Russo Brothers Are No Longer Involved In The Ghostbusters Franchise

 

There is news that Joe and Anthony Russo’s long-rumoured involvement with the Ghostbusters franchise at Sony is no more. Clearly, the Russo Brothers haven’t lost much, as it is their hiring for Avengers: Infinity War that has taken them out of the ghostbusting equation. Speaking to Forbes about the impending release of Captain America: Civil War, Joe and Anthony Russo explained that, in reality, Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters was simply first across the finish line.

“There was a period there when Paul Feig was engaging Sony in talks about Ghostbusters and we were also engaging them. He was further along with his process than we were and he closed his deal so that’s the only Ghostbusters world that’s being explored right now over at Sony. Once we took Avengers: Infinity War it took us off the table for any kind of any potential work on a Ghostbusters project.”

The anti-female Ghostbusters camp had long held the prospect of an all-male version as reason for optimism regarding the rebooting of the classic franchise. The version discussed here was being written by Drew Pearce and had Channing Tatum attached to star. Producer of the original Ghostbusters movies, Ivan Reitman, had even referred to this competing project in interviews. He said “We want to expand the Ghostbusters universe in ways that will include different films, TV shows, merchandise, all things that are part of modern filmed entertainment. This is a branded entertainment, a scary supernatural premise mixed with comedy. Paul Feig’s film will be the first version of that, shooting in June to come out in July, 2016. He’s got four of the funniest women in the world, and there will be other surprises to come. The second film has a wonderful idea that builds on that. Drew will start writing and the hope is to be ready for the Russo Brothers’ next window next summer to shoot, with the movie coming out the following year. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies”.