GHOSTBUSTERS Gets a Cinematic Universe, Four Films Currently Planned

Yesterday's announcement about a new Ghostbusters movie with Channing Tatum, The Russo Brothers, and Iron Man 3 screenwriter Drew Pearce involved was very divisive. On one hand, that's an awesome collection of creative people, so this new movie could end up being pretty great. But on the other hand, the way Deadline reporter Mike Fleming framed the news was that the new movie would be "guy-centric," which left a bad taste in a lot of peoples' mouths because Paul Feig's all-female Ghostbusters movie hasn't even started filming yet, and the idea of another all-guy team was following hot on its heels undercut the progressive nature of an all-female Ghostbusters to begin with.

Thankfully, that online outrage was misplaced this time. Badass Digest has a new report that says that the new movie won't be "guy-centric" at all, with three separate sources from the studio saying that they had no idea where that description came from.* It's true that two guys are supposed to be at the center of the movie: Tatum and Chris Pratt - friends who have been looking for a project to work on together - are being pitched as two of the leads, which lines up with a report from a few months ago that basically said the same thing.

Furthermore, there are already plans in place for the all-female team and the new team comprised of Tatum and Pratt (and likely some others) to meet up in a separate movie, Avengers-style. The fourth film idea that's being tossed around is a prequel to these new films, although it won't involve the cast from the 1984 original and not much is known about it at this point.

And finally, Badass Digest says that the term "Ghostbusters" may become a bit more fluid in the coming years:

I think the key here is that while it's the Ghostbusters universe, not every movie has to be about people busting ghosts. Talking to my sources it's become clear that 'Ghostbusters' is going to be the catch-all umbrella for a world of supernatural FX comedies. That world will truly become clear in the team-up film. If the plan for almost yearly Ghostbusters movies holds, these four - the all-female, the Channing/Pratt, the crossover and the prequel - definitely provide a base to rotate annually between tones and concepts.

Dan Aykroyd has been talking about building out the Ghostbusters franchise for decades, and it looks like they're following the Marvel method to finally make that happen for real. Am I excited about the idea? It certainly has a lot more potential than some other planned attempts to create a shared cinematic universe, and I can see it becoming a Star Wars type of situation in which new filmmakers and actors cycle through and do a very different take on the supernatural material that takes place in the same world. (Can you imagine Guillermo del Toro maybe putting his stamp on this in a few years, and the awesome creature effects he'd bring to the table?)

What do you all think?

*The concept of a "guy-centric" Ghostbusters movie seemed to be a creation of Deadline reporter Mike Fleming, who was staunchly opposed to Feig's all-female version of the movie. It looks like he just made that portion of the news up in a headline, and took this new announcement as an opportunity for him to further his weird agenda.