Well, that femme-centric Ghostbusters reboot is a reality, and upon some reflection, the notion of chicks chasing ghosts is starting to grow on this caveman.
Paul Feig is officially aboard to execute his idea to relaunch a franchise that Amy Pascal has salivated 0ver for years dominated by an endless wait for Bill Murray to reprise his Peter Venkman, or at least to acknowledge he had read the sequel script. My pal Borys Kit scooped that Feig will be helped by Katie Dippold, his collaborator on the Melissa McCarthy-Sandra Bullock starrer The Heat. Feig’s potential participation cropped up in August, and I must admit, I reacted like a chauvinist in wanting to preserve the spirit of the original, one of my favorite guy films.
Feig, along with Judd Apatow, has done great things to prove that women can be ferociously funny — Feig in the ballsy comedies Bridesmaids and The Heat. He helped launch Kristen Wiig and McCarthy, among others, as breakout movie stars. McCarthy in particular has been a muse for him; we knew she could act, but it was Feig who helped establish her as the best physical movie comedienne to come along since, well … forever.
Feig just finished Spy, a comedy that stars McCarthy and Jason Statham, and already that film has Fox very excited that it will launch a franchise, which is why that studio gave Feigco an overall deal, to hatch R-rated female-driven franchises. Since Feig and Dippold are starting from scratch on the Ghostbusters thing, it will be interesting to see where he is when Spy opens on Memorial Day weekend; Feig likely will have a sequel in the works very soon on that film, too.
All of this must give him some solace that there is no sequel to Bridesmaids, mainly because Wiig just didn’t feel like repeating herself. That seems to be a guy thing (Bullock has said no to The Heat sequel). After seeing the top-grossing R-rated guy comedy, The Hangover, borrow so closely from an inspired first film that it seemed more about paydays than comic payoffs, Wiig probably did the right thing.
SEE ALSO: Here's A Great Infographic Showing How 'Ghostbusters' Came To Be
