Ghostbusters

Just last week, we were commemorating the anniversary of the release of Ghostbusters II, which opened in theaters on June 16, 1989. The movie came out 28 years ago, which means the twin babies who played Sigourney Weaver’s son Oscar in the film were about that age too. That makes this story even sadder; TMZ reports that Hank Deutschendorf has died of an apparent suicide.

There are two diverging narratives surrounding Paul Feig’s 2016 Ghostbusters remake. On the one hand, fans of the original films were irrationally upset to see Hollywood give their (suddenly untouchable) films an all-female cast. For them, the film was a deserved flop. On the other hand, countless stories were written about a new generation of female Ghostbusters fans who were thrilled to see the movie reach out to new audiences. These fans believe the movie did more than enough to warrant sequels. And while the box office numbers and critical scores didn’t signal the slam-dunk hit that most fans were looking for, it sounds like the producers side in the second camp, with Ivan Reitman promising earlier this year that he was hard at work weaving together a cohesive universe from the games, movies, and animated films.

Dan Aykroyd clarified his comments about last year’s Ghostbusters, while Sony responded to his initial statements, made on a British TV show, criticizing director Paul Feig, particularly about costly reshoots Aykroyd claimed killed any possibility of further Ghostbusters sequels.

Last year’s Ghostbusters reboot was supposed to be the start of an entire new franchise (or perhaps even a universe of franchises) around the venerable ’80s horror comedy. Sony Pictures, which owns the rights to bust ghosts on the big screen, even created this new production company, Ghost Corps, to lead the charge on all these various efforts. There was talk of an all-male Ghostbusters to accompany the all-female team we got from director Paul Feig. And a new cartoon series was put into development as well. But since the movie opened to just so-so reviews and box office last year, developments on this front have been as quiet as Spook Central after a total protonic reversal.

We owe a lot to scientists — they cured polio, got us on the moon, and they‘re doing their darnedest to stop us from methodically killing the planet. But man, what a bunch of nerds. It seems like every time biologists discover a new species of animal and need to give it a name, they take the opportunity to bust out a reference to their favorite bit of geek-approved pop culture. Lest we forget the velvet worm named after My Neighbor Totoro, and we’d be remiss to overlook the euglossa bazinga, a rare bee with a Big Bang Theory catchphrase as its namesake. And it appears that now the nerds are at it again.

Ivan Reitman ain’t afraid of no underwhelming box office numbers. The original Ghostbusters director and producer of this year’s reboot says that despite weak returns for Paul Feig’s film, “there’s going to be many other” movies in the franchise. That statement contradicts a previous report, which indicated that Sony is focusing their energy on the animated Ghostbusters film and a new TV series, while the possibility of a sequel to Feig’s reboot had become very unlikely.

Everyone loves trivia about their favorite animated features and series, but with over 100 years of animation history behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in cartoons in this continuing video series. You think you know cartoons? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! This week we're taking a look at The Real Ghostbusters, the enormously popular cartoon adaptation of the Ghostbusters film franchise.

Looking for something to watch this week? Overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices? Ready to give up and take a nice long walk outside on a crisp fall day?

The following post contains SPOILERS for Blair Witch, Jason Bourne, Spectre, Ghostbusters, and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Oh my God, Phantom Menace spoilers! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!

We’ve all complained about Hollywood’s increasingly monochromatic color scale from time to time. It seems that no blockbuster franchise is immune to a post-production color correction that turns everything into the shame shades of dull and dingy. So while reactions to the new Ghostbusters movie were more than a little split  —  that seems like the charitable way to put it  —  I hope that most people could agree that the bright splashes of color in the new movie were a breath of fresh air for studio films. Fluorescent purples, yellow, and greens are a nice change of pace from browns, blacks, and… wait, did I mention browns already?

On Wednesday morning, Leslie Jones’ website JustLeslie.com was hacked and personal photos and information were posted. The site was quickly taken down, and as of Thursday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is investigating the cyberattack.

Just last month, Sony exec Rory Bruer said he had “no doubt” that the studio would move forward with a sequel to Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot. That was then, this is now: The all-female reimagining of the 1984 classic has made $180 million at the global box office, which isn’t enough to justify Sony’s production and marketing costs…or a sequel, for that matter.