Despite the Ghostbusters: Answer The Call standing as one of the most magnificent cinematic disasters in recent years, Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman has somehow managed to pull a positive aspect from amidst the wreckage, revealing in a recent interview that his upcoming franchise sequel will “expand” on one of the 2016 reboot’s central story themes.
Speaking with SFX Magazine (via Gamesradar) for their October issue, Reitman asserted that the Paul Feig directed 2016 reboot helped him personally take interest in “the idea that the Ghostbusters could be anyone,” which he in turn expanded upon in Ghostbusters: Afterlife “while always focusing on the family aspect and the history that was created by the original films.”
“Every Ghostbusters film has, up until now, been about the opening of a company, friendship through the window of a business,” said Reitman. “[Screenwriter Gil Kenan] and I wanted to make a movie about family.”
As has been previously revealed, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will follow the family of Dr. Egon Spengler, particularly his grandchildren, as they discover the history of the founding Ghostbuster’s involvement with the paranormal and fight back against the horrors left over from the events of the original film.
However, rather than beginning from a place of profit anticipation or outright nostalgia-baiting, Reitman explained that “every story that I’ve ever told began with a character,” and noted, “In the case of Afterlife, it was a 12-year-old girl standing in a field with a proton pack.”
“At first, I didn’t know who she was,” he continued. “Eventually, I knew that she’d be a genius who found the neutrona wand in her grandfather’s basement. I knew that her brother would find Ecto-1 in a barn and go joyriding. Eventually, I realized that she was a Spengler.”
The Spenglers, Reitman explained, “are a single mom and two kids, and they are a family that loves one another but struggles to connect.”
“When anyone is born into a family, they arrive inside a mystery that started generations before them,” the director continued. “Part of any life is trying to figure out where you came from and what drama led to your arrival. This is the moment at which we find Phoebe and Trevor.”
Ghostbusters : Afterlife is currently set to release in theaters on November 18th.
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