, they had that, but some other things on top of it.
There was also an expectation that more/
different ABBA songs would be added. Some, but not a significant amount. Fake and un-authentic scenery did not help matters either.
Reitman has a lot of lot of issues to overcome, as far as winning over fans for this new movie.