Ghostbusters ($180,039,959)

Sony Pictures and director Paul Feig have found their foursome to reboot the Ghostbusters franchise. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig are rejoining their Bridesmaids helmer Feig on the pic, with Saturday Night Live castmembers Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones also coming aboard. We’re hearing the studio is still in negotiations but Feig apparently is confident enough about locking his cast that will fill the iconic roles played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson: The news came via a Feig tweet. Katie Dippold, who collaborated with Feig and McCarthy on The Heat, is writing the script and a production start this year is being eyed.

Tyger wrote:Well that's an easy pass.

Film Divider reports today that director Paul Feig has a role in mind for current “SNL” star Cecily Strong (below), which is being described as a key supporting role. No word yet on if the deal has been made official, but here’s what we do know.

According to the site, Strong’s role would be one of the biggest non-Ghostbuster parts aside from the villain (potentially being played by Peter Dinklage). She’s an authority figure who liaises with our heroines, privately backing their activities and acknowledging their legitimacy but publicly denouncing the group to the media in order to avoid panic amongst the wider populous.

Rusty Cunt wrote:I watched the original on Friday night. Fuck it's a good movie, and still holds up today. Bill Murray is comedic brilliance in it.

Chris Hemsworth is joining the cast of Paul Feig‘s female-led “Ghostbusters” film, TheWrap has learned.


Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon star in the film based on the classic ’80s supernatural comedy.


The director first shared the news on his Twitter, posting a picture of Hemsworth with the caption, “Our receptionist.” Hemsworth will be taking over the role played by Annie Potts in the original film, which featured Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and the late Harold Ramis as the Ghostbusters.


Kate Dippold and Feig co-wrote the screenplay for the reboot of the iconic comedy, and filming is expected to begin this year.
The new “Ghostbusters” will be released on July 22, 2016.


Sony is also developing a Ghostbusters universe, with Ghost Corps, a newly formed production shingle on the lot, dedicated to the task.
First up is a supernatural comedy set in the “Ghostbusters” world that Channing Tatum is producing as a possible starring vehicle, alongside “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” directors Joe and Anthony Russo and “Iron Man 3” writer Drew Pearce.


Hemsworth, best known for his role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is currently filming “The Huntsman,” the sequel to 2012’s “Snow White and the Huntsman.”

GrooThePerverted wrote:I can't see him having any type of success outside of Thor at THIS point, just because from what little I've seen of him, there's nothing there.

Wiig and McCarthy play a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. Flash forward a few years and Wiig lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia U. Which is pretty sweet, until her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia.

Wiig reunites with McCarthy and the other two proton pack-packing phantom wranglers, and she gets some sweet revenge when ghosts invade Manhattan and she and her team have to save the world.

Tyger wrote:That's a bitch move by Murray. He wouldn't come back for the original cast, but he comes back and legitimizes THIS?!

For a long time, it seemed like Bill Murray was done with the Ghostbusters franchise. After a successful sequel in 1989, Murray dragged his feet on reprising the role of Peter Venkman for a potential Ghostbusters 3. His years-long hesitation eventually scuttled the notion of a direct sequel, paving the way for next year’s series reboot, directed by Paul Feig. It came as a surprise, then, when reports broke weeks ago that Murray had actually taken a part in Feig’s new film. Instead of playing Venkman, it’s rumored that Murray will appear as a character out to debunk the new Ghostbusters crew, played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. When we caught up with Murray at this weekend’s screening of his new film, Rock the Kasbah, presented by Peggy Siegal in East Hampton, we coaxed him to reveal how the role had come about.

“You know, they were incredibly nice to ask me, and I really enjoyed being there,” Murray said. “They have such a jolly group, and they are going to have great success with this project. I didn’t want to overshadow [them] or anything, and I feel really good about it.”

But hadn’t Murray maintained for a long time that he wasn’t interested in donning that proton pack again? “That’s true, I wasn’t,” Murray admitted, though the addition of actresses like Wiig and McCarthy — who he called “a great hope” — changed his mind. “I like those girls a lot,” he said. “I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul is a real nice fellow.”

UltimateMarvel wrote:People are hating on this HARD! lol

UltimateMarvel wrote:Damn! Didn't know it was a taboo in China too. They have a lot of restrictions on their movies. Is it like that for games too?

Either way, I'll be surprised if this does well at the B.O. We don't want a sequel either.

Director Paul Feig has said that cutting the Ghostbusters dance sequence starring Chris Hemsworth was "the biggest decision of my life," but a source on the film tells THR that it was an expensive one, too — the scene cost in the low seven figures and took up two full days of shooting, not including rehearsal time.

Mixed audience reactions during test screenings of the scene, in which Hemsworth's possessed receptionist leads NYPD officers and camouflage-clad soldiers in a choreographed dance number to The Bee Gees' "You Should Be Dancing," led filmmakers to move it into the closing credits. It now plays after several deleted scenes including one featuring Sigourney Weaver.

Sony and Village Roadshow surely would like to have that chunk of change back as the film, with a net production budget of $144 million, will have a tough road to profitability after a $46 million debut. A Sony rep denied the amount quoted by the source, saying "You should check your source, the cost is absolutely wrong, completely overinflated."

ForeverBlu wrote:

ForeverBlu wrote:No.

‘Ghostbusters’ Sequel Unlikely After Expected $75 Million Loss at the Box Office

Immediately upon the opening of Ghostbusters in mid-July, top Sony executives boldly declared a sequel to Paul Feig's all-female reboot of Ivan Reitman's 1984 classic was a given. "While nothing has been officially announced yet, there's no doubt in my mind it will happen," said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution at Sony.

That was the studio's last public mention of a sequel. As of Aug. 7, Ghostbusters had earned just under $180 million at the global box office, including $117 million domestic. The film still hasn't opened in a few markets, including France, Japan and Mexico, but box-office experts say it will have trouble getting to $225 million despite a hefty net production budget of $144 million plus a big marketing spend. The studio has said break-even would be $300 million.

Sony hardly is alone in suffering from audience rejection of sequels this summer. But film chief Tom Rothman and his team, along with partner Village Roadshow, had high hopes for launching a live-action Ghostbusters "universe." Now they are preparing for steep losses (think $70 million-plus) and an uncertain future for the franchise.

Sony won't comment on whether it has banished a sequel to the netherworld, but perhaps tellingly, a rep says the studio actively is pursuing an animated Ghostbusters feature that could hit theaters in 2019 and an animated TV series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, which is eyeing an early 2018 bow. Both are being guided by Reitman, who firmly is back in charge of the Ghostbusters empire via Ghost Corps., a subsidiary with a mandate to expand the brand across platforms. (It was former Sony film chief Amy Pascal who first embraced Feig's vision for the live-action reboot, not Reitman or Rothman.)
 
"We're very proud of the bold movie Paul Feig made, which critics and audiences loved," a studio rep tells THR. "It has enlivened a 30-year-old brand and put it into the modern zeitgeist. As a result, we have many ideas in the works to further exploit the Ghostbusters universe."

Feig hasn't said whether he'll return. Stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon are said to be signed for two potential sequels, and initially they said they were game. But now? "Ghostbusters is on ice until further notice," says box-office analyst Jeff Bock. "I just can't fathom the creative talents behind it — Feig, McCarthy, Wiig, etc. — slogging out another one when the reception to the first one was so mediocre."

Sony disputes the amount of the potential loss, insisting that revenue streams from merchandising and such attractions as a new Ghostbusters exhibit at Madame Tussauds and a theme park ride in Dubai will help defray any deficit. The studio also notes that the number of people renting the 1984 film has soared over the summer.

"This loss calculation is way off," says the Sony rep. "With multiple revenue streams, including consumer products, gaming, location-based entertainment, continued international rollout, and huge third-party promotional partnerships that mitigated costs, the bottom line, even before co-financing, is not remotely close to that number."