Ivan Reitman denies Ghostbusters spinoff movie

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:

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.

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Gem Seddon

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.