Since Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot was announced, there's been talk of its existence within a larger cinematic universe. In March of this year, original producer Ivan Reitman spoke of plans for further movies, TV projects and merchandise all under the Ghostcorps banner he co-ops with Dan Aykroyd. The next outing was touted as a companion piece to be scripted by Drew Pearce, directed by the Russos with Chris Pratt and Channing Tatum on board to star.
Tatum's people commented on the matter, saying it was unlikely to happen now due to "too many cooks" and Pratt similarly nixed the idea. Was it all just hot air? It's hard to tell. Yesterday Pearce spoke to MTV at the premiere of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and offered a different story:
“I’ve finished my work on that in the last couple weeks. Obviously it’s top secret, but there’s a gigantic bold idea that I came up with, and the Russo brothers — who did Captain America: The Winter Soldier and are doing Civil War at the moment — and Ivan Reitman, who did the original movie, are going to take that and run with it. Obviously I cannot tell you what it is, but hopefully in one year’s time you’ll know!”
The next question concerned Pratt and Tatum, to which he responded: “That’s definitely the cast we’ve been thinking about as we approach the project. Whether that happens or not is very much above my pay grade. It’s just my job to give them something exciting that maybe they’ll do.” It's not a confirmation, but neither is it a flat-out denial.
In a response to Pearce's comments, Reitman has added further confusion to the matter by downplaying the movie out of existence. "There has been a lot of excitement recently about what is happening with the Ghostbusters franchise," he says. "As the producer of the new Ghostbusters film, I feel the need to clarify. There is only one new Ghostbusters movie and that is the Paul Feig directed version coming next July, presently filming and going fantastically. The rest is just noise."
Compared to his earlier declaration, his current stance could be just an effort to return focus to Feig's project in case its projected earnings quash any chance for a sequel. If that's the case we could be waiting a year for an official announcement of the spinoff, as Feig's Ghostbusters opens on July 22, 2016. That's not going to stop Pratt from teasing us about it though.
For more great film and TV news, head to our movie channel or subscribe to SFX.
