At the end of January, the names of the ladies taking on the roles of the all female group of professional paranormal investigators and eliminators, in Sony’s new Ghostbusters film, were finally revealed. Today there is more news out of the Ghostbusters camp, as it was announced that the studio intends to expand the franchise beyond just the upcoming female led movie.
According to a report from Deadline, Sony is creating “Ghostcorps”, a studio subsidiary, which will include original Ghostbusters brain trust members, Dan Ackroyd and Ivan Reitman. Aside from creating new branding opportunities for the franchise, the new subsidiary will also be producing another “male-driven action-centric comedy” Ghostbusters movie. This movie will act as a “counterpart”, that will exist in the same cinematic universe as the female led film being directed by Paul Feig
When Reitman spoke to Deadline, he discussed the direction that he and the other principles of Ghostcorps wish to take the franchise in.
“We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment.”
“This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy. Paul Feig’s film will be the first version of that, shooting in June to come out in July 2016. He’s got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come. The second film has a wonderful idea that builds on that. Drew will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers’ next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following year. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”
Joe and Anthony Russo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) are looking to join the male driven Ghostbusters project to produce and direct the film, based on a script that will be written by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3). Channing Tatum and his partners Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan will also be acting in a producorial capacity on the movie. However, the studio may hope Tatum’s involvement will expand to starring as one of the new male Ghostbusters.
Since this project is in the very early stages of development, there could be some changes made before the film’s proposed start date in 2017. For instance, the Russo brothers may have to take a pass on directing this movie, since they are the most likely candidates to the fill the directorial vacancy, left by Joss Whedon, on both installments of Marvel’s The Avengers: Infinity Wars.