For years, the rights to the GHOSTBUSTERS film franchise were in the hands of director Ivan Reitman and Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Bill Murray. This is why we never got a GHOSTBUSTERS 3, because all four of them would have to sign off on a project for it to happen. That's not the case anymore. Those rights have been sold and are now controlled by Sony/Columbia. This is how we got the Paul Feig-directed reboot last year, and this is why we can expect to see more GHOSTBUSTERS projects in the future.
The studio isn't just delving into the property on their own, though. Reitman and Aykroyd have remained involved as part of a production company called Ghost Corps, which they formed with Sony and which is a company focused solely on developing GHOSTBUSTERS projects.
Feig's reboot was met with a lot of controversy and underwhelming box office, but while talking to io9 about the new Ghostbusters comic book series and the VR experience Ghostbusters VR: Now Hiring, which is now available through the PlayStation Store, Reitman confirmed that Ghost Corps is still working on building a future for the film franchise.
Says Reitman,
We jumped into an animated film and we are developing live-action films. I want to bring all these stories together as a universe that makes sense within itself. Part of my job right now is to do that."
The current hope is that the animated film, which Fletcher Moules signed on to direct last March, will be ready for release in 2019 or 2020. Reitman didn't share any details on the live action films they're planning.
As for the live action film that has already resulted from the new partnership with Sony/Columbia, Reitman had this to say:
We certainly would’ve loved to have a larger hit. But considering the last film was almost 30 years ago, it really did extremely well. I think the film cost too much, frankly, and that’s the real issue. I personally had other points of view in terms of where the film should go and it was kind of a continuous conversation with Paul about that. But Paul was the filmmaker on this one and he’s a very talented director. I wanted to give him enough room to do the film he thought it should be."
Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS had a production budget of $144 million and made $229 million at the global box office. I'd say Reitman is right, the budget should have been much smaller.
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