Melissa McCarthy Hopes Ghostbusters Haters Find A Friend

When Paul Feig's Ghostbusters heads to theaters this summer, it will join Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice as one of the most debated and pre-judged mainstream studio films in recent memory.

From the moment it was announced that the third Ghostbusters wouldn't be a sequel, but a remake, there has been debate. The volume and intensity of that debate shifted into a higher gear when rumors started to circulate that the cast of the remake would be all-female.

The film's first trailer is the most-downvoted movie trailer in the history of YouTube, and it's difficult to distinguish the real frustration -- some fans and pundits have had pretty well-reasoned complaints -- from the barrage of misogynistic insults levied at everyone involved with the movie.

And, since the movie has a fan base that has been, to some extent or another, active for thirty years, the inevitable "raped my childhood" or "ruined my childhood" complaints surface pretty quickly in any given comment thread.

"All those comments – 'You're ruining my childhood!' I mean, really," McCarthy says drily. "Four women doing any movie on earth will destroy your childhood?" She told The Guardian. "I have a visual of those people not having a [my husband] Ben, not having friends, so they're just sitting there and spewing hate into this fake world of the internet. I just hope they find a friend."

Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon will play the titular Ghostbusters in the film, which also stars Chris Hemsworth. Feig will direct. The movie is expectd in theaters on July 22.