Feig's Ghostbusters Crew Gets a Little Larger

With principal photography right around the corner, details on Paul Feig's Ghostbusters (2016) crew are slowly beginning to surface around the interwebs. About a month ago, we at GBHQ thought it would be fun to speculate on who might be joining Paul Feig behind the camera to bring a retold Ghostbusters to life.

And I'm happy to report, several of those folks on our wishlist seem to be involved. So let's get into it, eh?

Robert Yeoman
Director of Photography

One of the creative members of Feig's crew that I'm most excited is aboard is cinematographer Robert Yeoman, a long-time contributor to Wes Anderson's films but also a master of vibrant landscapes and stylized imagery. Say what you will about the 1990 Nintendo commercial The Wizard but it's a love-letter to a road trip to California. Imagine what his compositions will do for the city of New York when the supernatural run rampant? I had initially thought Yeoman's prior obligations might have put him out of the running for Director of Photography on Ghostbusters, but it appears the planets aligned and he'll be in Boston this June.

Jefferson Sage
Production Designer

No surprise that Paul Feig's longtime production designer Jefferson Sage will be helping guide the visual aesthetic for Ghostbusters, having worked with the director on all his previous films (Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy) as well as the broad comedies Year One (directed by Harold Ramis) and Paul (directed by Greg Mottola). What is interesting is that joining Sage in the art department are Supervising Art Director Beat Frutiger (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Star Trek, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), Art Director Lorin Flemming (Running with Scissors, the upcoming Spectral and Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice) and set designer Steven M. Saylor, who has designed a wide variety and scope of sets from Alias to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

David Witz
Unit Production Manager

No stranger to large films with a lot of moving parts, UPM David Witz was the battalion leader on films such as J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, the recent Sony film Pixels, Moneyball, Gone Girl and Mission Impossible: III. 

Great news all around, there's one heckuva creative team assembling to begin filming in Boston. More to come as it develops here at GBHQ.

A Little Ghostbusters Crew Speculation While All's Quiet on the Western Front

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After the onslaught of news over the course of a couple weeks, a quiet has hushed across the usually bustling interweb landscape when it comes to Ghostbusters (2016) news and rumors. And thankfully, it's a calm before the storm that I'm sure is very welcome both for us fans as well as for the production crew as they prepare for principal photography.

With a June 15 production start date in the near-distant future, one would assume pre-production on Paul Feig's Ghostbusters revamp is well underway. With just about 11 weeks before cameras roll, set and prop construction should be ramping up. It also appears that Paul Feig is still out and about on his press tour for the June 5 release of Spy, with his travels taking the director to an advance Q&A screening of the film in Chicago tonight. That's got to be a tough-going schedule for Feig, as the world-tour press circuit and Spy's release date being a mere week and a half before day one on Ghostbusters affords him little breathing room.

Production Manager David Witz (Gone Girl, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible III) has joined Ghostbusters according to Production Weekly, which means that full crew hopping onto the production can't be far behind. If IMDB is to be believed the first of those crew members, Nancy St. John (and her company Prime Focus) have boarded the new Ghostbusters in some capacity, either to provide a 3D conversion to the film or as one of (what I can only assume will be) the multiple visual effects houses brought on-board the film. This brings up an interesting question, will Feig be filming Ghostbusters in native 3D? Or will the film be converted for the third-dimension in post-production?

While 3D cinema-going has grown on me, there's a big part of me that hopes the film will be shot 2D (and on film) and then gets the stereo 3D treatment after the fact. As evidenced by the recent remastered Blu-ray release of the original 1984 film, there's something about this concept that lends itself to a little bit of a gritty film-grain look. 

To that point, my hope is that long-time collaborator and Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Robert Yeoman will be joining Feig on Ghostbusters, as he has on the director's three previous films, Spy, The Heat and Bridesmaids. His unique visual style will be perfect for the fantastical world of Ghostbusters that's on the horizon. Whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen as it also appears that Yeoman is attached to Peyton Reed (Ant-Man)'s upcoming film Staying Cool. The productions may overlap making Yeoman's participation in the project difficult if not impossible.

Another big part of the film's look and feel, will be its Production Designer. Jefferson Sage has been at the forefront as the Production Designer on Feig's last three films as well as Paul and Year One and also acted as Art Director on Analyze This. Legendary Production Designers John DeCuir (Ghostbusters, Cleopatra, South Pacific) and Bo Welch (Ghostbusters II, Batman Returns, Thor, Joe vs. the Volcano) are tough acts to follow but Sage most certainly has the chops to create some memorable set-pieces with a comedic edge.

Yes, all of the above is purely speculation. And I imagine it's only a matter of time before we start seeing and hearing of cast/crew commitments to the June 15th release date. But it's fun to start visualizing what might be in store once those puzzle pieces start coming together.