Ghostbusters 3: No Chicks Allowed

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Worst Ghostbusters Snub of All Time Award must go to Ernie Hudson auditioning for the voice of Winston in The Real Ghostbusters cartoon and not getting it.

Really? How depressing.

[Avril Lavigne]

Really? How depressing.

Yep. Here's some interesting stuff from an old AV Club interview with him with the relevant part in bold.

EH: Probably the most frustrating job, yet the most rewarding job. Just getting the job was frustrating. But I loved the actors—Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis—and I still consider them very good friends. I'm so thankful that I got a chance to do it. After all these years, almost 30 years later, whenever I'm on the street, someone will call out, "Who you gonna call?" [Laughs.] So I'm glad to have been a part of that. I'm very proud of that, and I'd jump at the chance to do it again if it ever came up. I like Winston. I always felt like the cousin who had come to visit and was trying to find a place at the table. How do you fit in there? And when I look at it now, I realize it was just the way it should've been. And I have nothing but good thoughts about it and everyone involved. But it was very frustrating to be a part of it.

AVC: From what was the frustration derived?

EH: Well, you want to be in the mix. Like I said, I'm always looking for ways to stretch and grow and bring everything I got to the table. But not having been included in a lot of the press stuff, including the poster that I sign now wherever I go... I'm on some of them, but fans always ask me about that, because they're confused [about] why I'm not on a lot of them, and I'm like, "It was the studio's decision." So there was always that feeling of wanting to be a full part and not quite feeling that. But the fans see the character; I've met people who've named their kids after Winston. [Laughs.] And I have a dog named Winston! So I guess it was memorable in its own way.

AVC: This may be an urban legend, but did you audition to do the voice of Winston for the Ghostbusters animated series, only to be passed over for the gig?

EH: Yeah, I did, and it was funny, 'cause they said, "You don't have to audition for the part, but the director wants to hear you read the material." So I went in to read the material, and the guy said, "No, no, no, that's all wrong! When Ernie Hudson did it in the movie..." And I'm like, "Well, wait a minute: I am Ernie Hudson!" [Laughs.] So when I left, they said, "No, it's not a problem, you're gonna do the voice." They called me about it—I was shooting a film; I can't remember what film I was doing—and then I never heard anything from them. Then I found out that Arsenio [Hall] was doing it. I was very busy doing other stuff, but I was really disappointed because the thought of someone else doing Winston was not something I felt great about. Arsenio's a friend, so there's no disrespect to him. But they had me come in and read, and even though they said I wasn't auditioning, I dunno, I guess I was just there to have the director get on my nerves. Who knows what happened there? Whatever the case, I didn't get the part. Unfortunately.

[Mister Six]

Uh, Kate McKinnon was pretty cool.  That's about it.

There's a bit at the end where she says how nice it is to finally have friends, and you realise that her character was wacky and annoying for a reason beyond being "the kooky one", and how great it would have been for the film to have explored that properly. But alas, that would have required a script.

I don't see, for example, any of the cast of Robocop 2014 getting all narked over the recently announced upcoming sequel intended to ignore everything but the first movie.

To be fair, that was four years ago and the re-remake is only in the earliest stages of preproduction. The Ghostbusters reboot came out just two years back and the new one already has a teaser. She must be aware that Sony fast-tracked this thing soon after her version was released.

[Bazooka]

Ernie Hudson is great, he and Tim Curry carried Congo.

[Avril Lavigne]

To be fair, that was four years ago and the re-remake is only in the earliest stages of preproduction. The Ghostbusters reboot came out just two years back and the new one already has a teaser. She must be aware that Sony fast-tracked this thing soon after her version was released.

Even as GB2016 was being promoted before release, Sony were talking publicly about going ahead with various other spin-offs and expansions within the franchise including a male-lead equivalent tie-in movie to the one we got and a direct sequel to the original series, which was the whole reason their 'Ghost Corps' subdivision was invented.

[thraxx]

I bet your Dad was wearing it out at the same time, the dirty old bollocks.  He was secretly praying all his life that you would shoulder the blame.

Well that's what I heard...

[St_Eddie]

As much as I love Ghostbusters, I must confess that the sidelining of Ernie Hudson makes me feel somewhat uncomfortable.  Interesting and admirable to see him address the elephant in the room.

It must have felt more of a snub for Ernie Hudson to find out that the new GB movie he'd been openly ready & willing to do for decades was finally going ahead but only offering him a quick cameo role not even as his original character (being set in a universe where that character doesn't even exist).  Leslie Jones should have more self-awareness and understand that when people think of this franchise, generally the underwhelming reboot is way down on the list of reasons they remember it at all and I don't see, for example, any of the cast of Robocop 2014 getting all narked over the recently announced upcoming sequel intended to ignore everything but the first movie.

I even liked her performance in the reboot, but her reaction is pretty immature and hypocritical.  As an obsessive geeklord fangirl of the original movies I was really disappointed by the idea that the first official GB film we'd be getting in ~25 years would completely disregard the canon of the previous ones, regardless of who would be involved.  After that I can't bring myself to have much sympathy for anyone upset that this sequel will be undoing the 3-year-old legacy of a mediocre movie no-one asked for.

I don't have much to say, other than that I agree, wholeheartedly.

To be fair, that was four years ago and the re-remake is only in the earliest stages of preproduction. The Ghostbusters reboot came out just two years back and the new one already has a teaser. She must be aware that Sony fast-tracked this thing soon after her version was released.

She's coming across as a petulant arse.  Fuck the concept of hurt feelings over starring in a soulless corporate remake.  Leslie Jones can feel however she wants to feel but a classy person would know when to keep their trap shut.

She should realise that the reason that there's not a sequel to the remake is because no-one wants one.  The original films existed way before the remake, so why she feels that her movie takes precedence is beyond me.  Cry me a river, incredibly-fortunate-to-be-a-rich-movie-star.  Cry me a river.

[popcorn]

In a lot of ways, Winston is my favourite character from the original film, as he's just some poor sod looking for a job who's thrown into having to save New York/the World from some other dimensional creature. Plus he has some of the best lines.

In another universe, Ghostbusters is a different film with Winston as the protagonist. His dream is to be a firefighter, but fails the health check, or something, so after a miserable spell as a taxi driver applies to some weird pest control agency called the Ghostbusters. We then learn about ghosts and the business of busting them through his eyes - similarly to the Will Smith character in Men in Black.

That film probably wouldn't be better. But I'd quite like to see it. Everyone seems to agree that Hudson did a fine job but that the script didn't really afford him much. And that, to be honest, he didn't really need to be in the film at all. He really ought to have got the cartoon job as a consolation prize.

[Mister Six]

Winston was originally supposed to be a much bigger part of the film, and played by Eddie Murphy. But then Murphy turned the role down and Murray signed on and the studio wanted more Venkman o bump up the star power, and Winston's role was dialled down to accommodate that. Much to the disappointment of Hudson, who had auditioned with bits from the original script.

At least this is how I recall it. Whaddaya want, proper research?!

[greenman]

Winston was originally supposed to be a much bigger part of the film, and played by Eddie Murphy. But then Murphy turned the role down and Murray signed on and the studio wanted more Venkman o bump up the star power, and Winston's role was dialled down to accommodate that. Much to the disappointment of Hudson, who had auditioned with bits from the original script.

At least this is how I recall it. Whaddaya want, proper research?!

That does perhaps explain though why even with Winston having a smaller role he retains a lot of the best lines...

"Thats a big twinky"

"No offence but I gotta get my own lawyer"

"Ray if someone asks you if your a god you say yes!"

[St_Eddie]

That does perhaps explain though why even with Winston having a smaller role he retains a lot of the best lines...

"Thats a big twinky"

"No offence but I gotta get my own lawyer"

"Ray if someone asks you if your a god you say yes!"

"Look over there!  There's a ghost of a dead man!  Quickly now, bust it so that I can feel good."

[Replies From View]

I just think it's perfectly human to feel a bit of a sting in that situation, regardless of whether it was the right thing to do. She's expressed it publicly rather than smiled for the sakes of PR.

Ah well.  Maybe she'll get a cameo in the new one?

[madhair60]

She's coming across as a petulant arse.  Fuck the concept of hurt feelings over starring in a soulless corporate remake.  Leslie Jones can feel however she wants to feel but a classy person would know when to keep their trap shut.

Uh huh

[ajsmith2]

The new film could be about busting the ghost of Milo Yiannopolous's career.

[Replies From View]

The new film could be about busting the ghost of Milo Yiannopolous's career.

How long does it take ghosts to form?

[greenman]

Wasn't he Milo the butch?

[Blumf]

Just a quick Q about the original Ghostbuster films: What was the deal with Janine Melnitz's character between GB1 and GB2? They're clearly two separate personalities, what gives?

[Bad Ambassador]

In GB2, she's obviously been modelled after her appearance on the cartoon series, part of making the movie more child-friendly and merchandisable. I had the novelisation from Ladybird.

[Avril Lavigne]

In GB2, she's obviously been modelled after her appearance on the cartoon series, part of making the movie more child-friendly and merchandisable.

Yep, the same reason Slimer returns as a more friendly character and even helps Louis out at the end by giving him a lift to the Museum.  Annoyingly Janine's change for GBII isn't even based on the first version of her cartoon equivalent, but rather the later-season Janine who was softened in both looks and personality on the recommendation of some market testing company called Q5.  Writer J. Michael Straczynski was so irritated by this that he actually wrote an episode of Real Ghostbusters explaining that Janine had changed a bunch of things about her self with the help of a demonic entity disguising itself as a fairy godmother.

They wanted us to knock off all the corners. Janine was a strong, vibrant character. They wanted her to be more feminine, more maternal, more nurturing, like every other female on television. It is a truly insidious organization. A lot of their research and theories are strictly from voodoo. I think they reinforce stereotypes – sexist and racist. I think they are not helping television. They are diminishing it.

This along with the best writers leaving, some forced voice cast changes & a push to focus more on Slimer than the Ghostbusters themselves is what led to a huge drop in quality & popularity for the show.

[Blumf]

Yuck! Ruined one of (many) great things about the first film.

[Mister Six]

https://youtu.be/yGsHq-mZI8U

[MojoJojo]

Does anyone know if Eddie Murphy has ever said anything about turning down the role? I ask because this* article quotes Ivan Reitman as saying Eddie Murphie's name never came up. Admittedly, it's not a direct contradiction, since it might have been the case Aykroyd originally wrote with Murphy in mind but the idea had been dropped by the time the director and casting started, but it's still a bit odd. And while there are lots of sites repeating the Eddie Murphy claim, I haven't found any quotes from anyone who would actually know.

(I also find it pretty hard to image EM fitting into an ensemble cast...)




*which is the wikipedia citation backing the claim the role was written for Eddie Murphy. Well done wikipedia.

[Custard]

[banned troll] mentions The Goodies, I mean S Custard mentions the Ghostbusters comics

In the comic, which are very good btw and follow on directly from the second film, Winston's role is far more prominent. In fact, he's treated as an absolute equal, and even saves the day on several occasions! I know, crazy innit

Plus he gets a wife, whereas the rest of them can't hold down a relationship for five minutes

Not much of a victory, but a victory nevertheless

[Ignatius_S]

Does anyone know if Eddie Murphy has ever said anything about turning down the role? I ask because this* article quotes Ivan Reitman as saying Eddie Murphie's name never came up. Admittedly, it's not a direct contradiction, since it might have been the case Aykroyd originally wrote with Murphy in mind but the idea had been dropped by the time the director and casting started, but it's still a bit odd. And while there are lots of sites repeating the Eddie Murphy claim, I haven't found any quotes from anyone who would actually know...

There isn't much information – the only source about Murphy being connected to the film seems to be Aykroyd saying that he had Murphy in mind when writing the script.  However, in his original draft (IIRC, it was the only one written by him) the four main characters are basically interchangeable and aren't fleshed out.

My guess is that people read too much into that comment and/or Chinese whispers – the sort of story that gets repeated a lot and so becomes 'fact'.

Going back to Mister Six said, they did downgrade the Winston role – I think I wrote about it on the last thread, but in a nutshell, they made him more of an everyman character.

[madhair60]

[banned troll] mentions The Goodies, I mean S Custard mentions the Ghostbusters comics

In the comic, which are very good btw and follow on directly from the second film, Winston's role is far more prominent. In fact, he's treated as an absolute equal, and even saves the day on several occasions! I know, crazy innit

Plus he gets a wife, whereas the rest of them can't hold down a relationship for five minutes

Not much of a victory, but a victory nevertheless

Can confirm the excellence of the comics.

[greenman]

Going back to Mister Six said, they did downgrade the Winston role – I think I wrote about it on the last thread, but in a nutshell, they made him more of an everyman character.

Which I spose you could argue explains getting those lines that are obviously suited to that kind of character.

[Golden E. Pump]

Ghostbuster (2020)

The ghost of Buster Merryfield finds out that he is trapped in a purgatorial world where they never stop making new episodes of Only Fools and Horses. Also starring Nicholas Lyndhurst as "Legend" Gary Sparrow, a man who discovers a portal back to the real world where the show was cancelled in 1996 and believes he's found a way to restore Merryfield's dignity.

[St_Eddie]

Ghost Buster Keaton (2022) -  Self explanatory, really.  Starring Michael Keaton as the incorporeal form of Buster Keaton.

[madhair60]

GhostbusTERFs - just everyone who criticised the 2016 Ghostbusters. Everyone. Every single one of them

[Sebastian Cobb]

GhostbusTERFs - just everyone who criticised the 2016 Ghostbusters. Everyone. Every single one of them

Thankfully I wrote the reboot off before they announced they were going to be splitarses so my conscience is clear.