Below you’ll find a first official look at the cast, in full costume, weapons ready, for what will be an all-female “Ghostsbusters” movie, which was shared by director Paul Feig via Twitter.
From left to right: Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones.
Paul Feig also directed McCarthy and Wiig in “Bridesmaids” by the way.
Of interest to S&A readers is, of course, Leslie Jones, who was promoted to series cast member on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” in October 2014, from her previous position in the writers’ room.
Let’s hope she doesn’t get shafted like Ernie Hudson was when he appeared in the original movie franchise. Briefly, in what was essentially an “open letter” published on the Entertainment Weekly website last November, Ernie Hudson got personal, sharing that he didn’t feel the acting career that taking the role (Winston Zeddemore, in “Ghostbusters”) promised, ever fully materialized, because, as he stated in the article, the role he was initially offered isn’t the role that he ended up playing. In the original script, the character was far meatier than the character that you see in the film that was released 30 years ago.
As he stated: “Now I’ve heard, over the years, that the part had been written for Eddie Murphy – all of which Ivan Reitman says is not true. But it was a bigger part, and Winston was there all the way through the movie. After a long audition process, I finally got the part and made the awful mistake of letting it be known that I really, really wanted it. In Hollywood in those days, you set your quote – so if anybody calls about wanting to work with you, they had to meet your quote. I had just worked with Columbia on ‘Spacehunter,’ and my quote was pretty decent. For Ghostbusters, they came in at only half of my quote, because they said this role was going to make my career. I said to my agent, “I don’t care. Just take it, because I believe that.” So we go to New York and we rehearse for three weeks or whatever and I’m ready to roll. The night before filming begins, however, I get this new script and it was shocking. The character was gone. Instead of coming in at the very beginning of the movie, like page 8, the character came in on page 68 after the Ghostbusters were established. His elaborate background was all gone, replaced by me walking in and saying, “If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.” So that was pretty devastating.”
You can read the rest of that piece here.
So will Leslie Jones’ character be the Winston Zeddermore of the upcoming all-female “Ghostbusters”? Let’s hope not.
Ernie Hudson, by the way, is also part of the cast of Sony’s all-woman reboot, although his involvement is being kept underwraps. He joins fellow returning original “Ghostbusters” stars Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd in the reboot, so one can only assume that they all will be reprising their roles from the original franchise, maybe as a kind of “hand-off” to the all-woman team.
In what will be a rather blockbuster heavy year, especially during the first 8 months, the movie will be out in July 2016.
Source: Shadow & Act
