CONFIRMED: Lord and Miller WERE set to direct Chris Pratt and Channing Tatum Ghostbusters project!

Aw, man.

You may recall waaaaaaaaaay back in December 2014, while we were still hopeful about Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters movie, we were reporting on another Ghostbusters project that was in the planning stages which would see Feig’s team meet the original team in a multiverse adventure.

At the time we reported that Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt were eyed to be the new GBs in the original movie universe (here) who would meet Feig’s team, with the movie being produced by Avengers Infinity War and Endgame’s Russo brothers producing.

Remember the end of Feig’s movie which teased Gozer? Yeah, that was to be the backbone of this adventure.

At the time, we wrote that Hannah Minghella, co-president of production for Columbia Pictures, wrote in an email to Amy Pascall:

“So… in a curious turn of events – the Russos and Channing want to develop Ghostbusters as a vehicle for Channing and Chris Pratt to do together.

“The Russos, Channing and Reid have been brainstorming ideas and want to create a whole new mythology that would support multiple movies (the way that Nolan reinvented Batman). To be clear – the Russos want to produce (not direct) and while Channing and Chris are looking for a movie to do together they haven’t mentioned this to him yet because they weren’t sure how we’d react.

“They want to make it simultaneously super scary while also super funny. They love the idea that they are mortal heroes who are believers in the paranormal and the only people who can defend mankind from a paranormal threat. I know we’re mid-negotiations with Paul [Feig]. I’m not sure whether we’d ever develop two different versions simultaneously. Joe Russo is open to the idea that both movies could be developed in partnership so they compliment one another within the same Ghostbusters universe.”

Apparently the Russos are very close to Paul and Joe suggested Paul could be attached to direct both. Personally, I think it’s possible for the female version to co-exist with this other version so maybe they’re not mutually exclusive.”

We learned after that Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce confirmed that he has finished the script (here) and that, yes, Tatum and Pratt were indeed the cast they were looking at calling the idea ‘bold’ and saying: “That’s definitely the cast we’ve been thinking about as we approach the project. Whether that happens or not is very much above my pay grade. It’s just my job to give them something exciting that maybe they’ll do.”

We also learned that, while it says in the email that Feig wanted to direct, he was off the team after Answer the Call, with an exciting replacement in the pipeline instead.

Sounds pretty exciting, right?

However, when we learned recently that Ghostbusters: Afterlife was also being developed at the same time as Paul Feig’s movie, we figured all this was just wishful thinking.

Seems not.

See, at this time Sony was developing the Ghostbusters think tank, Ghost Corps, was being created and the Ghostbusters universe was waiting to explode, with original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman said of the Corp: “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.”

And now Jump Street and Into the Spider-verse co-director Phil Lord has confirmed that he and his other co-director, Christopher Miller were indeed set to make the movie: “I don’t know what we can or should say, but we can say we had a friend who had an idea for a Ghostbusters thing that was great and we developed it for a little bit with Ivan. Then we put it to the side for a bit and I don’t know if it will ever come back, but it was fun. My understanding is that where Jason and Ivan are heading is, first things first, ‘protect the mothership’. Ours was a little more sideways of that.”

Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

We almost had a Ghostbusters movie which would have the original team, the Answer the Call ladies, directed by the guys behind Into the Spider-verse and produced by Ivan Reitman and the chaps behind Captain America Civil War and the two best Avengers movies… and Sony passed?!

But perhaps it’s not totally dead.

Recently Afterlife director and co-writer Jason Reitman commented that: “We wanted to make a movie that opens the universe to all kinds of stories. I want to see Ghostbusters movies from all of my favorite directors, and we hope that this movie sets the table for that.”

Interesting that he says ‘opens the universe, isn’t it?

Sony, if you’re reading this, please, please, please go back and do this… with Marvel and DC exploring their own multiverses, the movie-going audience is more than ready and receptive to this concept and since IDW Comics already blew open the multiverse and pulled in Ghostbusters teams from all sorts of mediums and universes, this is an idea ripe for the plucking.

And, hate Feig’s movie or not, there’s no denying that there’s talent in that cast and we’d be more than happy to see them all return in a massive project like this.

Thoughts?