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At last, the Ghostbusters reboot appears to be transforming from faint spectral impression into something more substantial.
On Monday (US time), the director of the new film, Paul Feig and co-writer Katie Dippold took to Twitter to make an apparent cast announcement, tweeting uncaptioned pictures of four celebrated American comedic actresses: Bridesmaids alumni Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, plus Saturday Night Live stars Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.
Trade paper The Hollywood Reporter also posted a story claiming the all-female cast had been "chosen", while also acknowledging that discussions with key cast members were "ongoing".
Speaking to Fairfax Media in Beverly Hills last weekend, director Feig touched on his plans for the highly anticipated movie.
"It's a reboot, not a sequel," he said. "We're trying to start our own franchise with this."
The creator of the Freaks & Geeks television series, Feig has more recently established himself as a champion of funny females, directing Bridesmaids, The Heat and the upcoming McCarthy vehicle Spy, which he also co-wrote.
The possibility of an all-female Ghostbusters has been speculated about for years. Actresses Elisa Dushku and Alyssa Milano were at one stage pegged for roles, with original cast member and co-writer Dan Aykroyd intending it to be a "passing of the torch" movie rather than a flat-out reboot.
pic.twitter.com/LBtv2YXfv6 — Paul Feig (@paulfeig)
January 27, 2015
Other actresses rumoured to have been associated with the project over the years have included Rebel Wilson, Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.
Overhauling the beloved franchise is a risky proposition, as Feig readily admits. He says he is regularly splattered with almost ectoplasmic sprays of disapproval from an impassioned fanbase.
"That's how a lot of fans are," he says. "There are a lot of haters. I get bombarded every day on Twitter. It's kind of a drag but I get it. It's kind of a sacred thing that people grew up with."
Feig is confident though that the franchise needed a reboot, not a sequel. "I felt that coming into a world where people already knew that ghosts existed didn't give me anywhere to go. I wanted us to put our stamp on how it might be if it happened for the first time, and how these various women deal with it. It felt better to me to be able to start it again.
"Again, there's plenty of fans who are pissed at me. I just hope they give it a chance, because the current script – and we're rewriting it all the time – is really funny. [Original director] Ivan Reitman is producing it and he loves the script and Dan [Aykroyd] has read it and really liked it.
"I just hope people judge it on its own merits."
