Released: November 19, 2021

Directed By:  Jason Reitman

Produced By:  Ivan Reitman

Written By: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman

Music By: Rob Simonsen

Stars:   Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon

Plot: When a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

How did this movie do:
Budget: $75 Million
Box Office: Not available at time of this posting.

• Finn Wolfhard did not know he was auditioning for Ghostbusters as the audition sides were purposefully kept to be generic and vague as the movie was being developed under secrecy.
  • Finn Wolfhard assumed the ’80s-set Stranger Things (2016) in which his character, Mike Wheeler, dressed up as a Ghostbuster for Halloween in Stranger Things: Chapter Two: Trick or Treat, Freak (2017) would take him out of the running and thought that Jason Reitman would not look at his tape because he had already done it in Stranger Things (2016), but Wolfhard ended up getting cast to his surprise because Reitman identified with Wolfhard’s audition tape.

• Jason Reitman appeared in Ghostbusters II (1989) as the kid who tells Ray that according to his dad, the Ghostbusters are “full of crap”.
  
  
• Bill Murray had been reluctant to reprise his role as Peter Venkman for decades (although he did return for Ghostbusters (2009)). He said in an interview that he finally chose to return because, “The script is good. It’s got lots of emotion in it. It’s got lots of family in it, with lines that are really interesting. It’s gonna work.”
  
  
• Director Jason Reitman is the son of Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989) director Ivan Reitman.
  
  
• Regarding why Slimer is not in the film. Reitman said that “Something happened to Slimer over the years that people started thinking of him as the dalmatian of the firehouse. The original Slimer was an angry dude and very scary and we really wanted to get back to that.” So they created Muncher.
  
  
• Under the working title “Rust City”, principal photography began on July 12, 2019, in Calgary, Alberta and area, and lasted until October. Filming had wrapped after 68 days.
  
  
• In the film Mckenna Grace who plays Phoebe wears the same glass frames as the late Harold Ramis wore as Dr. Egon Spengler in the original Ghostbusters (1984)
  
  
• Due to the controversy and financial failure of the remake Ghostbusters (2016), any further sequels for that movie were abandoned. This prompted Sony to instead make a sequel to the original two films.
  
  
• The Ecto-1 gunner seat was actually used in the related cartoon series, yet never used in either of the original films.
  
  
• The mine featured in the trailer belongs to the Shandor Mining Co. Ivo Shandor was the architect who designed the building that Dana Barrett lived in on Central Park West.
  
  
• Ernie Hudson is credited as “Dr. Winston Zeddmore”, indicating that in the time between Ghostbusters II (1989) and the new film, Winston may may have earned a Ph.D., which was hinted at in in-game dialogue of Ghostbusters (2009) during the museum level. The video game took place in 1991 (approximately 2 – 3 years after the events in Ghostbusters II). The other three original Ghostbusters were all previously referred to as Doctors in the original two movies.
  
  
• This film is the fifth time that Dan Aykroyd has played the character of Dr. Raymond Stantz. The other four are Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), Casper (1995), and Ghostbusters (2009).
  
  
• In 2007, Jason Reitman was asked by MTV what he would do if he had the chance to take on a Ghostbusters film himself. Reitman was quoted as saying, “It would be the most boring ‘Ghostbusters’ movie of all time. There would be no ghost busting…. ‘Ghostbusters’ is iconic and I don’t think I can touch that. My [‘Ghostbusters’ film] would just be guys talking about ghosts, really. ‘You hear about that ghost? Spooky stuff!’ And the other guy would be like, ‘Yeah’…. I don’t [have any plans to touch ‘Ghostbusters’].”
  
  
• The film was originally set for release on July 10, 2020 but due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting movie theaters, this film and Morbius, another Sony film set for release that month, were moved to release dates in November 2021.
  
  
• The movie premiered at the New York Comic Con on the evening of 08 October 2021 to a surprised audience attending the panel session of the ensemble cast. The panel consisted of director/co-writer Jason Reitman, co-writer Gil Kenan, producer Ivan Reitman (Jason’s dad and director of the first two Ghostbusters movies), Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Celeste O’Connor, and Logan Kim.
  
  
• Cynthia Millar, who performed on the ondes martenot for the Ghostbusters (1984) musical score, returned to play for the opening of Afterlife. Her part on the ondes martenot (the spooky wave type sound) can be prominently heard during the library basement scenes with the Ghostbusters.
  
  
• At Ghostbusters Fan Fest, Jason Reitman thanked Paul Feig for Ghostbusters (2016) stating “And, Paul… to express gratitude to you for kicking down the door on what a Ghostbuster and who a Ghostbuster could be. Any time I see a movie where there’s a SWAT team, there’s that first guy who goes through the door and takes all the damn bullets, and you were the first one through the door and you were the person who allowed me and many other people to make Ghostbusters movies about people of every race, gender, of people around the world. There are all kinds of Ghostbusters movies that I want to see and thank you for making that possible.”
  
  
• This is the second Ghostbusters film to be rated PG-13, following Ghostbusters (2016).
  
  
• Finn Wolfhard is one of the young stars of Stranger Things (2016) and in one episode, his character Mike Wheeler and his friends dress up as Ghostbusters for Halloween.
  
  
• Jason Reitman’s first film of a franchise variety as director.
  
  
• Finn Wolfhard is the nephew of former child actor Hadley Kay who had a small role in director Ivan Reitman’s film, Meatballs (1979). 40 years later, Wolfhard would star in the Reitman produced film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021).
  
  
• When the film was announced in January 2019, Leslie Jones, who played Patty in the 2016 reboot, heavily criticized the choice of abandoning her film on Twitter.
  
  
• In the tradition of its 1980s era predecessors, was released five years after (2021) the last film, Ghostbusters (2016).