Ghostbusters: First Teaser For Jason Reitman's Film Unveiled
We're getting strong readings on this one.
Shortly after the news broke that Jason Reitman — the director known for Juno, Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking, Tully, and The Front Runner — would be taking the reins from his famous filmmaker father to co-write and direct a new Ghostbusters movie, studio Sony Pictures unleashed the first teaser for the film.
The footage, posted to the official Ghostbusters YouTube channel and all across the franchise's various social media accounts, comes in at a clipped 51 seconds in length — not long enough to reveal much about what's to come but not too short that fans are left without anything to savor until they get their hands on more concrete information.
Set on a dark and cloudy night, with sounds of thunder rumbling and owls hooting splitting the air, the clip for Reitman's Ghostbusters takes viewers inside an abandoned shed. Light flashes from the corner of the shed, signaling that someone is working away at a piece of tech that just won't power on. We see something covered by a huge tarp, but when the wind picks up, the mystery object is revealed: it's — pause for dramatic effect – none other than the Ecto-1 with the famous Ghostbusters logo displayed on the back.
Cut to black for a half second, then cue the release date card. The next Ghostbusters movie will arrive in theaters in summer 2020.
Apart from making the original project announcement and releasing this tiny teaser (which is awesome but doesn't offer details on plot or characters), Sony and Reitman have been quiet regarding what the new Ghostbusters is about or who it might star. Given that Reitman's father, Ivan, directed the 1984 Ghostbusters that starred Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Dan Akyroyd, and Sigourney Weaver, one could speculate that perhaps some of those original actors (save for Ramis, who passed away in 2014) might circle back for cameo appearances.
But predicting who might lead the upcoming Ghostbusters? That's a near impossibility.
Sources close to Variety have claimed that Reitman is "testing teenagers for four mystery roles," which seems to suggest that the film could skew younger and its core characters might not be adults like in the original. It's set in the same universe as the OG Ghostbusters — "This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the '80s happened in the '80s, and this is set in the present day," Reitman previously explained — so perhaps these four teens are the children of Murray's Peter Venkman, Hudson's Winston Zeddemore, Ramis' Egon Spengler, and Akyroyd's Raymond Stantz, who will pick up their fathers' Proton packs and start busting some ghosts on their own. On the flip side, perhaps the teenage actors will only appear in flashback scenes. In any case, there will be something strange in the neighborhood that the new Ghostbusters characters will have to face off with.
Since we don't have direct confirmation about this, it's simply speculation for now. Still, it seems as though whatever Reitman chooses to do with his Ghostbusters movie, the decisions he will make will come from a place of respect and admiration for the franchise and an understanding of what fans would want to see in another installment. As he shared while announcing the forthcoming film, "I've always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set. I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans ... I love everything about [Ghostbusters]. The iconography. The music. The tone ... I've thought about this franchise and it has occupied a piece of my heart for basically as long as I can remember."
And if that isn't enough to convince you that Reitman doesn't want to mess up the new Ghostbusters just as much (if not more) than you don't want him to turn out a flop of a film, listen to what Reitman's father, the architect of the movie that started it all, had to say about the upcoming entry: "It will be a passing of the torch both inside and out. It was a decision [Jason] had to come to himself. He worked really hard to be independent and developed a wonderful career on his own. So I was quite surprised when he came to me with [co-writer] Gil [Kenan] and said, 'I know I've been saying for 10 years I'm the last person who should make a Ghostbusters movie, but I have this idea.' Literally, I was crying by the end of it, it was so emotional and funny."
Developed using the fake title Rust City before Sony and Reitman made the official announcement on Tuesday, the new Ghostbusters movie is scheduled to get behind cameras this summer in time for its theatrical launch next year.