Drew Pearce's GHOSTBUSTERS Movie Still in The Works, Tatum and Pratt Still Eyed to Star
Decades after the previous entry in the franchise, we're about to be completely inundated with Ghostbusters films. There's a whole cinematic universe brewing over at Sony, and recently there's been a lot of back and forth about what's actually happening and what isn't. So let's try to clear some things up.
Earlier this year, word came out that Iron Man 3 writer Drew Pearce was writing a new Ghostbusters movie that Anthony and Joe Russo would produce and Channing Tatum and Chris Pratt were being eyed to star. This whole thing apparently stemmed from Tatum wanting to work with Pratt (who's a good friend of his), so he e-mailed the studio and pitched the project to them. The initial report claimed this was going to be a "guy-centric" movie, unlike Paul Feig's upcoming female-led film, but a follow-up report quickly disproved that aspect. Then Chris Pratt ended up denying the entire thing, calling the rumors "complete bullshit," which seemed a little strange to me at the time.
But now the truth comes out. On the Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation red carpet at the New York premiere, MTV spoke with Pearce about the project, and the writer confirmed that not only is it still happening, but he's done with the script:
“I’ve finished my work on that in the last couple weeks. Obviously it’s top secret, but there’s a gigantic bold idea that I came up with, and the Russo brothers — who did ’Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ and are doing ’Civil War’ at the moment — and Ivan Reitman, who did the original movie, are going to take that and run with it. Obviously I cannot tell you what it is, but hopefully in one year’s time you’ll know!”
He also confirmed that Tatum and Pratt are the duo they're looking at to star, and he mentioned that ideally the film would take place in the same cinematic universe as Paul Feig's movie, which aligns with earlier report about the studio's plans for a cohesive universe.
Even with Tatum and Pratt eyed as headliners, there's still no confirmation that this will be an all-male take on the Ghostbusters. And as for Pratt's denial, I suppose we should give him the benefit of the doubt and guess that he just hadn't heard anything official about the project, so he assumed it was all rumors and hearsay. With the rumors about him playing Indiana Jones swirling, I wouldn't blame him if his instinct is just to deny everything until his contract is signed.