Ivan Reitman gets the hate for Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Ever since Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS was announced, there's been a lot of talk about the film (mostly bad) and for whatever reason, some folks picked the movie apart because it featured women. They were hardly the majority, but when the trailer hit, folks who thought it looked terrible were lumped in with the sexists and it became a controversial mess. Thanks to several more promotional pieces from the film, the majority SEEMS to agree that the film doesn't look like anything special, regardless of sex, and no one understands this better than original GHOSBUSTERS director Ivan Reitman.

Ivan Reitman on the hate for Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS:

I think there's way too much talk about gender. I think that many of the people who were complaining were actually lovers of the [original] movie, not haters of women. I think the lovers of the [original] movie felt there was some kind of sacrilege to re-do it, because it was a seminal part of their moviegoing experience as a 7- or 8-year-old. That's something that can't be minimized, and I totally respect that love.

Now, before you go off thinking that Reitman doesn't think highly of Paul Feig's take, he did go on to say, "How wonderful those four women are together. Individually and together, they're as unique as Bill Murray and Aykroyd and Ramis and Hudson were. They look like they should be together. You can't explain it until you see them moving and talking." So is it possible we're missing out on something that the trailers just can't capture? We'll know for sure in 2 weeks!

GHOSTBUSTERS opens on July 15, 2016.