What an absolute whirlwind of a 48-hour span. On Tuesday of this week, Entertainment Weekly exclusively revealed that Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno) and son of Ghostbusters producer/director and Ghost Corps head Ivan Reitman would write and direct a Ghostbusters film set in the original universe from the first two films. Writer Gil Kenan (Monster House, Poltergeist) will co-write the new script with him.
The news is doubly surprising for two reasons:
First of all, Jason Reitman has often been asked if he would ever grab the keys to the Ecto-1 and had always been reluctant to do so - often answering that he prefers making small independent features. But, as the EW article states, Jason approached his father with an idea for a story that immediately took flight and the rest is history. Never say never, as it seems.
Secondly, in an era of faster-than-light news cycles, the film has been operating under the radar completely in secret. Using a security title of “Rust City,” the script has been in development for seemingly quite some time, a production office has been opened (as evidenced by “Rust City” appearing in last week’s Production Weekly), and casting for the film has already begun - again, completely in secret.
If this weren’t enough of a surprise bombshell for a random Tuesday in January, Sony Pictures and Ghost Corps followed up their surprise announcement with a teaser trailer early on Wednesday morning. The tease, more of an announcement than a full length teaser trailer, shows the Ecto-1, long-neglected and rusting under a tarp, housed in a barn where someone is conducting tests with a proton pack. The original Ecto-1, the original proton beam visual effects and even Elmer Bernstein’s iconic themes are featured in the teaser.
More on the film as it develops here on Ghostbusters HQ, and as always, tune-in to the Ghostbusters Interdimensional Crossrip podcast this coming Monday morning for more news, analysis, and commentary.