Are the Russo Brothers set to direct an all-male Ghostbusters movie starring Channing Tatum? UPDATED: Movie plans and Chris Pratt involved too

It looks like the female Ghostbusters movie directed by Paul Feig is only the step in a long journey to a… wait for it… shared Ghostbusters universe.

Sony Pictures aren’t just developing the Feig movie, they are developing Ghostcorps.

Ghost what now?

Ghostcorps; a new production company within Sony that will be led by Dan Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman, two of the main men behind the 1984 classic, whose job it is to, simply put, build a Ghostbusters universe with more movie franchises and sequels and spinoffs and TV series and everything else you can imagine.

First out of the stables, after Feig’s female reboot, is a male-driven movie with Captain America: The Winter Soldier helmers Joe and  Anthony Russo – who signed a first-look deal with Sony last week (here)- in line to produce and possibly direct. Iron Man 3 and Mission: Impossible 5 writer Drew Pearce is tipped to scribe it, while Channing Tatum and his partners Reid Carolin and Peter Kiernan are on production duties too. The story goes that Tatum is the one they want fronting the male Ghostbusters team in the eventual movie.

This is the team who pretty much put together the Jump Street movies.

Ivan Rietman has confirmed that the plan is to use Ghostcorp to develop the Ghostbusters universe: “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.”

Reitman confirmed that, along with himself and Aykroyd, Ghostcorps principals will be his longtime Montecito partner Tom Pollock, Ali Bell and Alex Plapinger and Sony: “My primary focus will be to build the Ghostbusters into the universe it always promised it might become. The original film is beloved, as is the cast, and we hope to create films we will continue to love.”

Reitman seemed reflective on the delayed Ghostbusters III that eventually led to a reboot because it took so long (and Bill Murray refused to play ball: “Sometimes things happen at the speed they are supposed to happen,” he said.

“The deals were so strong on that second movie that the franchise became frozen in place for 25 years. Nothing got done, we all had the power to block whatever we didn’t like, but we finally got together and found a way.”

So, we guess this is the final nail in the coffin for the original Ghostbusters continuity, despite what Dan Aykroyd said a few weeks ago (here) about it being possible we will see a true Ghostbusters III.

It’s time we rolled over and accepted this and pray that Dan, Ivan and the very talented people they’re assembling will loo after our baby.

Ghostbusters is dead. Long live Ghostbusters

UPDATED

The guys at BadassDigest are reporting that the details differ slightly from what we heard last night.

The second movie isn’t “guy-centric”, though it does have males in the cast leads in the form of Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt (remember we reported this three months ago here?); the two are best friends in real life and want Ghostbusters to be the franchise that brings them together in a movie.

Additionally, it’s complementary to the Paul Feig female GB film and the aim is to have a big world out there that interlocks – the current plan is to have the two movies then bring them together in a third. They say this isn’t a kneejerk  to try and backtrack on the negative response they fans have been having; and, in fairness, we know this is probably true… see our report from three months ago, this has been the plan for a while now.

Basically, Fieg’s movie will be a different animal than the Reitman/Aykroyd/Russo movie (could this be what Dan Aykroyd meant when he said a while ago that we’ll see a more traditional Ghostbusters movie that will use some of the ideas they had for what was originally GBIII (here)?) and eventually they will crossover at a natural point.

There will also be a prequel movie… although at this point no-one outside the studio has any idea what that will be; but we’re assured it will not have anything to do with the original 1984 movie, so don’t get your hopes up.

It seems that, while this is a Ghostbusters universe, not all the movies will necessarily be about Ghostbustering; some of the movies will be supernatural comedies but not necessarily about teams catching ghosts.

so, there you have it, folks… make of it what you will.

Source: Deadline & BadassDigest