[Rookie99]

I honestly wouldn't be upset if the Wrecto stayed, well, wrecked for the new movie. Might be a hot take, but I love the rust and age on the Ecto. Adds a bit of a different character to it.

[BatDan]

“Lets get you home and get you all cleaned up”

Man.. Winston surly procrastinated for 2 years. If its still rusty and ended up in UK. Lol

[Davideverona]

Are we sure that the Ghostbusters are setting up shop again? You know, maybe Winston fix things up only to keep them in check.

[Kingpin]

YES.

Intriguing it's still "Wrecto" from Afterlife and not all cleaned up to mint shape. Hm.

My first theory is that the car may be filming some stuff that's set immediately after the epilogue in Afterlife. If they're filming any Firehouse soundstage interior scenes in the UK, they'll need a run-down Ecto-1 to dress it.

My second theory it may be used for some exterior B-roll filming (as New York) as well as any interior filming, while the other prop gets turned into a restored Ecto-1, or a updated "Ecto-1B" or "Ecto-1C".

What's the link for those 3 close up photos from? Is it on instagram or twitter? Who?

Good question. There's currently no credited source for the close-up photos.

[mrmichaelt]

My first theory is that the car may be filming some stuff that's set immediately after the epilogue in Afterlife. If they're filming any Firehouse soundstage interior scenes in the UK, they'll need a run-down Ecto-1 to dress it.

My second theory it may be used for some exterior B-roll filming (as New York) as well as any interior filming, while the other prop gets turned into a restored Ecto-1, or a updated "Ecto-1B" or "Ecto-1C".

Agreed.

Good question. There's currently no credited source for the close-up photos.

Yeah, the earliest post of them was from GB Mexico as far as I could tell.

[Sav C]

Ernie has probably been the most consistent ambassador for the Ghostbusters brand, it's beyond rediculous that EVEN NOW he has to be firm in order to get his name on the bloody film poster. Give the man his well-deserved due, Sony.

It's crazy--ever since GBII, Bill has, up until recent years, consistently obstructed nearly anything Ghostbusters, yet I'm sure Sony would still let him "carry" a Ghostbusters movie if he was willing. (I say that partially because of Harrison Ford and the new Indy.) Ernie, on the other hand, has been (like you say) a dedicated ambassador for Ghostbusters, and a true professional as far as I can tell. Sony should be ashamed that Ernie has to petition for a proper role in the new movie.

[timeware]

It's crazy--ever since GBII, Bill has, up until recent years, consistently obstructed nearly anything Ghostbusters, yet I'm sure Sony would still let him "carry" a Ghostbusters movie if he was willing. (I say that partially because of Harrison Ford and the new Indy.) Ernie, on the other hand, has been (like you say) a dedicated ambassador for Ghostbusters, and a true professional as far as I can tell. Sony should be ashamed that Ernie has to petition for a proper role in the new movie.

I would be very, very surprised if Sony plays Ernie with the Afterlife sequel. Between Afterlife, and spirits unleashed Winston is going to be the focus on the next film. I agree that it is bullshit that Ernie has to petition for the role. They know that fan's aren't going to be happy if Sony just outright allows Bill to waltz in and take control. He may have a role to play but to not let Winston continue as the main character would be a "dickless" move on their part.

[mrmichaelt]

Well, when Afterlife started filming in mid July 2019, at a Q&A in Mexico City in August 6, 2019, Hudson mentioned he was still in negotiations and not signed yet then on August 27, confirmed he was in the movie. So I mean things seem to be on the same track here and maybe he won't be signed until April...

[RichardLess]

I honestly wouldn't be upset if the Wrecto stayed, well, wrecked for the new movie. Might be a hot take, but I love the rust and age on the Ecto. Adds a bit of a different character to it.

I don’t understand this. It’s like saying you like your beautiful wife all beat up, old and decrepit.

Ecto is a beauty and letting her be anything but her true beautiful self is sacrilege. She should be white, shiny and clean.

It's crazy--ever since GBII, Bill has, up until recent years, consistently obstructed nearly anything Ghostbusters, yet I'm sure Sony would still let him "carry" a Ghostbusters movie if he was willing. (I say that partially because of Harrison Ford and the new Indy.) Ernie, on the other hand, has been (like you say) a dedicated ambassador for Ghostbusters, and a true professional as far as I can tell. Sony should be ashamed that Ernie has to petition for a proper role in the new movie.

I would be very, very surprised if Sony plays Ernie with the Afterlife sequel. Between Afterlife, and spirits unleashed Winston is going to be the focus on the next film. I agree that it is bullshit that Ernie has to petition for the role. They know that fan's aren't going to be happy if Sony just outright allows Bill to waltz in and take control. He may have a role to play but to not let Winston continue as the main character would be a "dickless" move on their part.

What Ernie should be getting is respect. Respect from Sony and respect from the filmmakers. But that doesn’t mean making him the main character just because. If you are going to have Winston in it then I just don’t want Winston solo with the new cast. I’d want Winston with Ray and Venkman.

Ya know. I watch the reactions to Top Gun 2, Indiana Jones 5, Cobra Kai or the reaction to the lastest Star Trek Picard season and I think not focusing on the original actors more is such a massive mistake. A huge miscalculation.

People want to see their old heroes.

[deadderek]

People want to see their old heroes.

Correct. A thousand times this. I grew up watching TNG as did a lot of my friends. When Picard was announced we were all very excited, but that quickly went away. No one gives a shit about Raffi or etc. We wanted to see our old heroes return. Same with other reboots/continuations/etc.

Even if Bill, Ernie, and Dan were in Afterlife for more than a couple minutes it would have absolutely did better at the box office. Yes the new folks were fine, but if the OG crew were more involved there definitely would have been more asses in seats. One of the biggest complaints about their appearance I agree with: they kinda just pop out of nowhere at the end.

[timeware]

What makes Cobra Kai so successful is they do a well balanced mix between the old and the new characters. I can't speak for Picard as I haven't watched it.

Although it's going to be interesting to see if we have one team abroad, and one team at home being led by Winston and Ray. Ray maybe the one leading team New York. Being a billionaire I'm sure Winston is used to the travel.

If this is the case then Ecto being in London would probably be served as a marketing tool rather then being used for busts. We could still have a new vehicle for the fire house.

I'm okay with Bill not being around.

[mrmichaelt]

I think AL did the right thing on focusing on the new cast only and introducing them. The story is from their POV. It is no longer from the original OGB's POV. The execution lacked for some of them like Lucky but that's for the talkback thread. Could they have done something cool like make a Blu-ray exclusive special feature using the cut footage of the original cast and making a in-canon short that fills in what the OGB are doing between scenes in the main movie? Yeah, I think so. That would have solve a lot of issues. Shrug.

When this sequel was formally announced, in that Hollywood Reporter I think, Reitman and Kenan were quoting saying it continues the story of the Spengler Family but Winston and Zeddemore Industries will play a big role in the sequel. So the implication is at least Winston out of the original cast will have a starring role. The disconnect seems to be if they planned this from the start, why didn't they sign Hudson on a multi-film contract instead of what appears to be a film to film ad hoc signing? Did Sony attempt to but there was an impasse (perhaps about what Hudson was alluding to in the Stern clip?) and they had to go with the latter? Shrug. The issue seems to be Sony (i.e. clutching the purse strings), not with Hudson or creatives like Reitman and Kenan.

[RichardLess]

What makes Cobra Kai so successful is they do a well balanced mix between the old and the new characters. I can't speak for Picard as I haven't watched it.

Although it's going to be interesting to see if we have one team abroad, and one team at home being led by Winston and Ray. Ray maybe the one leading team New York. Being a billionaire I'm sure Winston is used to the travel.

If this is the case then Ecto being in London would probably be served as a marketing tool rather then being used for busts. We could still have a new vehicle for the fire house.

I'm okay with Bill not being around.

I’m talking about the 3rd season of Picard not the other 2. The 3rd season gave audiences what we wanted. The old crew mostly together again. Granted most people haven’t seen the 3rd season yet but I’m assuming fans are going to go love it. The 6 episodes I’ve seen are…such an improvement.

Again…Why did Top Gun 2 make all the money in the world? The first Top Gun was a hit but it’s not like Indiana Jones or Star Wars or Ghostbusters big. Then the sequel comes and adds some new characters but it’s still about Maverick and guess what? It gives us what we want. Tom Cruise flying jets playing Maverick. It even has him in the F-14 at the end! And somehow it got nominated for Best Picture(which is hilarious to think about. It was a good popcorn movie but “Best Picture”?)

You guys wanna know why Spider-Man No Way Home made so much money? It had all the Spider-Men and again, gave audiences what they wanted. Watch what’s going to happen with Michael Keaton playing Batman again in the flash.

GBA gave us, what? 4 minutes of Bill Murray? 8 of Dan? 6 of Ernie? And it could’ve been zero with how they just were bampfed in. It didn’t give audiences what they wanted. They wanted a Ghostbusters movie. Not a Spengler Family movie. Which isn’t to say the movie was bad. But it wasn’t what most people wanted.

There is zero reason a Ghostbusters movie can’t do Top Gun 2 numbers(domestically). Zero. Well maybe now there is a reason since the franchise has been so diluted. I doubt we’ll ever see a Ghostbusters movie hit over 200 m domestic again.

Anyone here sports fans? You know what the most annoying thing about being a sports fan is? Being a fan of an average team. A team that’s good enough to make the playoffs every once in awhile but not good enough to go all the way. Or a team that’s average enough to not qualify for top draft picks. So your team stays average and you don’t get the satisfaction of winning a championship or picking the best player in a draft.

That’s where this franchise is right now. It’s average. Not great. Not bad. Maybe that’s enough for some. But me? I want a championship.

See I want this franchise not to just make good movies but I want it to succeed. And focusing on characters no one gives a shit about just isn’t the way to do that. Now my opinion about the GBA has increased since it released but the movie was still a missed opportunity. The way to make this movie right and better, something audiences would’ve loved more of and most fans would agree, is a story told thru the OG Ghostbusters POV. You can still have Spenglers family. But when you make a Ghostbusters movie, we all know what people think of. And it isn’t teenagers.
What audiences want when they see and hear a title like “Ghostbusters” is those original actors. “Ghostbusters” isn’t just anyone strapping on a proton pack. I mean sure you can make that movie. And they have. But they’ll keep on having 130-40 million dollar grossers doing it that way. They’ll keep chugging out average movies.

Meanwhile we will be watching other franchises keep getting championships. See how I brought that sports thing full circle? Not bad eh?

And again. I liked GBA. But it was the wrong move for this franchise. The way to do things right would be to make GBA an OG ghostbusters movie and make this next sequel what GBA actually was(not fully about the GB’s after introducing some new characters in the previous movie).

[timeware]

I liked GBA. But it was the wrong move for this franchise. The way to do things right would be to make GBA an OG ghostbusters movie and make this next sequel what GBA actually was(not fully about the GB’s after introducing some new characters in the previous movie).

It's what we got, and it looks like Sony is wanting to branch out the franchise. Afterlife did breath some new life into the franchise however. Numbers were decent even with Covid going on. I mean hell without afterlife Hasbro wouldn't have given us that nice new proton pack.

Yes, idealistically I would love to see the next film focus on the OG's but it's not going to draw butt's to the seats. Were going to have to settle for the OG's over seeing the formation of new teams over the next film. Winston and Ray have fire house, Grooberson, and Venkman could have the sequel to fire house.

I doubt they'll bring back CGI ghost Egon to form his own team. A ghost ghostbuster busting ghosts? It would be a twist and try saying that five times fast.

[jonogunn]

Is Bill Murray funny anymore? I just watched Antman and I didn’t find him funny. I didn’t find him funny in GBA either.

[mrmichaelt]

Hm. Okay, question, does Top Gun: Maverick's ending/end tags (if there any) have the same intent as the Afterlife ending/last end tag in consciously setting up the next chapter OR is it simply a conclusion and producers have said something like 'well we have to think about a story for a 3rd movie first but yeah we'd love to make another one' when asked by press? I do think this sequel will give audiences the format that fans of Maverick or Cobra Kai loved that has been discussed - a greater mix of the classic and new cast. Reitman and Kenan are building up and executing their story more long-term over the course of 2 movies (maybe even more) whereas Maverick seems to have went the other route and did it in 1 movie based on what you all say about it. So I comparing the 2 is like apples and oranges. It's premature to fairly assess until we've seen this movie which route is the better one or if both routes turned out to be equally good, imo.

I haven't seen it but I haven't seen anything in articles indicating his role in Ant-Man is a comedic one. He seems to have been doing less comedic stuff. Like didn't he do that Roosevelt one a couple years ago? Hyde Park on Hudson. Or least more dry humor. He had some witty banter in Afterlife that I chuckled at but I did love that Sigourney Weaver was funny at Murray's expense.

[robbritton]

He phoned most of Afterlife in, but the lines "On three, go on two" and "You always had to maim somebody" are the first times I've heard Bill sound like the Bill we grew up with since Kingpin. It's more than I was expecting, to be honest.

[philmorgan81]

Wow I have got to say seeing the Wrecto 1 make it’s way to London in preparation for the new movie has got me real excited. I didn’t think anything could top Afterlife, but I am starting to see some possibilities here. Afterlife gave us a close to Egon’s story and at the time I thought it was the definitive close to all the OGs arc. Now I’m not so sure. I mean I suppose it could be, but now with all the discussion that’s happening on this thread could we be seeing more of the surviving OGs again? Like do we think that Bill will be involved again? Will they suit up one last time? Will they be more central to the story this time around?

Oh boy it’s 2019 all over again LOL! I am really looking forward to whatever happens next. This time around I have absolutely no idea where the future of this franchise is going to go. :)

[Dondraper85]

Well the Ecto mobile is now on our fair shores in the UK ahead of filming

Wasn't one of the abandoned G2 scripts set in Scotland? Maybe they've picked up that thread and are going to go with it?

[Chicken, He Clucked]

...but now with all the discussion that’s happening on this thread could we be seeing more of the surviving OGs again? Like do we think that Bill will be involved again? Will they suit up one last time? Will they be more central to the story this time around?

This is continuation of the new characters story from Afterlife. Winston and Ray will likely feature, but this isn't going to be the OG's suiting up as a central part of the story. Please don't do this to yourselves, again! But yes, new Ghostbusters is very exciting.

After the long wait for Afterlife I'm trying my best to forget Afterlife 2 is happening, so it'll be a pleasant surprise. I still think it may slip to Summer 2024.

[RichardLess]

Hm. Okay, question, does Top Gun: Maverick's ending/end tags (if there any) have the same intent as the Afterlife ending/last end tag in consciously setting up the next chapter OR is it simply a conclusion and producers have said something like 'well we have to think about a story for a 3rd movie first but yeah we'd love to make another one' when asked by press? I do think this sequel will give audiences the format that fans of Maverick or Cobra Kai loved that has been discussed - a greater mix of the classic and new cast. Reitman and Kenan are building up and executing their story more long-term over the course of 2 movies (maybe even more) whereas Maverick seems to have went the other route and did it in 1 movie based on what you all say about it. So I comparing the 2 is like apples and oranges. It's premature to fairly assess until we've seen this movie which route is the better one or if both routes turned out to be equally good, imo.

This was an interesting reply. It also shows what a different world we live in now. It’s apparently only fair to compare movies that have sequel bait? I think that’s an extremely flawed way to look at things.


I don’t think it’s premature to fairly assess. The movie came out. It did what it did.

We have what we have. And again every middling movie they release dilutes the brand in some way. What does that mean? It means you only get 1 sequel that you wait 30 years for. That’s it. Ghostbusters even had a mulligan after GB16. But GBA was the shot. They took it. While I’m sure you are correct they are building a story out for 2-3 movies. Why does that matter? The movie is still the movie. If they do make a Top Gun 3, you think it’s going to have the impact of 2? You only get that long wait between sequels once. You only get that pandemic shutdown and “Here’s a reason to comeback to the movies” once(I hope). GBA was so well positioned to be that movie. Instead it was a Spider-Man movie that played the game GBA should’ve and could’ve played. Now obviously they didn’t know a pandemic was going to happen but had they made the movie a little more “what do people want to see in a Ghostbusters movie” it wouldn’t have mattered.

If you are right and GBA2 is the movie everyone wanted GBA 1 to be…again, big mistake. Not for the movie itself but for success of the franchise.



As a side note…I want to live in the universe where the first GBA proper teaser ended with Venkman, Ray and Winston walking into the firehouse. There’s a pause. It’s the OGB’s! In the firehouse! The worlds first time seeing these characters in the flesh since 1989! Finally Venkman deadpanns to Ray “Chewie…We’re home”. Bang. End trailer. Even if that scene isn’t in the finished movie it would’ve made a huge buzz I think. Got people talking. We get to see the OGB’s and we get them being irreverent, smart asssed and making fun of the whole idea of nostalgia bait. It would’ve gotten the movie ahead of the “nostalgia for nostalgia sake” criticism by showing how aware of it they are & playing it cool. If only…

[mrmichaelt]

Wasn't one of the abandoned G2 scripts set in Scotland? Maybe they've picked up that thread and are going to go with it?

Yes. "Ghostbusters: The Seed," the original script for GB2 that Aykroyd wrote took place in Scotland. Dana is kidnapped by fairy/banshee entities and so forth.

And again every middling movie they release dilutes the brand in some way. What does that mean? It means you only get 1 sequel that you wait 30 years for. That’s it. Ghostbusters even had a mulligan after GB16. But GBA was the shot. They took it. While I’m sure you are correct they are building a story out for 2-3 movies. Why does that matter? The movie is still the movie. If they do make a Top Gun 3, you think it’s going to have the impact of 2? You only get that long wait between sequels once. You only get that pandemic shutdown and “Here’s a reason to comeback to the movies” once(I hope). GBA was so well positioned to be that movie. Instead it was a Spider-Man movie that played the game GBA should’ve and could’ve played. Now obviously they didn’t know a pandemic was going to happen but had they made the movie a little more “what do people want to see in a Ghostbusters movie” it wouldn’t have mattered.

Hmm, interesting way to look at it.

As a side note…I want to live in the universe where the first GBA proper teaser ended with Venkman, Ray and Winston walking into the firehouse. There’s a pause. It’s the OGB’s! In the firehouse! The worlds first time seeing these characters in the flesh since 1989! Finally Venkman deadpanns to Ray “Chewie…We’re home”. Bang. End trailer. Even if that scene isn’t in the finished movie it would’ve made a huge buzz I think. Got people talking. We get to see the OGB’s and we get them being irreverent, smart asssed and making fun of the whole idea of nostalgia bait. It would’ve gotten the movie ahead of the “nostalgia for nostalgia sake” criticism by showing how aware of it they are & playing it cool. If only…

True, but I'd add Janine, too. But yeah, that'd have been cool. I pondered something like that, too, but in the end I liked Reitman's choice better of subverting expectations of going with the obvious tag and instead centering it on Winston. He's now in the position the other 3 were in in 1984 and he's going to pay it forward - get the company started and take a chance on some people who like him at the time needed a job but end up getting more out of it than they expected. To me that feels like a better full circle moment. I'm sure many disagree with that - Ray should have been there. Ray and Janine should have been there, too. All 4. Slimer, too. Man, what if there were no tags at all. I loved what we got and can't wait for what's next on the immediate horizon, the comic and the movie.

[Kingpin]

Tom Cruise flying jets playing Maverick.

Tom was 58/59 when they made Maverick... He's generally in good physical shape due to his ongoing commitment to the Mission Impossible franchise, and while there was the added physical aspect of this film's visuals being shot in real fighter jets over the original's... In some ways this film was probably a lot less of a workout for him than some of the others he's done... He certainly didn't break any legs filming this one.

You guys wanna know why Spider-Man No Way Home made so much money? It had all the Spider-Men and again, gave audiences what they wanted.

Tobey was 45/46 when they filmed No Way Home, and Andrew 37/38, plus a lot of the more involved work in the film would've been CG stand-ins.

In both instances we're dealing with actors who were substantially younger than Bill, Dan and Ernie, and so up to more physical work than our boys in grey.

Watch what’s going to happen with Michael Keaton playing Batman again in the flash.

He's going to be great, but his appearance will likely be similar to Tobey and Andrew in No Way Home, some of his depiction of Batman is likely to be CG and by stuntman/men when it calls for something that Keaton himself isn't physically able to do anymore (he'd be 71/72 when he filmed his scenes)... And he likely won't be in it for most of it's 2 Hours 30 Minutes runtime.

In contrast, Dan would've been 68/69, Ernie 75/76, and Bill 70/71... And while both Bill and Dan had made efforts to get themselves into better shape, Ernie was clearly the fittest of the three despite being the oldest.

Their age and physical condition likely would've limited how much physical Ghostbusting work they could do. And then there's the larger than life elephant in the room... Bill.
I'd like to believe that both Dan and Ernie would've been up for more Ghostbusting in Afterlife if they'd had the chance... Would Bill?
Given some of the stories we've heard about him, such as his involvement with Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and his effort in portraying Venkman in the film (his scene with Sigourney is miles better than his interaction with Gozer), and even his appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (one scene, and I'm not even entirely certain his entry into that scene was played by him, and not by a stand-in)... I think Bill's generally of the approach these days of doing as little as he can get away without getting into legal trouble with the studio (I think he does make more of an effort if he's on a project he has an active interest in, or working with someone he enjoys working with, such as Wes Anderson).

While I do wish more of the scenes that had been shot with them had been included in the film... I respect that maybe they were felt to be too distracting, or bogged the plot down too much when they were in the cut.

Ultimately, beyond Jason's creative decisions, I think the two big additional reasons why we didn't have that "triumphant return" of the original cast that Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home had is that the actors are just two old physically and visibly old to be convincing running around New York wearing heavy Ghostbusting equipment. Having CG stand-ins would never have been an option... Either for Jason's use of traditional film-making techniques, nor for the still-present issues of escaping the uncanny valley, nor to try achieve the film's goal of pulling a Nicholas Meyer in producing an enjoyable and eye-catching movie, but for a fraction of the production budget of the previous, less-successful film.

And beyond all that, another reason why we didn't have that triumphant return like some other films, was the loss of Harold.

There's even a question to be asked, would we have seen another Ghostbusters movie after Answer The Call, had Harold's passing not crystalized Jason's concept... And convinced Sony to give it a try?

There'll always be a part of me that will lament the film we could've gotten had things been different, but I think it is a little miserly to hold it against Afterlife (and Jason) that it didn't have that triumphant return of the Ghostbusters we all wished we could've seen, when time, illness, and one actor's ego are much more responsible for that.

I too would like to see the franchise succeed... And continuing your sports metaphor, the Ghostbusters franchise is being run by Sony in a similar fashion to how Newcastle United (the UK football team I casually followed) was run by the rather amoral and unscrupulous businessman who owned it for 14 years: operating it as cheaply as possible, pausing investment and expansion of the team's stadium (as well as renaming it after his equally-amoral business), and selling off the talented players the club was able to cultivate so he could maximize his profit from it...
Sony will drip-feed us new content on home release, forcing us into the cynical position of buying the latest limited-time special edition if we want to have the newest cache of never-seen-before content from the movies... And doing this while also running the franchise as inexpensively as possible... Even though it is the one franchise they currently fully own, enjoy a massive amount of fond nostalgia with the public, that hasn't lost its fans, and has the massive potential for a lot more mixed media.

See I want this franchise not to just make good movies but I want it to succeed. And focusing on characters no one gives a shit about just isn’t the way to do that.

Except, it kinda is.

The average life expectancy for a North American male is 75. Bill's three years shy of that average, Dan's five, and Ernie's outlived it by two years.
Ernie is likely to keep going longer than Bill and Dan, but (as much as I don't want to think about it) we will likely be seeing the sad news in the near future that Dan or Bill has passed away, and to continue the franchise Sony needs to bring in new characters to keep the torch burning.

I appreciate they may not be as well-loved as the originals, but Ghostbusters can carry on with a new team... Star Trek and Doctor Who has shown us that time and time again.

“Ghostbusters” isn’t just anyone strapping on a proton pack.

Given your preference for Extreme Ghostbusters, surely that's proof enough that as long as the characters are well-written, and blue-collar enough, that "anyone strapping on a Proton Pack" can be a Ghostbuster?

Is Bill Murray funny anymore? I just watched Antman and I didn’t find him funny. I didn’t find him funny in GBA either.

I don't think he was playing it to be funny. I believe his approach to the character was one

who had a facade of friendly civility, masking a core of contentment with his new comfortable position. And notice how the warmth dropped away when he revealed his true motivations.

This Post Contains Spoilers

[deadderek]

1. Ole Bill looking like it's 'bout that time.

2. I've seen someone claim "Pretty sure it has came to Scotland to be an exhibit in the Riverside transport museum in Glasgow" in regards to the Ecto, but I've my doubts on that.

[Kingpin]

2. I've seen someone claim "Pretty sure it has came to Scotland to be an exhibit in the Riverside transport museum in Glasgow" in regards to the Ecto, but I've my doubts on that.

I saw that claim as well. I've tried to look into the convention he mentioned Comic Con Takeover at Caledonia Park, however there's so little photographic or video material from the event even on the convention's official social media... There's no way to conclude what Ecto-1 was supposedly there (though I'm inclined to go with it being one of the fan-owned replicas).

I've asked him if his friend took any photos, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

Given the small nature of the event and setting, I don't believe for a second the actual screen-used prop was sent to it. Even when Sony were promoting Answer the Call in 2016, they had a replica of the 2016 Ecto-1 parked at London's Waterloo Station, rather than one of the filming cars.

[tobycj]

1. Ole Bill looking like it's 'bout that time.

2. I've seen someone claim "Pretty sure it has came to Scotland to be an exhibit in the Riverside transport museum in Glasgow" in regards to the Ecto, but I've my doubts on that.

The Wrecto is categorically not in Scotland right now, it's in London. I agree with Kingpin, if they were going to do promo work they'd more than likely use one of the Ectos we already have in the UK rather than spending tens of thousands on shipping one back and forth.

[timeware]

I'm really excited for what filming in London could potentially mean for Spirits unleashed. I doubt we'll see an open world version of the game but I would love to see some London based maps added. Having the option to switch between the new fire house, and if we have a new headquarters available on the games start up.

Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the tower of london would be hell of a fun map to play. There's a long list of potential locations.

Movie wise Seeing the London based team trap Jack the Ripper would be fun, especially if we get a montage of London Ghosts and a comical scene of the Busters trying to pull King Henry's fat ass into a trap and his "ex wives" pointing and laughing at him.

[philmorgan81]

...but now with all the discussion that’s happening on this thread could we be seeing more of the surviving OGs again? Like do we think that Bill will be involved again? Will they suit up one last time? Will they be more central to the story this time around?

This is continuation of the new characters story from Afterlife. Winston and Ray will likely feature, but this isn't going to be the OG's suiting up as a central part of the story. Please don't do this to yourselves, again! But yes, new Ghostbusters is very exciting.

After the long wait for Afterlife I'm trying my best to forget Afterlife 2 is happening, so it'll be a pleasant surprise. I still think it may slip to Summer 2024.

LOL! Oh I am not trying to build up any unreasonable expectations to just let myself down. . Afterlife is everything I could have wanted from a legacy sequel and so much more. It really wrapped things up. It’s just the fact that filming is set to start for this new one and I can’t help but be excited that another film is an actual reality as opposed to a concept that is going to be in production hell for 20 years. .

I am just ecstatic that the franchise is moving forward and am looking forward to how it evolves.

[RichardLess]

Tom Cruise flying jets playing Maverick.

Tom was 58/59 when they made Maverick... He's generally in good physical shape due to his ongoing commitment to the Mission Impossible franchise, and while there was the added physical aspect of this film's visuals being shot in real fighter jets over the original's... In some ways this film was probably a lot less of a workout for him than some of the others he's done... He certainly didn't break any legs filming this one.

You guys wanna know why Spider-Man No Way Home made so much money? It had all the Spider-Men and again, gave audiences what they wanted.

Tobey was 45/46 when they filmed No Way Home, and Andrew 37/38, plus a lot of the more involved work in the film would've been CG stand-ins.

In both instances we're dealing with actors who were substantially younger than Bill, Dan and Ernie, and so up to more physical work than our boys in grey.

Watch what’s going to happen with Michael Keaton playing Batman again in the flash.

He's going to be great, but his appearance will likely be similar to Tobey and Andrew in No Way Home, some of his depiction of Batman is likely to be CG and by stuntman/men when it calls for something that Keaton himself isn't physically able to do anymore (he'd be 71/72 when he filmed his scenes)... And he likely won't be in it for most of it's 2 Hours 30 Minutes runtime.

In contrast, Dan would've been 68/69, Ernie 75/76, and Bill 70/71... And while both Bill and Dan had made efforts to get themselves into better shape, Ernie was clearly the fittest of the three despite being the oldest.

Their age and physical condition likely would've limited how much physical Ghostbusting work they could do. And then there's the larger than life elephant in the room... Bill.
I'd like to believe that both Dan and Ernie would've been up for more Ghostbusting in Afterlife if they'd had the chance... Would Bill?
Given some of the stories we've heard about him, such as his involvement with Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and his effort in portraying Venkman in the film (his scene with Sigourney is miles better than his interaction with Gozer), and even his appearance in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (one scene, and I'm not even entirely certain his entry into that scene was played by him, and not by a stand-in)... I think Bill's generally of the approach these days of doing as little as he can get away without getting into legal trouble with the studio (I think he does make more of an effort if he's on a project he has an active interest in, or working with someone he enjoys working with, such as Wes Anderson).

While I do wish more of the scenes that had been shot with them had been included in the film... I respect that maybe they were felt to be too distracting, or bogged the plot down too much when they were in the cut.

Ultimately, beyond Jason's creative decisions, I think the two big additional reasons why we didn't have that "triumphant return" of the original cast that Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home had is that the actors are just two old physically and visibly old to be convincing running around New York wearing heavy Ghostbusting equipment. Having CG stand-ins would never have been an option... Either for Jason's use of traditional film-making techniques, nor for the still-present issues of escaping the uncanny valley, nor to try achieve the film's goal of pulling a Nicholas Meyer in producing an enjoyable and eye-catching movie, but for a fraction of the production budget of the previous, less-successful film.

And beyond all that, another reason why we didn't have that triumphant return like some other films, was the loss of Harold.

There's even a question to be asked, would we have seen another Ghostbusters movie after Answer The Call, had Harold's passing not crystalized Jason's concept... And convinced Sony to give it a try?

There'll always be a part of me that will lament the film we could've gotten had things been different, but I think it is a little miserly to hold it against Afterlife (and Jason) that it didn't have that triumphant return of the Ghostbusters we all wished we could've seen, when time, illness, and one actor's ego are much more responsible for that.

I too would like to see the franchise succeed... And continuing your sports metaphor, the Ghostbusters franchise is being run by Sony in a similar fashion to how Newcastle United (the UK football team I casually followed) was run by the rather amoral and unscrupulous businessman who owned it for 14 years: operating it as cheaply as possible, pausing investment and expansion of the team's stadium (as well as renaming it after his equally-amoral business), and selling off the talented players the club was able to cultivate so he could maximize his profit from it...
Sony will drip-feed us new content on home release, forcing us into the cynical position of buying the latest limited-time special edition if we want to have the newest cache of never-seen-before content from the movies... And doing this while also running the franchise as inexpensively as possible... Even though it is the one franchise they currently fully own, enjoy a massive amount of fond nostalgia with the public, that hasn't lost its fans, and has the massive potential for a lot more mixed media.

See I want this franchise not to just make good movies but I want it to succeed. And focusing on characters no one gives a shit about just isn’t the way to do that.

Except, it kinda is.

The average life expectancy for a North American male is 75. Bill's three years shy of that average, Dan's five, and Ernie's outlived it by two years.
Ernie is likely to keep going longer than Bill and Dan, but (as much as I don't want to think about it) we will likely be seeing the sad news in the near future that Dan or Bill has passed away, and to continue the franchise Sony needs to bring in new characters to keep the torch burning.

I appreciate they may not be as well-loved as the originals, but Ghostbusters can carry on with a new team... Star Trek and Doctor Who has shown us that time and time again.

“Ghostbusters” isn’t just anyone strapping on a proton pack.

Given your preference for Extreme Ghostbusters, surely that's proof enough that as long as the characters are well-written, and blue-collar enough, that "anyone strapping on a Proton Pack" can be a Ghostbuster?

Yes they are old. Correct. But I don’t need them busting Ghosts the entire movie(that’s never been a big part of these movies. We usually get 2 sequences of proton pack action. So the age difference doesn’t really hurt them as much as if this were an action franchise). And I’m not against new characters appearing. New characters are vital. GBA should’ve been the last hurrah for the old crew. Introduce new characters and have them take on the next movie with the OGB’s in a supporting role. That way if they succumb to the average life expectancy you quoted we have a team waiting in the wings.

I’m not against new characters wearing proton packs. Yes I liked Extreme Ghostbusters(and as if to prove my point…how many seasons of that show did we get? Didn’t exactly set the world on fire did it?) & I liked GBA but this is about “How do we make the best movie and have it go huge?”. And again Extreme Ghostbusters would’ve been a great template. Especially an episode like “Back in the Saddle”. You mix the pilot episode and back in the saddle EGB episodes and baby, you’ve got a stew going!

As for Bill. He’s always the wild card but you offer him enough money and I think he’d show. He showed up for the week on GBA and if he was willing to work on it at all I believe in my heart of hearts had they had gone to him with a script where the GB’s are the main characters he would’ve done it. Ultimately I think why his performance can feel off is because there wasn’t enough Venkman. It’s telling his best scene is in the end credits bit. We get Venkman dialed to 11 right off the bat in the movie proper. If the movie had eased us into it like the others? It’s like…imagine if our first scene with Venkman in GB2 was his face off with Vigo. Wouldn’t work as well would it? You need to get into the tempo of Venkman. He’s not a good 1 scene character. He’s not a good cameo character.

Here’s my point about Michael Keaton. Did you see the latest Flash trailer? He was featured heavily. By all accounts he’s the 3rd co lead of the movie. The point is A) he’s in it a lot B) they show him in the marketing kicking ass. C)He’s integral to the plot. The GB’s in GBA could not appear and it wouldn’t make much of a difference & marketing tried to hide their involvement as much as possible.

I think it’s fair to lay this on the feet of Sony and the Reitman’s. Jason Reitman and Gil came up with the story and while it was a likeable story in it’s own way, as we are seeing with these other franchises mentioned, if we want GB to be the big kahuna it once was? It was the wrong story. I liked it but GBA was the fulcrum point of this franchise. Like I said earlier, GBA as a story should’ve been GB4. GBA needed to be a jumpstart, a kick in the nuts, a jolt to the system, a “here I am mother effers”. It was just good enough to keep the franchise alive. Again we wasted all that momentum on a “GB3”. It was bad enough audiences had GB16 zap the franchise of some of that momentum but since it wasn’t a proper sequel…but you only get one of those.

If instead of GBA they gave us a GB3 where the 3 surviving guys are our main characters and we keep the whole “Spengler ghost aspect, lose the kids, keep Paul Rudd + a couple new team members, have Spengler communicating with Ray instead of Pheobe, lose Gozer and Summerville, keep it in New York, make the ending big and huge & epic with resorting to CGI overload…keep the ending where Spengler helps them defeat the big bad but Don’t have him move on. Have him as a permanent ghost in the fire house(invisible the majority of the time). That would’ve been the way to go.


And I hate to say it but…I think Stranger Things took a lot of wind out of this movies sails. And hiring an actor whose one of the main characters in that show? Initially I thought it would be fine. But it wasn’t. This movie is pretty much Strangers Things: Ghostbusters. It doesn’t kill the movie. But it hurt it as far as interest I think. You never know how much things like that actually hurt a movie but I don’t think it was negligible.

[timeware]

Here’s my point about Michael Keaton. Did you see the latest Flash trailer? He was featured heavily. By all accounts he’s the 3rd co lead of the movie. The point is A) he’s in it a lot B) they show him in the marketing kicking ass. C)He’s integral to the plot. The GB’s in GBA could not appear and it wouldn’t make much of a difference & marketing tried to hide their involvement as much as possible.

There's a reason why Michael Keaton is featured heavily in the flash trailer, and that's largely due to Ezra's shenanigans and legal troubles. I like Michael Keaton and he's my favorite Batman. It's..

I can't bring myself to support Miller with his violent history. Anyway I don't want to de rail the thread so I'll leave it at that.

This Post Contains Spoilers

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I do agree they are using Keaton heavily to play on nostalgia. I may change my mind if the rumors are true about Grant Gustin becoming the new flash going forward. Anyway back to Ghostbusting.