The Ghostbusters Franchise

Why? It was a Box Office Bomb and stirred up no end of controversy.

Wait...

Technology with a lot of green lights in dark place.

Teenaged scientists.

-gasp- OH GOD IT'S FAN4STIC ALL OVER AGAIN, ABORT! ABORT!

12-13? I sense this will be aimed at the family market, maybe with some very subtle Getting Crap Past the Radar.

Teenagers? Worst Idea Ever.

I question the constant efforts to turn Ghostbusters into a major film franchise. It doesn't really seem like it can turn out a ton of variety beyond Monster of the Week.

Edited by LordVatek on Jan 18th 2019 at 12:27:19 PM

Personally I feel like there's no point in a reboot if you're going to ignore it the next time you make a movie. Plus ignoring it kind of reads like a slap in the face to the reboot and its fans/cast.

I'm waiting until we have more information about what the film entails but I will note that I, too, am concerned about the film validating the Alt-Right's toxicity.

From the sounds of it, this will also be a reboot. Whether it's a soft reboot or a hard reboot remains to be seen, but it almost certainly won't be "The continuing adventures of Bill Murray and his pals!"

So it'll be interesting to see what the cast and premise end up being, as well as whether or not it stirs up as much rage from those same people who said things like, "I'm not mad about it being female-driven, I'm mad about them dredging up an 80's movie and rebooting it! Why do we need a new Ghostbusters movie?! I don't hate women, I hate nostalgia projects!"

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 18th 2019 at 12:17:20 PM

Yes.

I don't know if the movie bombing was due to it being genuinely bad (though I didn't laugh that much during it) or because the toxic alt right were determined to take it down from the get go, but I do know that going for a reboot makes it seem like they essentially won.

And I hate that.

Reactionaries hating nostalgia, there's a good one...

The lady Ghostbusters was just a mediocrity. It was...ok. And so the box office it got was...ok.

I liked it, but I also didn't think the original Ghostbusters was that funny so apparently I'm a heretic. I did like what I read of the comics though, so I might check out the old animated shows.

No one can admit when they’re wrong about something these days it seems be it corporations or politicians. Sony realized that Ghostbusters 2016 was a bad movie with minimal audience interest. So they abandoned it. If a movie is bad, then yeah, move on.

Edited by Beatman1 on Jan 18th 2019 at 3:06:51 PM

True, but with all the shit the movie was getting for having a female cast, even if the product itself was poor, it's very hard to separate the reason it was dumped from...the sexist alt right bullshit that was piled on it.

That's another reason why we have to fight this. These guys are going to think they won. I don't care if a movie or character is bad, but anything that makes them think they are winning is bad. Very bad.

I don’t have to fight anything. I’m gonna hope it’s good, even if it Extreme Ghostbusters 2.0 (which I don’t think people will mind TBH if it’s well written) and if it’s not we just put the franchise to bed for good.

Ghostbusters shouldn’t be a political battleground.

Bit late for that now, sadly.

Pretty much. I've liked Kristen Wiig ever since The Joe Schmo Show, McKinnon is funny...but this movie just wasn't that good. And really, let's not forget that the online world and Twitter are not the real world. All the little weirdo creeps on 4chan or whatever didn't make a bit of difference in the box office of this movie. Nor did all the folks at Jezebel—not that I'm making a moral equivalence between the two, understand, I'm not—who rallied to Ghostbusters as a feminist cause. If it had been a good movie, it would have gone well and we'd have a lady Ghostbusters universe now. But it wasn't, so it didn't.

I don't envy the aging Ghostbusters with all the enemies they've made on the Other Side.

Black Panther is a good comparison. It was a good movie, so it became a rallying point. I did genuinely enjoy fem!Ghostbusters, but it wasn't as good as Black Panther, and the fact that all the advertising played it like they'd be using stupid stereotypes didn't help.

Akyroyd's original plan for GB 3 actually was for the Ghostbusters to go to hell. Dont have any other details about what that would have entailed though, and I doubt they'll do that with this film.

Honestly, I think the "franchise" should have never been one in the first place. There isn't really much where they can go with it. And if they insist, well, they should simply mine the animated series for the best ideas. This way you might get one or two decent movies out of it.

I can’t think of many reasons why Ghostbusters as a concept can’t work as a franchise. It has the same “workman’s approach to a fantastical concept” approach that Men In Black does, and that’s on its own soft reboot soon. For good reason: conceptually, it’s something you can mill a lot of stories out of: as long as you can think of ways to explore that workman’s approach or new fantastical adventures for them to encounter, you can keep up the series no problem.

Ghostbusters 2 and Ghostbusters 2015 had problems because they literally tried to do the same movie with nearly exactly the same beats again, not because there’s an issue with the idea of a franchise in the first place. Ghostbusters 2015, imo, nearly did it simply by way of having a decent band of protagonists, but they’re still good characters (except Patty) stuck in a movie whose writing doesn’t deserve them.

But that’s execution, not concept.

The IDW comics have been doing a bang up job of it for ages, now (including with the 2015 gang). And again I note that an adaptation of even a few of those stories to film would be amazing.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Jan 18th 2019 at 5:03:50 AM

They got two really good animated series out of it, and they got one of the best on-going comics in the market. So it is deffinitely franchiseable.

But they have kinda stumbled on the movie front, with a second movie that was a rehash of the first, a third film that had interesting concepts (which finally were used in a very decent game-as-sequel) but lingered in non-existance because the actors clashed, and a reboot that changed everything for reasons.

This could go either way, if the "teens" peoeple are talking about lean towards older teens and they take some cues from EGB, with a new generation restarting the business, possibly under the guide of whatever old-guard they can rope in, it could potentially please the fanbase.

Edited by MrSeyker on Jan 18th 2019 at 5:06:19 AM

You know what I want?

A Ghostbuster villain based on Legion from the Bible.

I mean, come on, a single person possessed by hundreds, thousands of ghosts and comes with matching strength? Not exactly original, but would make a perfectly serviceable GB villain.

Comic book writers always seem to be more on the ball.

yeah i'm still not happy about that

Edited by Soble on Jan 18th 2019 at 8:01:33 AM

I think Ghostbusters worked originally because it was a counterpoint to all the "religion vs evil spirits" movies out there.

And Man in Black is another franchise which really didn't go anywhere.

Thing is, there is only so often you can protect the world from Ghosts or Aliens.