Sony Pictures has released the first trailer for Paul Feig‘s “Ghostbusters” and it’s a scream in more ways than one.
At yesterday’s event for press and fans on the Sony lot, Feig said the reboot stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones because he just wanted to cast the funniest people, and “these women are the funniest people I know.”
Much hubbub has been made over the fact that the cast is female this time around, but look past gender and you’ll see the affection for the original “Ghostbusters” with which this film was clearly made.
“I wanted to bring [“Ghostbusters”] to a new generation because I have such love for this property, and it’s out of sheer love for the property that we did this,” said Feig, whose history with “Ghostbusters” goes back to the original film’s opening weekend. Feig was just a film student at the time, but he had “never seen something that combined comedy with science, with the supernatural, with action.”
“It seemed to touch people in a special place,” producer Ivan Reitman said of the original 1984 movie. Reitman said he and Sony ran into “various conflicts” in trying to continue the franchise before Feig came along “with an idea of how to do it fresh and special, and make it an event like the original. He brings a very unique vision.”
You can see that vision in the trailer above and soon on the big screen when Sony releases the new “Ghostbusters” on July 15. Let us know if you’ll be there opening weekend in the comments section below.
7 Male Roles Rewritten for Women in 2015, From Sandra Bullock to 'Ghostbusters' (Photos)
Before she was approached for the film, Roberts' role was written for a man whose wife is murdered. In order to land her involvement, director/screenwriter Billy Ray recast the role as a woman who loses her daughter.
Producers pushed to rewrite Blunt's character as a man, but writer Taylor Sheridan believed it would alter the film's central dynamic. Blunt plays an FBI agent dispatched to fight the drug war along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Bullock landed the role of "Calamity" Jane Bodine, a character originally written for George Clooney and based on real-life (male) American political consultants working on the 2002 presidential election in Bolivia.
In the TV reboot of the science fiction film, Hampshire took on Brad Pitt's iconic role of mental patient Jeffrey (now "Jennifer") Goines. The reason for the switch? Writers for the show didn't think they could find a male actor to live up to Pitt's part.
In another role originally meant for Brad Pitt, Theron will play an assassin fighting her way across Europe. The change was made after a three-year halt in the project.
This remake of the 1989 cult classic was developed as a starring vehicle for Rousey. The UFC fighter will take on the role that made Patrick Swayze famous.
In a gender swap that was rumored for years, Sony's gonna call this all-star, all-female team for its "Ghostbusters" reboot due in theaters in 2016. The film marks a rekindling of the comedic chemistry Wiig and McCarthy shared in "Bridesmaids" flanked by "SNL" stars McKinnon and Jones.
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Gender-swapping roles has become the new Hollywood trend — and female stars aren’t complaining
