Ghostbusters 3: No Chicks Allowed

[idunnosomename]

Is this going to just be Extreme Ghostbusters. It had a Goth girl and a bloke in a wheelchair.

[kitsofan34]

If the rumours are true that it's going to be four young Ghostbusters, that'd mean it was a sequel to a 80's film, stealing tropes/ideas from a tv show (Stranger Things)....., that steals from films from the 80's.

[Avril Lavigne]

But if it's a reboot of your reaction, then that means that I've taken your valid thoughts, run them through the mincer and reconstituted the resulting mulch into a bastardised form of your original reaction, beyond the point of all recognition.

Fair point! Not so much a reboot as just a similar reaction in the same genre, like Gremlins was to Ghostbusters... I should have put more thought into this terrible analogy before launching it, really, but I thought it would succeed on brand recognition alone.

Christ, I somehow missed that at the time. It's painfully cringey (although it sounds like the Snapchat thing was for promo materials rather than the film itself).

Yeah I was exaggerating a bit about the Snapchat tie-in, but it did sound like the only driving force behind their Spider-Man movie was Selling Shit To Millennials.

In case anyone else hasn't seen it:

[Custard]

Jesus, that email is pure desolation

[Mango Chimes]

I honestly don't see what's wrong with that. Company Execs In Discussing Marketing Ideas For Nine-Figure Investment Shock. They don't even sound bad.

[St_Eddie]

Urgh, I'd forgotten about that particular leaked e-mail.  It reads like a Red Letter Media parody of corporate thinking.  Makes me want to vomit in the face of the cunt whom typed it.

For anyone who missed it the first time around, here's the leaked e-mail from Paul Feig to Amy Pascal, back when Feig was spitballing ideas for a Ghostbusters remake.  It's nowhere near as egregious as the leaked Spider-Man e-mail but I've highlighted the three parts which cause me to squick nonetheless...

Amy,

Here's my take on it: It's a reboot of the franchise in a world (our world) that has never actually had any legitimate contact with the ghost world. Our villain ghost is an executed murderer, a Ted Kazinski type (think Peter Dinklage) who has left behind a manifesto of how he wants to change and destroy the world. When his execution is hit by a supercharged electrical storm, he is turned into a powerful ghost able to rouse other villainous spirits from the ghost world to carry out the ever-expanding plans of his manifesto. Our four new female Ghostbusters come together in an origin story that sees them forming a team based on their diverse skills and plays with the invention and trial-and-error of their various Ghostbusting technology and techniques as they try to stop the villain and his ever growing force of evil ghosts, which is a boring way of saying that we'll see four very different women come together and figure out in funny, scary and action-packed ways how to save New York City and the world.

This first film will deal with this one mission and the formation of our team and the evolution of their hardware and by the end result in them forming their actual Ghostbusters business, versus starting a business mid-film like the original movie. However, I would like to keep their business as a secret government agency in a world where the government has worked hard to cover up the events of this first reboot in order to keep the public from knowing that there is now a possible reoccurring ghost threat over our country. (I'm playing with the idea that, a la Close Encounters, the government stages an evacuation of mid-town Manhattan to keep the public from knowing about the ghost threat, so that even though most of mid-town Manhattan is a mess after the final battle, they are able to explain it away as a gas explosion or something to that effect. This will keep the franchise from having to denounce the Ghostbusters in a sequel or drop them back into a world in which the public is now fully aware of ghosts. This will give the franchise much more longevity. There's a funny dynamic we want to play with where the government eventually starts working with the Ghostbusters but has to keep denouncing them publicly, having a Cecily Strong type character always saying terrible things about them in press conferences and then apologizing to them behind the scenes, even though her public attacks on them get more and more personal. "I'm sorry, I just have to make it sound convincing.")

Tonally, the movie will be a bit scarier and more hi-tech than the original and the set pieces will be bigger, while still being very funny. For example, I want in the third act to have the entire police force and army accompany the Ghostbusters to the final battle but since our villain only wants to deal with the Ghostbusters and wants to make the government look ridiculous, he possesses the entire police and army forces and makes them do a big ridiculous dance number in the middle of Fifth Avenue, thus neutralizing them (and delighting himself). I think that having our main villain be both evil and funny in the ways screws with our world as he's trying to carry out the points of his manifesto (get revenge on everyone who slighted him, humiliate and take down Wall Street, make the United States look ridiculous to the rest of the world and eventually destroy NYC, which to him is the brain of the US), as well as have fun with the ghosts he picks to carry out various tasks (could be all dead villains and famous criminals he recruits from the ghost world and - in what I think could be a billion dollar idea - recruits the ghosts of evil beings from other parts of the universe - yes, ghost aliens! "Our world isn't the only place in the universe with bad and dangerous beings that have died, you know. There's a lot of bored dead monsters out there who are just looking for something to do.")

Anyway, these are all things we're experimenting with and are looking forward to exploring as we write the first draft. I hope this helps in your lunch.

Break a leg! :0)

Paul

Tonally, the movie will be a bit scarier than the original

Hahahaha.

No.

[Ferris]

Describing tough mudder as "a sort of filthy triathlon" is pure Partridge.

[Mango Chimes]

Everyone does understand that those are marketing ideas, right? Not script ideas.

Marvel did something with Civil War where the cast recorded messages thanking people by name, so if you tweeted them or whatever saying #TeamCap, you got tweeted back a video of Captain American saying, "Hey Judith, glad to have you on my team." It was a cute social media thing to promote the movie to a certain demographic. That's what the Snapchat thing is. It's fine.

Likewise the other things. And Feig vomiting out some half-formed pre-first-draft ideas to a producer is also fine. There's plenty of ammo to have a go at Sony Pictures and Feig, it's mad to focus on some private emails that are... fine.

[Avril Lavigne]

For the two of you vaguely interested, here's a fanmade audiobook reading of the official novelization of the first movie, which includes a bunch of backstory details about the main characters never brought up in the film & the Fort Detmerring scenes before they were cut down and presented in the movie as Ray dreaming about having a ghostjob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eWR5PM64dU

[Custard]

I'd recommend the We Hate Movies podcast's episode on Ghostbusters 2, also. It's really good

(I don't mind Ghostbusters 2)

[popcorn]

presented in the movie as Ray dreaming about having a ghostjob.

Such a fucking weird scene in what is otherwise one of the Great Montages of All Time. Is it still a ghost if it was just a dream?

[Avril Lavigne]

Such a fucking weird scene in what is otherwise one of the Great Montages of All Time. Is it still a ghost if it was just a dream?

The original idea was that Ray could have a minor story arc where he fell in love with a ghost, and the scene they filmed had her meeting him because she mistook him for the dead soldier whose jacket he was wearing. Already you can see why this idea was scrapped, but the deadline for the movie was really tight and they had already filmed that scene & completed effects for it before script changes were made so it was put in the final cut to save it from being a total waste of time & money. I guess whether or not it's canonically a dream is left up to the viewer.

[popcorn]

The original idea was that Ray could have a minor story arc where he fell in love with a ghost, and the scene they filmed had her meeting him because she mistook him for the dead soldier whose jacket he was wearing. Already you can see why this idea was scrapped, but the deadline for the movie was really tight and they had already filmed that scene & completed effects for it before script changes were made so it was put in the final cut to save it from being a total waste of time & money. I guess whether or not it's canonically a dream is left up to the viewer.

YEAH I KNOW ALL THAT BUT THANKS FOR EXPLAINING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously, it's just weird as an inclusion in the montage. It doesn't really make any sense.

[Avril Lavigne]

YEAH I KNOW ALL THAT BUT THANKS FOR EXPLAINING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But seriously, it's just weird as an inclusion in the montage. It doesn't really make any sense.

It doesn't, but they couldn't afford to not include it.

Edit: A bit like the dance sequence in the GB 2016 reboot (as originally proposed in the pitch that St_Eddie posted). It was choreographed and filmed in full, then cut from the final movie but stuck onto the end credits with no context just because too much money, time & effort had been put into making scene a reality to leave it out entirely. In that sense the reboot did have something in common with the original, but nobody talks about the Ghostbusters reboot dance sequence the same way they do about Ray getting a ghostjob.

[popcorn]

It doesn't, but they couldn't afford to not include it.

WELL GET THIS:

1) is that really true? Shit gets cut from movies all the time, and there are many more deleted scenes from Ghostbusters that weren't used anywhere. I just read about the scene in question on the GB wiki and none of the quotes mentioned "having" to use it, but hey maybe it's true.

2) If the producers really did insist on using it somewhere simply because they'd already filmed it, they were morons (the sunk cost fallacy). Going on the quotes from the GB wiki it sounds more like the montage needed padding out and they felt the ghostjob thing worked well.

3) OK, but my point is that it makes the film slightly worse.

I feel like this last one comes up a lot in discussions of entertainment. Person A tries to make some point about the merits and implications of something (a shot, a character, a music choice, whatever) and Person B goes "but they had to do that for some practical/financial/logistically inescapable reason" and it's like, who cares? It doesn't invalidate Person A's point.

[Avril Lavigne]

WELL GET THIS:

1) is that really true? Shit gets cut from movies all the time, and there are many more deleted scenes from Ghostbusters that weren't used anywhere. I just read about the scene in question on the GB wiki and none of the quotes mentioned "having" to use it, but hey maybe it's true.

2) If the producers really did insist on using it somewhere simply because they'd already filmed it, they were morons (the sunk cost fallacy). Going on the quotes from the GB wiki it sounds more like the montage needed padding out and they felt the ghostjob thing worked well.

3) OK, but my point is that it makes the film slightly worse.

I feel like this last one comes up a lot in discussions of entertainment. Person A tries to make some point about the merits and implications of something (a shot, a character, a music choice, whatever) and Person B goes "but they had to do that for some practical/financial/logistically inescapable reason" and it's like, who cares? It doesn't invalidate Person A's point.

1. A lot of the effects were trial and error and any ghost effects that actually worked out okay needed to be used just to make good on the promise of having more than a couple of ghosts in the film, within a very restrictive production schedule.

2. Yes

3. Correct

[popcorn]

GET IN

[greenman]

I'm guessing it was included because the montage otherwise doesn't have any actual shots of ghosts in it.

[popcorn]

I'm guessing it was included because the montage otherwise doesn't have any actual shots of ghosts in it.

This is another thing that in retrospect is kinda cool about the original. There's a real sense that they're just schlubby pest control guys. You have all those quick shots of them walking out of the Chinese restaurant holding ghost traps or whatever and that does the job. In the same way that pests - rats and cockroaches - are rarely actually visible - that's part of the problem - it just feels intuitively OK.

The strange business of them actually wrangling and dealing with ghosts isn't quite so important, and rather peculiar when you think about it. It really is a very strange film in so many ways, and doesn't really depict ghosts in any conventional way. I mean, is Slimer a ghost? He's a fucking bizarro blob from dimension X. This is what makes this idea from Feig particularly odd:

in what I think could be a billion dollar idea - recruits the ghosts of evil beings from other parts of the universe - yes, ghost aliens! "Our world isn't the only place in the universe with bad and dangerous beings that have died, you know. There's a lot of bored dead monsters out there who are just looking for something to do."

What would alien ghosts look like? Half the "ghosts" in GB1 are already fucking mental interdimensional beings in the first place.

Ghostbusters isn't even a franchise I have tremendous affection for and yet there's so much about the premise and the execution of it that fascinates me.

[greenman]

This is another thing that in retrospect is kinda cool about the original. There's a real sense that they're just schlubby pest control guys. You have all those quick shots of them walking out of the Chinese restaurant holding ghost traps or whatever and that does the job. In the same way that pests - rats and cockroaches - are rarely actually visible - that's part of the problem - it just feels intuitively OK.

The strange business of them actually wrangling and dealing with ghosts isn't quite so important, and rather peculiar when you think about it. It really is a very strange film in so many ways, and doesn't really depict ghosts in any conventional way. I mean, is Slimer a ghost? He's a fucking bizarro blob from dimension X. This is what makes this idea from Feig particularly odd:

That is really the answer I'd say to the idea that it was a "film about nothing", it doesn't really have conventional character arcs but instead you have them shift from Uni professors to blue collar exterminators who ultimately save the world.

As you say the original doesn't really feel much like a conventional ghost story after the opening, partly playing into the above but also having a rather lovecraftian element to it, Goza is already you could argue shown as some kind of inter-dimensional/planetary being.

[Custard]

Yeah, but the remake had the hilarious "THE POWER OF PATTY COMPELS YOU!"

Which was funny, wasn't it

[famethrowa]

Haven't watched GB2016, but did it have a bit where one of the ladies was taking a ziz between jobs and a spooky looking ghost dude appeared and slipped her a ghostly length?

[samadriel]

Yes.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

When Ray woke up from his ghostjob dream, did he tell everyone it was ectoplasm on his trousers?

[St_Eddie]

Such a fucking weird scene in what is otherwise one of the Great Montages of All Time...

I grew up wearing out the VHS tape of my parents 'recorded off TV' version of Ghostbusters, in which there was no ghostjob (by the way; nice phrase, Avril Lavigne) scene.  I eventually purchased the film on DVD and was blown away (ho ho ho) by this previously unseen scene.  In all honesty, I think that the movie's better off without it.  I think that this is the only case where I actually prefer the censored for TV edit.

On the subject of deleted Ghostbusters scenes; I can't remember if this was in the original film or the sequel but during a montage, there's a brief shot of some diamonds and a laser.  This was also a snippet taken from a much lengthier deleted scene.

[St_Eddie]

It really is a very strange film in so many ways, and doesn't really depict ghosts in any conventional way. I mean, is Slimer a ghost? He's a fucking bizarro blob from dimension X.

FUN FACT: The filmmakers have said that they considered Slimer to be the ghost of John Belushi, who was originally due to star in the film before he so selfishly decided to cark it.

Yeah, but the remake had the hilarious "THE POWER OF PATTY COMPELS YOU!"

Which was funny, wasn't it

Well, I was certainly in tears of laughter anguish.

[Replies From View]

I grew up wearing out the VHS tape of my parents 'recorded off TV' version of Ghostbusters, in which there was no ghostjob

I have never heard of anybody wearing out their tape of this film without that scene being in it.  Quite, quite absurd.

[St_Eddie]

I have never heard of anybody wearing out their tape of this film without that scene being in it.  Quite, quite absurd.

SHAMEFUL FACT: As a kid, I wore out of Dad's VHS copy of Blade Runner.  Specifically, the scene where the snake lady gets her knockers out.  Upon realising the degradation of the tape, I hid it at the very back of my Dad's tape collection, praying that he would never find it and choose to give it a rewatch, lest he learn what a filthy little spider monkey his son is.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

On the subject of deleted Ghostbusters scenes; I can't remember if this was in the original film or the sequel but during a montage, there's a brief shot of some diamonds and a laser.  This was also a snippet taken from a much lengthier deleted scene.

That's from Ghostbusters II. I didn't realise it was an excerpt from a lengthier scene.

On the subject of the Ghostbusters films being fundamentally quite strange (in your neighbourhood), in the Blues Brothers thread over in Comedy Chat there's some discussion about the unique eccentricity of Aykroyd's writing. He came up with some really great, odd concepts and gags in his heyday. 

[Glebe]

Leslie Jones Has Some Blunt Thoughts About The New Ghostbusters Movie.

So insulting. Like fuck us. We dint count. It's like something trump would do. (Trump voice)"Gonna redo ghostbusteeeeers, better with men, will be huge. Those women ain't ghostbusteeeeers" ugh so annoying. Such a dick move. And I don't give fuck I'm saying something!!

I can understand her being annoyed... wasn't too impressed with the reboot though, tbh.