Jason Reitman is working on a sequel to the original Ghostbusters movie. The director and son of Ghostbusters original auteur Ivan Reitman said that he's shooting for a Summer 2020 release date on a project he's been thinking about for most of his life.
"I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set. I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans,” Reitman told Entertainment Weekly. “This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
The younger Reitman was sparse on the details of the new film, noting that it was a long way off. What members of the cast will return, if any, is still an open question.
“This is very early, and I want the film to unwrap like a present. We have a lot of wonderful surprises and new characters for the audience to meet,” he said.
Ivan Reitman said he was proud to hand off the reins to his son, who has directed hit comedies like Juno and Up in the Air.
“It will be a passing of the torch both inside and out,” he said, “It was a decision he had to come to himself. He worked really hard to be independent and developed a wonderful career on his own. So I was quite surprised when he came to me with Gil [Kenan] and said, ‘I know I’ve been saying for 10 years I’m the last person who should make a Ghostbusters movie, but…I have this idea.’ Literally, I was crying by the end of it, it was so emotional and funny.”
Reitman said that Paul Feig's female-led Ghostbusters took place in an alternate timeline from the movie he created.
“I have so much respect for what Paul created with those brilliant actresses, and would love to see more stories from them. However, this new movie will follow the trajectory of the original film,” Reitman says. "The Ghostbusters universe is big enough to hold a lot of different stories.”
Ghostbusters—which starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis—was a hit when it landed in theaters in 1984. Its not-as-beloved sequel came five years later.
