Yesterday, Sony announced their plans to expand on the upcoming Ghostbusters renaissance with a supplementary film that will feature an all-male cast. The recently-announced film will feature an all-star crew working on the film: Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) will direct; Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) will write the script; and Channing Tatum and his partners will produce the film with Tatum in consideration to also star in the film.
In addition to the film announcement, Ghostbusters vets Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd will form a new production company, adequately named Ghostcorps, alongside Sony to expand the franchise into other media to heighten the brand’s potential. In an exclusive conversation with Deadline, Reitman explained Ghostcorps’ overall plan:
“We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment. This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy. Paul Feig’s film will be the first version of that, shooting in June to come out in July 2016. He’s got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come. The second film has a wonderful idea that builds on that. Drew will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers’ next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following year. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”
While I’m all for more Ghostbusters films, it seems like this announcement, especially so soon after the confirmation of Paul Feig’s all-female Ghostbusters reboot, is a knee-jerk reaction to adhere to the outcry that followed the initial Ghostbusters reboot announcement from a very small, but vocal, percentage. Morever, the announcement was also tied to former Sony executive Amy Pascal’s move to the production side of the industry, which paved the way for Ghostcorps to be established. Obviously, details are very sparse about the “guy” Ghostbusters film, so we don’t know how it’ll support and build off of Feig’s film, but it doesn’t allow the latter to get time to breathe and gain hype. Instead, I fear that Feig’s vision for his Ghostbusters film will be overshadowed by yesterday’s announcement.
Current rumors point at yet another shared universe with Tatum and Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) starring. However, given the failure that was Sony’s attempt to create a universe around their The Amazing Spider-Man universe, Sony might not be the best studio to go to for such plans. However, with a core that features well-established players like the Russos and Pearce, the prospect of a large Ghostbusters universe is intriguing.
What do you think? Do you feel this new Ghostbusters announcement will overshadow Feig’s Ghostbusters film? Let us know!
[via Deadline]