‘Ghostbusters’ reboot director Paul Feig recently sat down with Empire to discuss the trailers for his new film, and go into some detail about the characters, science, humor and love behind the new film, hoping to get more people on board with the reboot once they realize the time and effort he has been putting in to make it quality. When asked about the opening titles which hinted that this might not actually be a reboot, but rather a sequel, Feig explained:
“Yeah, this is a reboot. The studio felt that they wanted to nod to the audience that we’re not pretending that those other films didn’t exist. We’re not saying, hey, we invented! We know we didn’t invent Ghostbusters. I wish I could say that. To me, it’s one of the greatest ideas in movie comedy, to have four funny people fight the paranormal with science. That’s why I wanted to do a new one.”
Based on numerous moments in the trailer, Kate McKinnon definitely seems poised to be the break-out star of the film, and Feig is excited by all the new GIF’s with her face on them:
“She’s the giffiest of all our people…Kate is one of the most inventive comedic actors I’ve ever worked with. We had one character who was the weirdo, and if you know Kate, who I know and love, she’s a weirdo! So it was really fun to let her do her thing.”
Feig also discusses the fact that while they always had Melissa McCarthy in mind for a role in the film, though it was not the role she ended up getting, deciding instead to cast her against type. But originally, they wanted her to play the role they eventually cast Leslie Jones in:
“Actually, when Katie Dippold [Feig’s co-writer] and I wrote the script, we had written the role with Melissa in mind, but then I thought I’ve seen Melissa play a brash, larger than life character. She’s done it in my movies before!”
Which may end up being a brilliant move, as it allowed Feig to bring SNL favorite Leslie Jones into the cast, bringing a comedic appeal that Feig was not initially used to:
“I don’t normally like comedy that’s big and loud, but she is able to pull that off in a way that feels real and it’s her. And when I make a movie, I want to find the funniest people I know and once I know what’s the funniest thing about them I want that to be the thing that I put on screen and let shine. This is the role that Leslie can shine comedically in. If you’ve ever seen her do stand-up, it’s just who she is. I wanted to unleash Leslie on the public in the same way we unleashed Melissa on the public in Bridesmaids, with a very showy role.”
As for the fourth member of the team, played by Kristen Wiig, Feig admits that while her character starts out as the most introverted of the group, her character has the largest arc in the film:
“Kristen’s comedic energy is so internally conflicted and always slightly in turmoil, but always trying to see the positives. She, in the movie, is the character that probably goes through the biggest change. She has the most to prove. There are few people funnier than Miss Kristen Wiig. There are few people funnier than the four people in the movie, in my humble opinion.”
He also discusses the special effects and science of the movie, claiming he wanted to do as much as possible on set for the actors to interact with on the special effects side, and on the science side he was very interested int he idea of confronting the paranormal with science, and seeing exactly what tools and weapons they could develop for the team to use against their supernatural adversaries.
“Most of the ghosts in our movie are played by real people who were on the set. That is not a fully CG image [the library ghost]. Basically, we have this new system we use with LED lights, and we put the actor in full costume and make-up and they’re covered with these LED lights that throw light interaction onto the actors and the environment. Then we’re just augmenting with CG to make it a little more spectral. I think some people were accusing it of being full CG. It’s not. I’ve got comedic actors who shine when they’re interacting with actual people. I don’t want them acting with tennis balls. Tennis balls are rarely funny.
I wanted to base this movie as scientifically as possible. That’s what I loved about the first two movies, the science. They were trying to confront the paranormal with science. So we started thinking, what are ghosts, scientifically? They’re the energy of dead people who haven’t gone to the other side or haven’t dissipated, so that to me is what would come back if ghosts were getting energized, if there were something happening that could do that. If you believe in that sort of thing, New York must be filled with the spirits of dead people, so that’s what that seemed more realistic for a ghost story. We’ve got other things in there too, but to me, the most interesting thing is that ghosts are dead people who come back… no matter how long ago they died.
For me, it was very important. You can only watch someone firing a proton wand so many times before you’ve seen that enough. Holtzmann is designing a lot of equipment for them. I’m a huge hardware geek and always have been. That was one of the first things that drew me to this, that we could invent a bunch of new technology for it.”>
I know, it is a lot to digest, but it is nice to see the thought that goes into a reboot like this, especially from a filmmaker who clearly loves the source material and is aspiring to make a movie he can be proud of and will hopefully please audiences both old and new, and fans of the original series. Will Feig succeed in this endeavor? Only time will tell, but based on the first few trailers, it is safe to say that there will definitely be funny moments, and the whole thing put together might just come close to recapturing the magic of the original ‘Ghostbusters.’
Source: Collider