I’m on the fence about constantly rebooting classic movies, but the more I hear about the new Ghostbusters reboot the more excited I get. The latest news from the AV Club is pointing to a dream cast; Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon!
Kristin Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are both quite well-known these days thanks to “Bridesmaids”, “The Heat”, and approximately 50,000 recurring characters on Saturday Night Live (and if any of Kristin Wiig’s recurring SNL characters show up in Ghostbusters I am retracting all my excitement). But Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon may not yet be household names, so here’s a few samples of what to look forward to with the rebooted Ghostbusters!
From Kate McKinnon’s pre-SNL days on “The Big Gay Sketch Show”:
And while there are tons of great choices from SNL, you can’t beat Olya Povlatsky:
Leslie Jones is quite hysterical as well:
It sounds like the movie will be out in Summer 2016, so we have plenty of time to get excited!
I tend to prefer ‘new directions’ to reboots … well, I prefer ‘new ideas’ over ‘film necromancy’, but whatever. Still, I think this has some awesome possibilities if done right.
The one I am on the fence about is actually Melissa McCarthy – I find most of her characters shallowly drawn, basically an obnoxious, tone-deaf walking fat joke … which is something I never find funny. Yet on Mike & Molly after initially thinking the show was crap we came upon a scene of just her and she was layered and subtle and both funny and tender. It was enough that we will now stop and watch it when flipping channels. I would love to see more of THAT.
But what has REALLY bugged is all of the “I’m not sexist, but … ” sexist remarks that have been put out there. Are we seriously not past the point of someone bringing out the ‘but women aren’t funny’ argument?
Melissa McCarthy can be subtle, though-look at her early stuff on Gilmore Girls (I am very familiar with it because GG is my wife’s all time favorite show, so I’ve caught bits and pieces of just about every episode). I think she’s a good actress, she’s just hamstrung by typecasting. And actually, the casting of Leslie Jones might help with this, because Jones has tended towards big, bombastic characters on SNL-so maybe that means even if there is a temptation to be bawdy and over the top, spreading it between two women who can spin that in different directions means they’ll also have some subtlety.
The thing that gives me major, major hope here is that Paul Feig has clearly set out to cast funny and talented women, rather than box office draws. When your famous headliners are Kristin Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, and you’ve plucked two very funny but far less famous women to join them, that’s a sign that they’re gunning for humor over flash. Even if this flops, I think it has a heck of a lot more potential than when there were vague rumors that Eliza Dushku wanted in (I love me some Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that would be a terrible fit for a broad comedy).
And I don’t even want to address the “but women aren’t funny” stuff. It’s sad that people still make those kinds of snide remarks. And as one of the four people who religiously watches SNL these days, if you took away the female cast members you might as well be watching a re-enactment of 60 Minutes-the men just aren’t as funny, and the ladies are clearly carrying the show.
I was initially surprised at Olya and Leslie’s casting, but director Paul Feig drew from SNL in the past (e.g. Taran Killam in “The Heat”)…apparently Gillian Anderson (“X-Files”) really, really wanted a part. It’s great to see enough parts for every gender and ethnicity. Spread the cinema love!
The comedy won’t be a problem. Development of a third with original cast members took so long that I wonder if they’ll just “reimagine” the franchise without using the previous script work (e.g. George Lucas for Star Wars Episode VII).
I could see how some people might see this move as a “diversity ploy”, but it’s much more business as studios magnetize themselves to any familiar franchises so their films can make money plus actors are feed through the “Hollywood System” more and more, especially from the same studio (e.g. Johnson and Wayans on Fox’s “New Girl” TV show then star in the Fox film “Let’s Be Cops”)
The first Ghostbusters remains one of the most entertaining films ever. It was very hard to follow that one with a sequel, but the second was decent.