New GHOSTBUSTERS Movie in Development with Channing Tatum, The Russo Brothers, and Drew Pearce Involved

Looks like Sony is going all-in on the Ghostbusters franchise. After years of stalled efforts to bring a third movie to fruition finally culminated with the greenlight on a Paul Feig-directed all-female sequel, the studio has put a new male-themed Ghostbusters movie in development with Captain America: Civil War directors Joe and Anthony Russo hoping to direct, Iron Man 3 scribe Drew Pearce writing the screenplay, and Channing Tatum and his producing partner Reid Carolin lined up to produce, while Tatum will play one of the new male Ghostbusters. (He pitched an idea for Chris Pratt to be in this cast a few months ago, but there's no word yet on Pratt's potential involvement.)

Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, the creative minds behind the original film, will be major creative voices in a new Sony company called Ghost Corps that will develop future Ghostbusters-related properties for film, TV, and beyond. This level of branding is something that Aykroyd has been talking about for years, but with new studio head Tom Rothman having just taken the helm at Sony, he's making it happen.

The Russo Brothers, who just signed a three year first-look deal with Sony, have been rumored to be taking over the director's chair on Avengers: Infinity War Part I and Part II, but nothing has been confirmed with that yet, so we'll have to wait and see what the timeline looks like; it could be a few years before this new Ghostbusters sequel gets up and running. Still, I can't deny the appeal of Channing Tatum suiting up to bust some ghosts, the Russos have proven to be excellent directors, and Pearce's script for Iron Man 3 was fantastic, so as much as I sort of loathe the idea of branding for the sake of branding, everything sounds pretty good with this so far.

Here's what Reitman had to say about this new development:

“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 hear [sic]. It’s just the beginning of what I hope will be a lot of wonderful movies.”

What do you think? Are you excited about the explosion of Ghostbusters-related films we're about to see?