Upon hearing a piece of modern music my Grandfather always used the line, ‘You kids today, you don’t even know you’re born.’ Well if you are a young thing and you have not seen Ghostbusters then let me tell you: you don’t even know you are born. The same goes for most 80s & 90s films. The 80s and 90s were great decades for film. Fact. Which is super exciting because not only are they doing a remake of Ghostbusters, but it has an all-female cast. Yes people, you heard it right: an all-female cast. Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones will star in the 2016 remake. Problem is, even though it is 2015, some people actually have a problem with this.
Director Paul Feig tweeted the news of the new cast and confirmed the new Ghostbuster film release date: July 22, 2016.
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) January 27, 2015
Paul said: “It’s official, I’m making a new Ghostbusters & writing it with @katiedippold & yes, it will star hilarious women. That’s who I’m gonna call.” Not everyone is as enlightened as Paul however. Social media was awash with sexist comments about the all-female cast. Funnily enough, no one had a problem with the all-male cast. Some Tweets were funny:
Making all the ghostbusters female is a terrible idea, they made all the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park female and remember what happened there.
— Keri (@kerihw) January 29, 2015
Anyone criticizing the all female #Ghostbusters cast is obviously sexist. It’s going to be great to watch these ladies nag ghosts to death.
— L.T. Vargus (@ltvargus) January 29, 2015
The most depressing thing is that in 2015, the new Ghostbuster film having an all-female cast is actually a thing. While I won’t be giving any trolls publicity here there was one important person who gave it the thumbs up: the original Ghostbuster himself, Dan Aykroyd. A statement read:
“The Aykroyd family is delighted by this inheritance of the Ghostbusters torch by these most magnificent women in comedy. My great grandfather, Dr. Sam Aykroyd, the original Ghostbuster, was a man who empowered women in his day and this is a beautiful development in the legacy of our family business.”
Dan Aykroyd is obviously a very awesome and evolved man. As is (@JohnRossBowie)
If your ‘childhood is ruined’ by an all-female Ghostbusters then don’t worry you still have several years left to your childhood.
— John Ross Bowie (@JohnRossBowie) January 28, 2015
Bill Murray hasn’t said anything about the project but the other surviving member of the original, Ernie Hudson, doesn’t seem happy about it; he doesn’t think it should carry on the Ghostbusters name as it will have “nothing to do with the other two movies.” and while he said he was not against the idea of an all-female cast his first reaction to the casting news on Facebook was “No comment”. There are more brilliant reactions in this excellent Radio Times article.
Ghostbusters all-female cast: good or bad idea? Have your say.