Jason Reitman clarifies recent Ghostbusters comments; Paul Feig defends him

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Recently it was announced that Jason Reitman, the Oscar-nominated director of JUNO and UP IN THE AIR, would be taking over the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise for a new movie that would be a direct sequel to the series from the 80s – both directed by his father, Ivan Reitman. There’s been a ton of discussion over the fact it would ignore the 2016 female-led reboot from Paul Feig, and even more, flames were fanned yesterday when Reitman the younger was quoted as saying “We are in every way trying to go back to original technique and hand the movie back to the fans.”

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The internet was sent into a whirlwind over the quote, with many fans of the original (and detractors of the reboot) being pleased with his comments, while more viewed his comments as troll-ish, dissing the new movie as not being honorable to the fans. But Reitman has come out and clarified his comments (given during an interview on the Bill Burr Monday Morning Podcast), saying he has nothing but respect for the 2016 movie.

Wo, that came out wrong! I have nothing but admiration for Paul and Leslie and Kate and Melissa and Kristen and the bravery with which they made Ghostbusters 2016. They expanded the universe and made an amazing movie!

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What’s more, Feig himself retweeted Reitman’s response with his own message of support for the director. “Jason was a supporter of mine at a time when I couldn’t get movies made,” he wrote. “He has always been a true gentleman to me and a supporter of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call. I can’t wait to see his take on the Ghostbusters universe. Big love and respect to you, Jason. Your fan, Paul.”

While it’s easy to look at Reitman’s initial quote and think he’s bashing the 2016 movie – saying the franchise needs to go “back to the fans,” thus implying the new movie took it away from them – the reality is he probably just made a poor choice of words. He has already spoken highly of the new movie before, talking to EW about how much he liked it and how he had “so much respect” for what the cast and Feig did. The fact of the matter is no matter what is said about the movie it will always be scrutinized against either the 2016 movie or the originals, which will just add stress to the making of this new movie. Really, it may just be best to not talk about it at all until it’s time to promote.

The new GHOSTBUSTERS is set to arrive in 2020.