‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Trailer: Paul Rudd Faces Supernatural Threats in Jason Reitman’s Sequel
When you want to reboot Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters” franchise yet again, who’re you going to call? His son Jason, who’s taking the reins as writer/director for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” Arriving from Columbia Pictures on July 20, 2020, the film now has a first official trailer. Watch below.
Jason Reitman‘s spin on the classic, phantom-fighting franchise is a direct sequel to his father’s 1984 original and his 1989 sequel “Ghostbusters II.” The gang’s all here, with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts all reprising their roles. They’re joined by Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Bokeem Woodbine, and Oliver Cooper. Many of the film’s new cast of characters comprise a family who move back to a small town, where they learn haunting secrets about their past and the town they’re living in.
“Afterlife” will ignore the events that took place in Paul Feig’s female-led reboot “Ghostbusters,” which famously underperformed at the box office in 2016 despite a cast including comedy favorites Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, plus Chris Hemsworth who went against type to play a yo-yo receptionist. It received tepid reviews and made $229 million worldwide against a budget of $144 million.
This third go-round of “Ghostbusters” has been in and out of the works for nearly 30 years, and delayed even further in 2014 with the death of fellow cast member Harold Ramis. Bill Murray famously refused to participate in the wake of his co-star’s death, but was lured to return by the relationships he had with his castmates, setting the project back in motion. “This franchise paid for my son’s college,” he told IndieWire at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. “We made this thing. We are the caretakers of it. It’s a great thing and it was a really fun movie to make. It’s a real movie with some really funny stuff in it…Danny [Ackroyd], Ernie [Hudson], Harold [Ramis], Rick Moranis, Annie Potts — they’re some of the coolest people and they had real careers. They treat people well. They really understand what it is to be a movie actor. It’s a complete collaboration.”
Ivan Reitman serves as a producer on “Afterlife,” with a screenplay cowritten by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan (director on the 2015 “Poltergeist” remake and the TV series “Scream”).
