Universal Studios
It’s been fun coming up with funny women who could or should be in the all-female Ghostbusters sequel/reboot, but now the actual foursome has been announced, and it’s heavy on the Saturday Night Live vets. First up is Melissa McCarthy, never an SNL cast member but one of its favorite hosts of the past few years. We knew she’d be in the movie, even before writer-director Paul Feig acknowledged he’d likely re-team with the actress. She’s the Robert De Niro to his Martin Scorsese. Joining her is fellow Bridesmaids star Kristen Wiig and two current ladies of SNL, recent addition Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, who has sort of been the Kristen Wiig substitute (yet still brilliantly hilarious all her own). This is a dream cast for some of us. I’m one of them.
It makes sense that Feig would look to the late-night sketch comedy show, as it keeps with the original Ghostbusters cast, which was actually supposed to be more SNL heavy than it was. Dan Aykroyd’s first choices for the main trio were himself, John Belushi and Eddie Murphy. After Belushi died, another SNL cast member, Bill Murray came aboard. Murphy, meanwhile, declined his offer. Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis were both sketch vets, too, but from SCTV. Ernie Hudson, meanwhile, was an odd man out in that regard. As for the other parallel you’d all like to make: let’s not bother trying to determine which new Ghostbuster matches up with which old Ghostbuster, even if there’s one black person in this foursome, just like in the old.
The movie will begin shooting this summer, and while The Hollywood Reporter specifies that Wiig, Jones and McKinnon are all still in negotiations for their parts in the highly anticipated action comedy, Feig took to Twitter with what can only be called a done deal. Here they are, as revealed by the man at the helm:
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) January 27, 2015
Related Topics: Ghostbusters
