— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) January 27, 2015
So these are our all-female GHOSTBUSTERS, eh?
Doesn’t get much clearer than that above Tweet by Paul Feig, telling us that our New Jack GHOSTBUSTERS will be:
KRISTEN WIIG
MELISSA MCCARTHY
KATE MCKINNON
AND LESLIE JONES.
Obviously, Wiig and McCarthy were linked to this from the beginning because of their work on Feig’s BRIDESMAIDS, and McKinnon had been singled out from day one as a prospect. Leslie Jones is the big surprise here, though she, like McKinnon, has been getting a ton of heat from her work on SNL.
Apparently, the talks haven’t finalized with these actresses, but if Feig is tweeting out their involvement, things must be pretty far along.
It’s sort of limiting to think Feig cribbed his cast entirely from a. his own movie and b. SNL, but he’s savvy enough about utilizing his comediennes that I’m sure they fit into whatever he’s cooking up with writer Kate Dippold. Personally, if they were going to use SNL talent, I would have preferred Cecily Strong over the sometimes showboaty McKinnon and so-far-one-note Jones, but I have no doubt they’ll be able to effortlessly turn in arch characters like Ramis’ Egon or Moranis’ Tully.
I’m sure all of you have more to say on this than I do, but I will give my two cents: this is a good cast, but nothing that blows my socks away at the prospect of them donning the suits and proton packs. The pre-existing chemistry between both pairs can only be a plus, and I really wish I felt the love for them that their fans do so I could get uber-excited along with y’all. Then again, I expected nothing from McCarthy and Sandra Bullock in THE HEAT, and Feig made that into a surprisingly enjoyable buddy-comedy, so I’m gonna try and stay positive, even though it’s the holy cow of fucking GHOSTBUSTERS we’re talking about here.
Are you guys okay with these guys being the new answer to “Who you gonna call?”??
UPDATED (17:30): Our buddy Drew at Hitfix has revealed a few more details about this project, including one particularly choice casting tidbit.
He's provided character descriptions for the four protagonists. There's Erin, a parapsychology professor at Columbia, much the same way the original three guys were in GB 1. She used to work with Abby, who, at the time the story begins, has been hunting ghosts on her own alongside a partner named Jillian. Then there's Patty, an MTA worker who, by happenstance, comes across the main ghost the other three GBers are pursuing. Drew has Wiig pegged as Erin, Jones for Abby, McKinnon for Jillian, and McCarthy for Patty, though I think there's a chance that Jones and McCarthy's roles will be switched.
Even bigger than that is who Feig wants for the contemporary Walter Peck, the computer nerd dead-set on revealing the GHOSTBUSTERS efforts as a hoax: Pete Venkman himself, Bill Murray.
Murray's long-maintained aversion to any further GHOSTBUSTERS helped put the kibosh on the idea of a straight-up second sequel, but he's shown a lot more goodwill towards this all-female idea than he did GHOSTBUSTERS 3. Maybe there's a chance he'll sign on, maybe it's just a total pipe-dream on Feig's part, but there's no doubt that landing the Murricane would light the fire under many of our GHOSTBUSTER-fan asses and get us into the theater.
Drew also purports that they want Peter Dinklage to play the villain, "a creepy mechanical genius." Stay tuned.
UPDATED (19:15): Feig has let another cat out of the bag via Twitter. GHOSTBUSTERS (as it's currently called) will release on July 22, 2016, putting it against Guy Ritchie's KNIGHTS OF THE ROUNDTABLE. And there was much rejoicing.
In other news, #Ghostbusters will be hitting theaters July 22, 2016. Save the date!
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) January 28, 2015
Can't wait to start hearing all the suggestions for the male Janine.
