The Real Reason Directing Ghostbusters: Afterlife 'Scared' Jason Reitman
If you were to ask the cast and crew of "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" what the coolest thing is about the sequel, it's likely that someone would bring up director Jason Reitman's past, and how it basically mirrors the tale being told in the film.
"I don't think it's an accident that I was a kid on the set of 'Ghostbusters' and that this is a movie about young people picking up that equipment and seeing how it works," Reitman told Variety while describing his "Ghostbusters"-centric childhood as the son of director Ivan Reitman, who helmed the franchise's first two movies. "It's not an accident that I have a 12-year-old daughter, and that the center of this story is a brilliant 12-year-old girl who is a scientist who uses ghostbusting as a way to stop being an outsider and find a way to be a hero."
Despite his close relationship to the film series, Reitman has admitted that taking on "Afterlife" felt like a difficult task for him. In fact, there was a time when the "Juno" director wanted nothing to do with the iconic '80s franchise.
Jason Reitman didn't want to disappoint his dad
Jason Reitman says he was constantly pestered for years by his famous father to do something with the "Ghostbusters" franchise. However, the fear of letting the elder Reitman down prevented him from doing so.
"Certainly my father always thought that it would be a good idea if I made a 'Ghostbusters' film, and I shied away from it," Reitman explained to Variety. "My father casts a large shadow. 'Ghostbusters' casts a large shadow. And I was certainly scared to pick up the proton pack, but that's what this movie became about. 'Ghostbusters: Afterlife' is about a family developing the courage to pick up the proton pack themselves."
Like the younger Reitman, there will be countless moviegoers and "Ghostbusters" fans who will be venturing into new but familiar territory when they see "Afterlife" in theaters on November 19. Of course, many of the film's inevitable viewers will also, in all likelihood, not even have been born when the first "Ghostbusters" came out or will have been too young to see it when it did. Notably, that even goes for certain members of the "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" cast.
"I was three when the original movie came out, so nobody took me to the theater to see it, but it was always on television," recalled actor Carrie Coon in an interview with Variety. Coon plays the daughter of Harold Ramis' Egon in "Afterlife," and it sounds like the actor still can't quite believe that she's a part of the sequel. "It's so much a part of my DNA. I couldn't have imagined for one second that I'd ever be sitting here talking about it," Coon admitted. "And now I'll be talking about it for the rest of my life!"