Over at the Daily Beast, they reveal the (alleged) content of emails between Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment and original Ghostbusters director/producer, Ivan Reitman regarding casting considerations for the reboot.
Also, there's a more yucky-feeling email from David Steinberg, head of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s legal department, to Leah Weil, SPE’s general counsel. This particular one from October 31, 2013 reveals potential legal action against Bill Murray due to his reluctance to star in the female-centric film. Because of course he's totally obligated to be in that film, right? No.
Here is the content of the Bill Murray email:
“In order to more fully evaluate our position if Bill Murray again declines to engage on ‘Ghostbusters’, AG requested that we identify ‘aggressive’ litigation counsel with whom we can consult to evaluate our alternatives and strategize. [Harkening back to his prior employer, of course, raised the name of David Boies.] Personally, while I’m fine with aggressive, I think we are in much worse shape if this goes public so seems to me we should look for someone who isn’t seeking the spotlight.”
So, they'd look like total jerks if they pursued this aggressive legal action on a beloved icon. Aren't they sweet to let this one slide?
Now here's the lighter email from Pascal to Reitman dated October 8, 2014 regarding casting for the film that is hopefully being released in the summer of 2016. I say hopefully because it'll mean we finally have put to rest all of the rumors swirling around this film.
“Agree that everyone is way too nervous about how this issue and how we. present it but it's isn't a sequel to the 80s movies and it is gonna be totally original with completely different characters and our job is to find a clever way to connect the movie to the original franchise so that we can use all the assets and everything that is great about the original franchise. Paul's movie is gonna be the first one and from what I'm hearing jennifer lawrence and Emma stone and Melissa McCarthy and Amy schumer and liszzy [Lizzy] Kaplan just to name a few have already said thy wanted to be in....”
It's nice to see a big Hollywood exec isn't great with grammar but hey, at least we now know the direction it may take. To me it reads like, "We're going to take advantage of nostalgia thanks to the awesomeness of the original so we can draw in folks and take their money."
So what about the potential cast members? News recently broke that Rebel Wilson has been linked and stated "Look, I have had a meeting, but who knows? They have to look at the script when it's finished." I like the idea of Wilson being part of the film as well as the potential casting of Stone, McCarthy, Schumer and Kaplan. The addition of Jennifer Lawrence will most likely be Box Office gold but would she fit in?
So what say you about this Ghostbusters news? Are you surprised? What about the scandal in general? We're just glad they left Bill alone.
-Larissa Mrykalo