Caffeinated Clint
It was a combined effort, remember.
Funny how a few million dollars between friends can ruffle a relationship. Or better, funny how failure can spur some to play the blame game, pointing the finger in the direction of anyone but themselves.
Dan Aykroyd, the “Ghostbusters” co-creator who seemed quite happy- even elated – that Paul Feig was going to round-up a group of comediennes to star in a reboot of the franchise, is now suggesting the whole thing was a mistake. This, of course, after the movie flopped and the franchise put back on ice.
The turncoat signed off on Feig’s vision, even appearing in the film himself, only now that he’s claiming that Sony want the femme-friendly filmmaker’s dick in a canister after the damage he’s caused the brand.
“The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig — what wonderful, wonderful players they are — and Leslie Jones,” Aykroyd said. “I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money, they don’t. It made a lot of money around the world but just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So that’s too bad.”
Rather than elaborating, the “Doctor Detroit” star went on to criticize Feig, saying “The director, he spent too much on it,” Aykroyd said. “He didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said ‘Nah, we don’t need them.’ Then we tested the movie and they needed them and he had to go back. About $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot anytime soon.”
Sony has denied Aykroyd’s anecdote saying the reshoots he referred to actually cost between $3 million and $4 million, not the $30 million to $40 million. But, it doesn’t matter, all Aykroyd is concerned about is – and understandably so – the future of the brand, and at the moment there doesn’t seem to be a future for the Ghostbusters.
Only person likely getting slimed is Paul Feig at the next mother’s club meet, because the only good that seemed to come out of the 2016 movie was a reminder that some filmmakers, like Feig, have the smarts to cast women in meaty, leading roles. Wits and pluckiness aside, the cast had nothing to work with – there was more real beef in a Maccas sanga than the movie (which looked like it was filmed on a studio stage discarded by the Disney channel) and the talents of the quartet headlining the thing came away from the film looking like bigfoot at an Ewok audition. Just embarrassing.
At one stage there was talk of an animated “Ghostbusters” film, and then there was all that scuttlebutt about a spin-off of the new film, that might team Chris Pratt and Channing Tatum, but all that seems to have whisked away with the ripper fart Aykroyd gassed Feig with.
There’s a lot of people to blame for the “Ghostbusters” redo – many do like it though, even my little girl loved it!– but in no way does most of that blame sit with Feig, or even the producers. What about Sony? who ultimately moved away from giving fans what they want (a “Ghostbusters” sequel with the original cast) – granted, there were many attempts to do so – and instead slapped the ‘Ghostbusters’ logo on whatever fun idea they were presented with next? Or maybe we go back further and frown in the direction of Bill Murray, who refused to participate in any more G-sequels? Ya know, it don’t matter. Bottom line : it didn’t work, no need to point fingers now.
Don’t hold back, Dan. #Ghostbusters pic.twitter.com/WtZ0MbRsmk
— Ross Maclean (@ross_maclean) June 4, 2017
