Dan Aykroyd Slams Paul Feig, Says Costly Reshoots Killed ‘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.
The reason why, according to the below comments made by Ghostbusters co-architect Dan Aykroyd, was the overall costliness of the new Ghostbusters. Now, Aykroyd claims it’s “economically not feasible” to make another movie. And he points most of the blame at Feig, claiming he “spent too much” on the film, and particularly the reshoots, which the former Ray Stanz says cost $30 to $40 million bucks.
Here’s his full answer:
The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much. And Sony does not like to lose money. 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 – the director, he spent too much on it. 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 any time soon.
Not very ghostbusterly to blame a fellow buster. Aykroyd straight-up crossed the streams in Feig’s face! What happened to teamwork?
(UPDATE: Sony later went to record stating the reshoots cost “$3 to 4 million” not “$30 to $40 million.” Watch your decimal points, guys.)
Clearly Aykroyd is none too happy that the mediocre performance of Feig’s movie (which made the same amount worldwide as the original Ghostbusters made worldwide in 1984, which is not great) put the kibosh on his plans (which I’m sure would have been very lucrative). It might also frustrate him that for years he’d been trying to make a direct Ghostbusters sequel, and instead saw his franchise taken over by another filmmaker. He did have kind things to say about the cast (and rightfully so, they were great), but it’s probably safe to assume if there’s something strange in Mr. Aykroyd’s neighborhood, Paul Feig is not the guy he’s gonna call next time.