This week it was announced the “Ghostbusters” franchise will be getting a new chapter, though not the “Ghostbusters 3” chapter some of us had wanted, then didn’t after the passing of Harold (Egon) Ramis. After Ramis passed, director Ivan Reitman even left the project.
You can’t have “Ghostbusters” without Egon.
Enter Paul Feig and Katie Dippold, who independent of each other gave us great episodes of “Arrested Development,” “Parks And Recreation” and Feig himself created the brilliant “Freaks And Geeks.”
Together they gave us “Bridesmaids” and “The Heat.” Neither of which I could sit through and finish because it’s not my type of humor, but other people seem to enjoy for some reason.
And now they are making a “Ghostbusters” movie without Egon. A “Ghostbusters” movie where Egon never existed.
They are rebooting the franchise. With a female cast. That will have nothing to do with the first two films.
And the Internet exploded with an avalanche of not-so-hidden sexism. Even Ernie (Winston) Hudson stuck his foot in his mouth with a baffling interview about him not into to the idea of women busting ghosts.
I don’t really care if it is a new cast of men busting ghosts or women busting ghosts. That’s moot to me. Because I’m of the opinion that the franchise should be left alone. Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Hudson were the “Ghostbusters” I grew up with. If this project had happened before Ramis passed, and it was a passing of the torch thing, then maybe I would be more into it.
With reboots, it is a tricky thing. When it comes to things like Batman and Spider Man, that’s different. Comics have multiple story arcs and alternate realities that make that easy. “Ghostbusters” has been associated to the actors and their characters for 30 years now. Even the cartoon series somewhat stayed true to those characters. A reboot, while probably the only acceptable reality in making a new film in the series because of Ramis’ passing, still sounds like a horrible idea.
Who knows? It might be good, it probably won’t. I won’t state that I will not see it, because I’m not clairvoyant, but chances are I will more than likely pass on seeing it.
The JOE-DOWN 
Only the first cartoon, “The Real Ghostbusters,” really stuck with the same characters.
The second one, “Extreme Ghostbusters,” had a different cast, though it did keep Egon, Janine and Slimer. The young ghostbusters included a woman, a Latino, a black person and a paraplegic.
I liked ’em both, silly ultra-90s name notwithstanding.
I don’t mind Ghostbusters-with-women, or even a reboot, but I kinda wish someone else was doing it.
LikeLike
I typically do not like the idea of rebooting a franchise, because historically that never seems to work (RoboCop and Total Recall quickly come to mind). All-women I do not have a problem with, and that seemed like what they were sort of planning on before Ramis passed. I agree, I’d rather not have the people putting it together in charge. And I’m really only familiar with “The Real Ghostbusters,” the other one was after my time. And don’t get me started on that “Ghostbusters” cartoon with the ape. That was clearly not associated with this franchise.
LikeLike