‘Ghostbusters’ Sequel Director Claims Film Will Be a “Love Letter” to the Original Films

Ghostbusters fans were shocked earlier this year when a sequel was announced that would be set in the universe of the original films, directed and co-written by Jason Reitman, son of the director of those films, Ivan Reitman. The filmmaker recently commented on his plans for the upcoming film, teasing that it will deliver a film that fans have been wanting to see for decades.

“This is going to be a love letter to Ghostbusters. I love this franchise. I grew up watching it. I consider myself the first Ghostbusters fan,” Reitman shared with the Bill Burr Monday Morning podcast. “I was like seven years old when that movie came out and I love it. I want to make a movie for my fellow Ghostbusters fans.”

It has been a dark time for fans of the franchise in recent years for a number of reasons. Following the announcement that there would be a gender-swapped reboot of the franchise from director Paul Feig starring Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Kristen Wiig, and Melissa McCarthy, a subset of fans were enraged at the notion that any new performers could capture the magic of the original cast. When the first trailer arrived, campaigns were launched to make it the most disliked video on YouTube, which coincided with explicitly sexist campaigns against the reboot.

Once the film was released, the new Ghostbusters scored an impressive $229 million worldwide while earning 74 percent positive reviews as calculated by review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. These numbers might be impressive for your average film, but with the immense popularity of the brand, these numbers fell short of expectations, essentially ending the reboot universe before it could get any follow-up films.

This new film could revive interest in the franchise, as Reitman went on to explain that the studio was seemingly so impressed with his take on the material, even he was surprised to discover he would be allowed to move forward with his vision.

“I wrote the film in secret with my writing partner Gil Kena. We wrote it over the last year while we were finishing up Frontrunner and we turned it in December,” the filmmaker recalled. “And I have to admit my presumption was it was going to be like any studio film that I had heard about where they do years of rewrites and they grind it into the ground and it never happens. I was fully prepared for this year to be a year of maybe taking a little time off and doing rewrites on Ghostbusters and instead, the studio read the first draft and said, ‘Yeah, go make it.’”

The Ghostbusters sequel is set to land in theaters on July 10, 2020.

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