Discuss Ghostbusters: Afterlife, released on November 19, 2021 and directed by Jason Reitman.
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By Kingpin
#4927538
Sony may have learned a few lessons from the last movie, and may well have decided to take a back seat and let Jason have a degree of free reign. He had to have impressed them and generated good faith in his abilities with the original pitch meeting.

In the end, and maybe this should've been said sooner: let's just wait and see what the trailer has to offer.
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By Alphagaia
#4927543
Muwarrior21 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 10:17 am im mostly worried the studio is going to control it and turn it into junk much like they did with the characters for the last jedi etc. Disney meddling for example killed off what started off to be a pretty cool new trilogy (force awakens was solid albeit a complete rehash) , last jedi was trash from beginning to end......
I wouldn't worry that much about Studio Interference.

The higher the budget the more control they have over a movie, and Aykroyd admitted they wanted to do this movie as cheap as possible.
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By tylergfoster
#4927551
deadderek wrote: December 4th, 2019, 12:14 am While putting it in front of Jumanji seems the most likely, I'd prefer it in front of the new Star Wars. As many eyeballs as possible.
Well, Jumanji opens first. After that it can be attached to anything, including Star Wars.
moviemaker29 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 9:14 am The whole reason GB20 was made was to repair the value of the GB brand and bring it back to its roots and give the fans what they wanted all along, because they are the ones that kept it alive all these decades.
As a fan, I gotta say, fans really need to get it out of their heads that they're the most important commodity.

While it is true that Ghostbusters (2016) was not good for the brand and Sony hopes this will course-correct, the only reason this movie was made was because a filmmaker came in and pitched it, and the studio thought the players involved at the price it would cost was worth gambling on. I guarantee that if Jason hadn't come up with this idea (seemingly on his own and fully organically), we would be talking about the nebulous possibility of a new movie right now rather than a finished film that will be out in 8 months.

All that matters is money. Fans will drive the merch machine, but general audiences drive the box office, period. And if the studio isn't pressing for a new movie (which we had zero indication of before the surprise January announcement beyond the scraps of details on the animated movie), then the driving factor is filmmakers (and money still comes into that). Obviously, yes, Jason wants to do right by the fans, but acting like this movie exists to reward us is arrogant. It's a story he wanted to tell and he hopes we like it. And why wouldn't that be good enough? Why do we have to position this as more true or authentic or genuine? I hate the "true fan" demarcation. We all love this franchise in our own ways. Let's enjoy this one without sniping at the last one.
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By robbritton
#4927554
droidguy1119 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 12:44 pm
deadderek wrote: December 4th, 2019, 12:14 am While putting it in front of Jumanji seems the most likely, I'd prefer it in front of the new Star Wars. As many eyeballs as possible.
Well, Jumanji opens first. After that it can be attached to anything, including Star Wars.
moviemaker29 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 9:14 am The whole reason GB20 was made was to repair the value of the GB brand and bring it back to its roots and give the fans what they wanted all along, because they are the ones that kept it alive all these decades.
As a fan, I gotta say, fans really need to get it out of their heads that they're the most important commodity.

While it is true that Ghostbusters (2016) was not good for the brand and Sony hopes this will course-correct, the only reason this movie was made was because a filmmaker came in and pitched it, and the studio thought the players involved at the price it would cost was worth gambling on. I guarantee that if Jason hadn't come up with this idea (seemingly on his own and fully organically), we would be talking about the nebulous possibility of a new movie right now.

All that matters is money. Fans will drive the merch machine, but general audiences drive the box office, period. And if the studio isn't pressing for a new movie (which we had zero indication of beyond the scraps of details on the animated movie before the surprise January announcement), then the driving factor is filmmakers (and money still comes into that). Obviously, yes, Jason wants to do right by the fans, but acting like this movie exists to reward us is arrogant. It's a story he wanted to tell and he hopes we like it.
Also, if every single fan of Ghostbusters turned out and no one else, it’d be a disastrous, disastrous flop! There really aren’t that many of us.

The proper reason ATC flopped, and the very real reason this might, is that there’s no shock of the new like in ‘84, and there isn’t a hugely successful Saturday morning cartoon to entice kids into the cinema like in ‘89. Ghostbusters, to a wider audience in 2016 and 2019, really isn’t that big a deal anymore to anyone not already invested in the series.

So that said, this new one really has to be an excellent film and get excellent reviews to get the punters in. Outside of Star Wars and Jurassic Park the nostalgia IP market hasn’t been doing brilliantly lately. Even objectively fantastic films like Blade Runner 2049 haven’t done business because fans of originals just aren’t enough to make big studio films money. It’s really going to have to cross over on its own merits, because the legacy alone won’t do it.

This feels as precarious as the cinematic future of Ghostbusters ever has to me. My main glimmer of hope is that Jason Reitman had an idea he cared about that he himself pitched. It’s as close to an auteur project as a major studio tentpole can get, and just maybe that’ll be enough to make it stand out.

Here’s hoping, anyway!
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By pizzarat
#4927556
I agree with the other posters about the GB II trailer. That would be a good template to start from for the new movie, even with its unfinished SFX shots.

I think I can resolve myself to admitting that Rick Moranis won't appear, but I hope they make a joke about Louis' whereabouts anyway.
#4927558
While I wholeheartedly agree with the fact that Jason (and his father) was the driving force behind GB20 being made and that it is by no means a reward for entitled fans, it really all boils down to business, money, and not letting one of Sony's few bankable properties go to waste.

I am definitely not arrogant enough to believe that fans were the reason this film got made; if fans had that much influence, we would have gotten GBIII 25 years ago. But I absolutely do think that after the failure of GB16, the studio is banking on the fact that they can save the GB brand by starting with getting the fans behind this film and making a legitimate sequel. It was the only successful path forward. When they announced this, they were very clear that it was going to be in-family with the originals and I think that will be marketed heavily leading up to the film.

At the end of the day, with or without Jason's pitch, the GB brand was too valuable to Sony and to Ivan (his entire backlot office and production company revolve around GB) to let it flounder after GB16's major misfire. The studio was absolutely counting on that film to reinvigorate the brand and it didn't so GB20 really is a hugely important effort for them. In a highly risk-averse era of Hollywood today, the stuff making money is almost entirely based on bankable properties and each studio wants to have their own cornerstone brands they can rely on.

When you think about what properties they have - Spider-Man, MIB, GB, Sony Animation Properties - this one truly is a significant piece of the puzzle for them. It has been a tried and true brand for them long before Spider-Man and MIB (which is in a rough spot now).

If it hadn't been Jason stepping up to the plate, I think someone else would have come along anyways because Sony wasn't going to let the brand simply die, but luckily for us, Jason gave GB and much brighter future and brings a wonderful pedigree and legacy with him. It was a best case scenario for the fans and the brand and we a have LOT to be excited about.
Last edited by moviemaker29 on December 4th, 2019, 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By robbritton
#4927559
pizzarat wrote: December 4th, 2019, 2:27 pm I agree with the other posters about the GB II trailer. That would be a good template to start from for the new movie, even with its unfinished SFX shots.

I think I can resolve myself to admitting that Rick Moranis won't appear, but I hope they make a joke about Louis' whereabouts anyway.
I would kill for a trailer like the GB2 “unfinished teaser”! That one was the best trailer ever associated with anything to do with this series and they didn’t even use it! Madness!
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By SpaceBallz
#4927566
droidguy1119 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 12:44 pm
moviemaker29 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 9:14 am The whole reason GB20 was made was to repair the value of the GB brand and bring it back to its roots and give the fans what they wanted all along, because they are the ones that kept it alive all these decades.
As a fan, I gotta say, fans really need to get it out of their heads that they're the most important commodity.

While it is true that Ghostbusters (2016) was not good for the brand and Sony hopes this will course-correct, the only reason this movie was made was because a filmmaker came in and pitched it, and the studio thought the players involved at the price it would cost was worth gambling on. I guarantee that if Jason hadn't come up with this idea (seemingly on his own and fully organically), we would be talking about the nebulous possibility of a new movie right now rather than a finished film that will be out in 8 months.

All that matters is money.
Hhhmmm.

Image
By JonXCTrack
#4927567
SpaceBallz wrote: December 4th, 2019, 4:17 pm
droidguy1119 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 12:44 pm
As a fan, I gotta say, fans really need to get it out of their heads that they're the most important commodity.

While it is true that Ghostbusters (2016) was not good for the brand and Sony hopes this will course-correct, the only reason this movie was made was because a filmmaker came in and pitched it, and the studio thought the players involved at the price it would cost was worth gambling on. I guarantee that if Jason hadn't come up with this idea (seemingly on his own and fully organically), we would be talking about the nebulous possibility of a new movie right now rather than a finished film that will be out in 8 months.

All that matters is money.
Hhhmmm.

Image
Well played.
Last edited by Kingpin on December 5th, 2019, 1:36 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Fixed broken code
#4927569
moviemaker29 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 3:01 pm But I absolutely do think that after the failure of GB16, the studio is banking on the fact that they can save the GB brand by starting with getting the fans behind this film and making a legitimate sequel.
I certainly understand that Ghostbusters is a valuable property to Sony -- I said almost identical things as you did in this post in the box office thread in this forum to RichardLess.

However, I think you overestimate both 1) how anxious Sony was to jump on this horse so soon after Ghostbusters (2016) was such a public debacle thanks to the backlash and behind-the-scenes problems. I don't think we'd know what was next yet had Jason not come along, and no guarantee it'd be a true sequel -- left to their own devices, Sony probably would've conceived of something like Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which is barely a sequel -- you see Robin Williams' character's name carved in a fence, and that's the entirety of the connective tissue. Something cast-driven, less expensive, and not as much of a lightning rod. If not that, maybe an attempt to make the animated movie in the Spider-Verse vein, in terms of targeted demo/visual style/humor (something I still think would rule).

As far as Sony is concerned, I think the sequel thing only comes in on a couple of levels -- the reboot failed financially, so it's just not a sequel to that, and probably to appease Ivan. Ironically, this might have been made at the last moment when Sony would've bitten on it as a sequel, or made anything based on IP in general: the hat trick of Terminator: Dark Fate, Doctor Sleep, and Sony's own Charlie's Angels all failing, combined with residual 2016 wounds, probably has them sweating this trailer launch.

The sequel thing here is almost certainly down to it being the idea Jason provided, Jason being someone who they can assume will get along with Ivan, and someone who therefore has the resources to get the original cast on board. I don't think it's as integral to whatever Sony's plans were for the franchise otherwise. Plus, again, fans are not a monolith. I think Jason's movie sounds great, but I stopped thinking a direct sequel was likely in 1999, stopped really wanting one in 2009, and really thought more Ghostbusters (which I assumed was going to happen eventually, thanks to Sony) ought to be something else when Harold passed away. And in 2016 I thought that movie was, in principle, the right route to take the series. Whether or not I think any angle is a safe bet now, I would also say that I think 2016 set up a number of dominos that led to this one looking like a smart move at exactly the right time, and I'm not sure what we'd be looking at without it.

RE: Sonic's design -- I would chalk that up less to the fact that the fans were mad and more the reaction to the trailer being so disastrous it set an expensive movie up for financial failure, so, again, money. I mean, how many die-hard Sonic the Hedgehog fans are there, and how many are a shoo-in to go see a movie? Sounds like a pretty small audience! Even now that they've fixed it, I dunno how well I'd guess that movie is going to do.
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By timeware
#4927573
I think we're kidding ourselves that the first trailer of Sonic was the final product. By recreating the ATC famous bad trailer launch they were able to gather a lot of interest even through the backlash.
Controversy sells.
I can understand this could be a way of doing things from now on. I would like to believe that Thundercats roar is a prelude to a better product down the road. Cartoon Network can't just sit on a property like Thundercats and shelf it after so many people signing a petition begging them to do better.
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By pizzarat
#4927576
robbritton wrote: December 4th, 2019, 3:02 pm
pizzarat wrote: December 4th, 2019, 2:27 pm I agree with the other posters about the GB II trailer. That would be a good template to start from for the new movie, even with its unfinished SFX shots.

I think I can resolve myself to admitting that Rick Moranis won't appear, but I hope they make a joke about Louis' whereabouts anyway.
I would kill for a trailer like the GB2 “unfinished teaser”! That one was the best trailer ever associated with anything to do with this series and they didn’t even use it! Madness!
Your joke would be a lot funnier if you actually read my post. :D
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By pizzarat
#4927579
groschopf wrote: December 4th, 2019, 7:17 pm Looks like GhostbustersNews struck its article about the Hasbro line names.

Not to worry. You can still see the listings here if you haven't already:

https://www.deepdiscount.com/search?q=g ... bro&mod=AP
Kudos to whoever blind pre-orders that GB merch without even knowing what it looks like. That's dedication!
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By tylergfoster
#4927585
timeware wrote: December 4th, 2019, 5:58 pm I think we're kidding ourselves that the first trailer of Sonic was the final product. By recreating the ATC famous bad trailer launch they were able to gather a lot of interest even through the backlash.
Controversy sells.
I know the guy who co-wrote the movie. It is definitely a very expensive mistake (not necessarily one he or his co-writer would've made) and they are praying the course correction makes the movie successful. Hundreds of millions of dollars are at on the line here. If you think studios (especially a flailing studio like Paramount, which has really been plagued with costly failures the last three years) are gambling on conspiracy theory stuff like this, it's just not true.
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By deadderek
#4927591
droidguy1119 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 11:53 pm Just poking around on Twitter and I found this entirely unverified Twitter account counting down to Friday. Doubt it's real...but who knows?
No way in hell is that an official account for the movie at all.
User avatar
By Alphagaia
#4927592
deadderek wrote: December 5th, 2019, 12:18 am
droidguy1119 wrote: December 4th, 2019, 11:53 pm Just poking around on Twitter and I found this entirely unverified Twitter account counting down to Friday. Doubt it's real...but who knows?
No way in hell is that an official account for the movie at all.
Their website sucks as well.
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By 2GunsRacing
#4927593
pizzarat wrote: December 4th, 2019, 7:30 pm
groschopf wrote: December 4th, 2019, 7:17 pm Looks like GhostbustersNews struck its article about the Hasbro line names.

Not to worry. You can still see the listings here if you haven't already:

https://www.deepdiscount.com/search?q=g ... bro&mod=AP
Kudos to whoever blind pre-orders that GB merch without even knowing what it looks like. That's dedication!
LOL! The PKE Taser sounds interesting though..
User avatar
By robbritton
#4927594
pizzarat wrote: December 4th, 2019, 7:00 pm
robbritton wrote: December 4th, 2019, 3:02 pm

I would kill for a trailer like the GB2 “unfinished teaser”! That one was the best trailer ever associated with anything to do with this series and they didn’t even use it! Madness!
Your joke would be a lot funnier if you actually read my post. :D
It... wasn’t a joke? I genuinely love that long version of the “hot beverage mug and balloon” ad they released as the “unfinished teaser” on the 35th anniversary blu-ray and your post reminded me of it. I thought you were referring to the missing Scoleri Brother in the actual GB2 trailer. Sorry if I got it wrong!
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