Ghostbusters: Dan Aykroyd Blames Paul Feig For Reboot's Failure
"He will not be back on the Sony lot anytime soon."
If you're one of the less cynical Ghostbusters reboot fans, you probably blame the film's comparative failure on the "unfair" critical mauling, or the man-child reactions to it before it even came out. The reality is that it just wasn't a good film: it wasn't funny, it wasn't balanced, the characters didn't work the same way the original chemistry did, the villain sucked and the script was a mess.
Who that all comes down to is probably up for debate, but it seems Dan Aykroyd has a pretty clear idea of who should be blamed.
The star - who actually appeared for a pointless and confusing cameo along with the rest of the original cast - spoke about the reboot on UK breakfast TV show Sunday Brunch, and pointed the finger at Feig's directing method. And by the sound of it, he didn't have the control he wanted over the film, despite being credited as an executive producer:
“The director, he spent too much on it and he didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him. Several scenes that were going to be needed, he said, ‘No, we don’t need them.’ And then we tested the movie and they needed them, and he had to go back — about $30 to $40 million in reshoots.”
Ouch.
Aykroyd did praise the cast and conceded that he "was really happy with the movie" but it sounds like he believes it was killed as a financially viable franchise starter by the expense.
"...It cost too much, and Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world, but it just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one.”
Despite Aykroyd's claim that Feig "will not be back on the Sony lot anytime soon," THR are quoting a source close to the production (that old chestnut) who said "the studio had an incredible relationship with the director, who was first-rate," and countered that the reshoots only cost about $3-4 million.
Still, it's unlikely the sequel will come anyway, regardless of who you choose to blame.
What did you think of the Ghostbusters reboot? Is Aykroyd right? Share your reactions below in the comments thread.