The Ghostbusters Franchise

I bet the next stop is Star Lord.

Oh, apparently this will officially be called Ghostbusters 2020 according to the Variety article.

Man, that'd be hilarious for James Rolfe to have his Nerd character rant about how they apparently skipped 3, and went straight to 2020.

It is an odd title. Not that I mind too much.

I think that sort of naming practice is more common in Hong Kong. There are for instance One Armed Swordsman '94, Police Story 2013, All's Well, Ends Well 1997, All's Well, Ends Well 2009, All's Well, Ends Well 2010 and so on.

Thee number of movies with 2000 in their name became less abstract in the year 2000. It's an easy shorthand for an evolution of a franchise and differentiate from the original.

Right, so it's not like it's unprecedented. The second Blade Runner movie chose to call itself Blade Runner 2049 instead of Blade Runner 2

Not to mention we technically got a Ghostbusters 3 with the video game from a few years ago.

Yeah, the general consensus does seem to be that the game is a good sequel to Ghostbusters 2. I can't exactly disagree.

A lot of the video game plot is really fun and unique, Dan Aykroyd indicated it was the direction they wanted to go but it never got off the ground after the problems with Ghostbusters 2. Specifically the original intention of the entire franchise was to be about crossing dimensional barriers, and the game gave us some more Eldrich Location type of stuff. But a direct translation of the video game to a movie would be a problem, the game is very reliant on pandering to the audience and recreating events and referencing lines from the movies (capturing the library ghost is the first thing you do), fun and wish fulfilling but really not original.

The family's all here.

It's a photo of Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, and Carrie Coon with Jason Reitman and Ghostbusters co-creator himself, Ivan Reitman.

Bump.

The webpage is in Italian, but it's basically saying Ghostbusters 2020 is allegedly going to have the proper title of...

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Double bump.

We got first images from the movie!

And the first trailer is coming this Monday!

Teaser poster https://twitter.com/JasonReitman/status/1203013938339700736?s=19

Kind of sounds like the original Ghostbusters will have a very limited role. Which to be fair, I think that always was the plan even as early as 2009 when the film was still in Development Hell.

Paul Rudd being in the film interests me.

I'm gonna guess one of the kids' parents will be revealed to be Oscar, Dana's son from the 2nd film.

I dunno, I'm betting the family's more connected to Egon than Venkman.

Its out and yeah its about Egon's family, looks more on the horror side instead of comedy tho which I do not know if I like. Horror sure is nice but where is the sarcastic comedy along side?

This is a completely unexpected way to approach a sequel (except maybe to ride Stranger Things hype) but that actually makes me more interested in it. The complete change in setting actually feels kind of right, as small towns tend to have their local legends and so on. The strong homage to Egon also feels especially right.

As for the tone there is a few snarky comments, and Paul Rudd is in the cast, but the franchise has always leaned quite strongly into the horror side. They are even listed under Lovecraft Lite, and that includes both original movies and the two cartoon shows. As a fan, what disappointed me most about the 2016 reboot was that it simply wasn't scary. It placed a lot more emphasis on the wacky comedy (Mc Carthy bouncing around the alley testing out the equipment was outright slapstick) and not to bag on the use of CGI, but ultimately all the ghosts just looked like cotton candy.

Massive chills! And yeah, it's Egon's family, ergo, I totally called it.

There IS some sarcastic humor, even if it seems subdued ("hey, remember that one summer we died under our table?").

Not sure why, but it never really clicked to me that the first 2 Ghostbusters and the show was considered Lovecraft Lite. I guess the horror came from the ghosts and monsters looking genuinely creepy and underneath the pop music and the quips, there were bonafide moments of suspense and unease? At least with the first one? I know I was hesitant with the 2016 reboot because it just felt a smidge too different from what came before, like the crew forgot about the horror part of Ghostbusters and just doubled down on the slapstick.

In any case, if Afterlife is following the formula Disney achieved with The Force Awakens, I suspect that if this first trailer establishes the new blood like TFA's first trailer did, we should see more of how this movie weaves into the larger Ghostbusters mythos with the next trailer.

Other interesting things I noticed:

• The trailer showed a collection of...stuff. I poked at the movie's trope page and sure enough, that was indeed Egon's collection of spores, molds, and fungus! Brick Joke!
• We might have noticed this already, but Jason Reitman co-wrote this with Gil Kenan, director of another movie where kids find themselves facing supernatural creepies. If this movie turns out good, this might be Gil's redemption after the last time he tackled a horror movie. One can hope.

Well, I can see Egon's granddaughter becoming the new Breakout Character. Would be funny if that's all it takes for the mainstream audience to demand an all-female team of Ghostbusters.

Sony: But you guys got an all-female team three years ago!

Internet: That doesn't count! You guys totally forgot that Ghostbusters is a horror-comedy and just doubled down on the comedy!

Sony: At this point, you people are just bullying us!

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Dec 9th 2019 at 6:18:19 AM

I'm not too worried about comedic tone v. horror tone. As long as the movie has mundane doofuses fighting eldritch forces of supernatural horror by shoving nuclear fire down the abomination's throat until it explodes, I'm happy.

All three Ghostbusters films and the canon game have thus far fulfilled this criteria, and I own all of them as a result. I'm here for the premise, not any specific actor or character. I don't expect to be disappointed by this one.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Dec 9th 2019 at 12:36:27 PM

Gunner seat from the cartoon apparently.

I like it. Far more subdued, creepy, less blatant attempts at wackiness that don’t work. Hoping it’s good.

Applying elements from The Real Ghostbusters?

Wasn't expecting that... Now I kinda want to see that toon.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Dec 9th 2019 at 6:25:54 AM

I'd call Ghostbusters a fantasy/comedy. I wouldn't call it horror. It's full of stuff that turns up often in horror movies, but none of it is scary nor is it meant to be scary.

As for the trailer, I can't believe they didn't show any of the original actors or that it was so light on the jokes. I've already decided to see this movie because, c'mon, new Ghostbusters with (most of) the old leads, but this isn't what I expected or wanted. GB is one of the most "nostalgic" properties out there, but what I want to do is laugh. I grieve for my lost childhood often enough already.

Relax. Odds are the next trailer will show the original Ghostbusters.