Jason Reitman has been editing Ghostbusters: Afterlife in quarantine

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

If the world had stayed on track, we'd now be less than a month away from the release of director Jason Reitman's GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, a sequel to his father Ivan's films GHOSTBUSTERS and GHOSTBUSTERS II. The movie was scheduled to reach theatres on July 10th, but due to the global pandemic the release was pushed back to March 5, 2021.

For his YouTube show Reunited Apart, actor Josh Gad recently hosted a Zoom reunion of various people who were involved with the original GHOSTBUSTERS, including Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. The younger Reitman also sat in on the Zoom reunion as a self-proclaimed "spectator", and when Gad asked how everyone has been doing during the pandemic quarantine, the AFTERLIFE director answered, 

I've been spending my days editing GHOSTBUSTERS, so that's where I've been."

While the first GHOSTBUSTERS was the primary focus for the show's 33 minutes (GHOSTBUSTERS II barely even got a mention), Gad did attempt to ask the group about AFTERLIFE. 

JOSH GAD: You guys have been working on a little sequel. Can you tell us anything, and if so, what can you tell us? Jason?

JASON REITMAN: Yeah, no, I can't tell you anything, but we are working on another installment. 

Some viewers have misconstrued Reitman's response and taken it to mean that he's already planning a sequel to AFTERLIFE, but in context it's pretty clear that AFTERLIFE itself is the installment in question. 

When his dad pointed out that the movie had been aiming for a July 10th release, Jason Reitman went a little further: 

Things have changed and we have a little bit more time. As a director, I've never had this opportunity, to actually kind of take a pause and breathe and look at the movie again. It's been extraordinarily valuable, and we have a lot of time now. We're coming out in 2021."

Jason Reitman wrote the screenplay for GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE with Gil Kenan. Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson, Potts, and Weaver all appear in the film, which stars Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Bokeem Woodbine, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, and Oliver Cooper. The story centers on a family that 

moves back home to a small town. While there, they begin to learn more about who they are and the secrets of the town itself.

While the delay of the film was due to terrible circumstances, it's good to know that Reitman has been making sure to use the extra time as an advantage.