Jason Reitman took to Twitter to mourn and commemorate his late father and “Ghostbusters” creator Ivan Reitman, with whom he worked on the sequel “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” that was released this past November.
“I’ve lost my hero,” Reitman tweeted with a picture of him as a boy alongside his father. “All I want is the chance to tell my father one more story. He came from a family of survivors and turned his legacy into laughter. Thank you for the kind messages. Enjoy his movies and remember his storytelling gifts. Nothing would make him happier.”
Jason Reitman has built a filmmaking career as illustrious as his father’s, receiving four Oscar nominations including two for Best Director for his work on “Juno” and the Best Picture-nominated “Up In The Air.” But it wasn’t until 2019 that he took up the sci-fi film franchise that his father made famous and became director of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” with Ivan Reitman serving as a producer.
Serving in part as a tribute to the late Harold Ramis and in part to the impact that Ivan had on his son’s life, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” follows the grandchildren of the late Egon Spengler as they follow in his footsteps and investigate paranormal activity that could be a sign of cataclysmic doom, all with some help beyond the grave from Egon himself.
The father-son duo promoted “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” together, with Jason Reitman saying that both the past and the future of his family were always on his mind when making the film and at the heart of its story.
“For 40 years, the one question I was asked more than any other was, ‘Are you going to make a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie?’” he said at CinemaCon this past August. “I decided now was the time because … I wanted to make a movie for my father and I wanted to make a movie for my daughter.”
Ivan Reitman died in his sleep at his home on Saturday night. He was 75.