Speaking with EW, Feig says his vision is for this Ghostbusters to be completely separate from the originals; a total reboot, basically.
Feig: "My favorite thing to do is work with funny women. I was like, what if it was an all female cast? If they were all women? Suddenly, my mind kind of exploded: that would be really fun. And then I thought, well, what if we just make it new? It’s not coming into the world that existed before. It’s always hard if the world has gone through this big ghost attack, how do you do it again? I wanted to come into our world where there’s talk of ghosts but they’re not really credible, and so what would happen in our world if this happened today?"
He went on to talk about his desire to not step on the earlier films with his take, while also taking advantage of new technology and setting it in a more contemporary setting.
Feig: "Yeah. I love origin stories. That’s my favorite thing. I love the first one so much I don’t want to do anything to ruin the memory of that. So it just felt like, let’s just restart it because then we can have new dynamics. I want the technology to be even cooler. I want it to be really scary, and I want it to happen in our world today that hasn’t gone through it so it’s like, oh my God what’s going on?"
And what about the dream cast of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Linda Cardellini, and Emma Stone that Murray suggested? Of course it sounds pretty darn good to him.
Feig: "It's an awesome cast. I've got a lot of ideas on that but nobody set in stone. That's part of the fun for me is figuring out what's the best combo, what's going to be relevant and fun. Bottom line: I just want the best, funniest cast. For me it's just more of a no-brainer. I just go, 'what would make me excited to do it?' I go: four female Ghostbusters to me is really fun. I want to see that dynamic."
When asked if he would be open to having any of the original cast return, Feig seemed open to it but really wants to move forward without looking back.
Feig: "Well, I mean, look, those are my comedy heroes. So as far as I’m concerned, anybody wants to come back I welcome with open arms. It would just be in different roles now, but it would be fun to figure out how to do that."
The idea for Feig and Dippold is to try and make this Ghostbusters scarier than before, and to make sure any nods to the prior films are done only when they make sense for the story.
Feig: "We want to have fun with giving nods to what came before, but we don’t want to be bound by it because Katie and I already have talked at length and we have really fun ideas for things. But we want to tell the stories that we would like to tell, which means we want to tell the character arcs that we want to tell, which means we want to start with some of our characters in a different place or with different personalities and things they have to overcome and learn through the experience of this first movie. My number one thing is always about character and what is somebody learning from or transforming through whatever happens to them in the movie. So I think there will be definitely room to play with that. We want to do clever nods to it, but not cloying nods to it. We want to have the ability to really bring it into modern day."
After leading Bridesmaids and The Heat to well over $200M at the box office, Feig is amazed that women are still being given short shrift as comedic forces.
Feig: "I just don’t understand why it’s ever an issue anymore. I’ve promoted both Bridesmaids and The Heat and myself and my cast are still hit constantly with the question, “will this answer the question of whether women can be funny?” I really cannot believe we’re still having this conversation. Some people accused it of kind of being a gimmick and it’s like, it would be a gimmick if I wasn’t somebody whose brain doesn’t automatically go to like, I want to just do more stuff with women. I just find funny women so great. For me it’s just more of a no-brainer. I just go, what would make me excited to do it? I go: four female Ghostbusters to me is really fun. I want to see that dynamic. I want to see that energy and that type of comedy and them going up against these ghosts and going up against human detractors and rivals and that kind of thing. When people accuse it of being a gimmick I go, why is a movie starring women considered a gimmick and a movie starring men is just a normal movie?"
Feig's next film is the espionage comedy, Spy, which reteams him with McCarthy and Rose Byrne. That one is due out in May 2015, so we may be waiting awhile longer before his Ghostbusters gets moving.
