ghostbusters movie studio

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘ghostbusters: afterlife’ sequel to hit theaters in december 2023.

The Christmas event pic will be directed by Jason Reitman.

By Pamela McClintock

Pamela McClintock

Senior Film Writer

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Email
• Show additional share options
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Pinit
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Tumblr
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Print
• Share this article on Comment

The next Ghostbusters movie will hit theaters on Dec. 20, 2023.

The sequel is a follow-up to director Jason Reitman ‘s G hostbusters: Afterlife , which at long last revived the marquee franchise for Sony. The studio announced the high-profile 2023 release date on Tuesday.

Earlier this month on “Ghostbusters Day,” Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan confirmed what the end credits of Ghostbusters: Afterlife hinted at –— that the live action sequel will return to the original films’ New York City and firehouse setting.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife , which debuted in theaters in November 2021, earned more than $200 million at the global box office despite the pandemic.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter prior to Ghostbusters Day, Reitman and Kenan teased details about the sequel.

“At the end of Ghostbusters: Afterlife , the Ecto-1 is driving into Manhattan, returning to its home. And before anyone ever heard the title Afterlife , we called it Rust City. Which would not have made sense to anyone until they saw the movie. The code name for the next movie is ‘Firehouse,’” Reitman said.

Reitman made Ghostbusters: Afterlife with his father, the late Ivan Reitman , who directed the original Ghostbusters films. The elder Reitman passed away earlier this year.

Afterlife reunited the original Ghosbusters stars, including Bill Murray. It is unknown if Murray was planned for a return, but that could prove potentially complicated. Murray was starring in Aziz Ansari’s Searchlight film Being Mortal , when it was shut down in April after the studio received complaints about his behavior on set.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

How jim henson’s creature shop helped ‘five nights at freddy’s’ director helm a horror film with a kid following, ‘a long shot’ review: a grimy industrial thriller set during china’s economic reforms of the 1990s, ‘five nights at freddy’s’ to topple ‘taylor swift: eras tour’ at box office, ‘freelance’ review: john cena and alison brie are lost in the would-be hijinks of a drab jungle adventure, ‘leave the world behind’ director sam esmail on collaborating with the obamas and telling another cyberattack story after ‘mr. robot’, ‘fantastic beasts’ director says franchise has been “parked” by warner bros.  .

Ghostbusters

• View history

Ghostbusters (also known as " Ghost Busters ", the original title [1] [2] ) was a 1984 sci-fi/comedy film. The film was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray , Dan Aykroyd , Harold Ramis , Rick Moranis , Sigourney Weaver , Annie Potts , and Ernie Hudson . It is the start of the Ghostbusters Franchise related media and fits into the Movie and Animated continuities.

The movie is most known for its No-Ghost Sign , the line "Who ya gonna Call?", the Ghostbusters (theme song) , and the Ecto-1 vehicle.

• 1.1 Main Characters
• 1.2 Minor Characters
• 1.3 Entities
• 1.4 Deleted Scenes Characters
• 2 Equipment/Vehicle
• 4 Environmental
• 6 Places/Locations
• 7 Plot Synopsis
• 8.1 Ghost Smashers
• 8.2 The Meeting
• 8.3 First Aykroyd-Ramis Draft
• 8.4 Second Aykroyd-Ramis Draft
• 8.5 Preproduction Ramps Up
• 8.6 Third Aykroyd-Ramis Draft
• 8.7 Final Shooting Script and Principal Photography
• 8.8 Los Angeles Filming
• 8.9 Postproduction
• 9.1 Deleted Scenes
• 10.1 Trailer
• 11.1 January Draft
• 11.2 June Draft
• 11.3 July Draft
• 11.4 August Draft
• 11.5 September Draft
• 11.6 October Shooting Script
• 11.7 Production
• 11.8 Locations
• 11.10 Characters
• 11.11 Montage Scenes
• 11.12 Deleted and Discarded Scenes or Ideas
• 11.13 Trivia by Chapter
• 11.14 References in The Real Ghostbusters
• 11.15 References in Ghostbusters II
• 11.16 References in Ghostbusters: The Video Game
• 11.17 References in IDW Comics
• 11.18 References in Ghostbusters: Afterlife
• 11.19 References in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed
• 12 Theatrical Releases
• 13.1 Prior Cuts
• 13.2 Home Video Releases
• 13.3 Edited-For-Television Version
• 13.4 Foreign Markets‎‎
• 14 References
• 15.1.1 Trailers/Official Promotion Videos
• 15.2.1 Screen Caps from the movie
• 15.2.2 Promotion
• 15.3 IDW Comics

Characters [ ]

All Characters are listed as they first appear in the film

Main Characters [ ]

• Dr. Peter Venkman (portrayed by Bill Murray )
• Dr. Raymond Stantz (portrayed by Dan Aykroyd )
• Dr. Egon Spengler (portrayed by Harold Ramis )
• Winston Zeddemore (portrayed by Ernie Hudson )
• Janine Melnitz (portrayed by Annie Potts )
• Dana Barrett (portrayed by Sigourney Weaver )
• Louis Tully (portrayed by Rick Moranis )

Minor Characters [ ]

• Alice (portrayed by Alice Drummond )
• Jennifer (portrayed by Jennifer Runyon )
• Male Student (portrayed by Steven Tash )
• (Library Administrator) Roger Delacorte (portrayed by John Rothman )
• Dean Yeager (portrayed by Jordan Charney )
• Removal Men
• Real Estate Woman (portrayed by Rhoda Gemignani )
• Hotel manager (portrayed by Michael Ensign )
• Man at Elevator (portrayed by Murray Rubin )
• Chambermaid (portrayed by Frances E. Nealy )
• Hallway Bystander
• Mrs. Van Hoffman (portrayed by Kathryn Janssen )
• Roger Grimsby
• TV Reporter during montage (portrayed by Christopher Wynkoop )
• Chinatown Client
• Reporters (portrayed by Stanley Grover , Carol Ann Henry , James Hardy , Frances Turner , and Nancy Kelly)
• Casey Kasem
• Joe Franklin
• Violinist (portrayed by Timothy Carhart )
• Walter Peck (portrayed by William Atherton )
• Woman at Party (portrayed by Patty Dworkin )
• Tall Woman at Party (portrayed by Jean Kasem )
• Marv at Party
• Ted and Annette Fleming (portrayed by Paul Trafas and Cheryl Birchenfield )
• Louis's Neighbor (portrayed by Eda Reis Merin )
• Doorman (portrayed by Lenny Del Genio )
• Policeman at Apartment (portrayed by Ric Mancini )
• Coachman (portrayed by Danny Stone )
• Police Sergeant (portrayed by Joe Schmieg )
• Police Captain (portrayed by Joe Cirillo )
• Con Edison Man (portrayed by Larry Dilg )
• Ron Jeremy (a crowd extra)
• Businessman in Cab (portrayed by Winston May )
• Hot Dog Vendor (portrayed by Sam Moses )
• Jail Guard (portrayed by Reginald VelJohnson )
• City Hall Police
• Mayor Lenny (portrayed by David Margulies )
• Fire Commissioner (portrayed by John Ring )
• Police Commissioner (portrayed by Norman Matlock )
• Mayor's Aide (portrayed by Tommy Hollis )
• Archbishop (portrayed by Tom McDermott )
• Bill Walton (a crowd extra)

Entities [ ]

• Library ghost (known in The Video Game as Eleanor Twitty and portrayed by Ruth Oliver )
• Zuul (voiced by Ivan Reitman )
• Vinz Clortho
• Slimer (portrayed by Mark Bryan Wilson and voiced by Ivan Reitman )
• Dream Ghost (Ghost appearing in Ray's dream and portrayed by Kym Herrin )
• Slimers (mentioned)
• Sloar (mentioned)
• Torb (mentioned)
• Subway Ghost
• Zombie Taxi Driver
• Gozer (portrayed by Slavitza Jovan and voiced by Paddi Edwards )
• Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (Gozer's Destructor Form)

Deleted Scenes Characters [ ]

• John the Workman
• Groom (portrayed by Charles Levin )
• Bride (portrayed by Wendy Goldman )
• Policeman (13027) (portrayed by William Kennedy )
• Harlan Bojay (portrayed by Bill Murray)
• Robert Learned Coombs (portrayed by Dan Aykroyd)
• Jino and Co.

Equipment/Vehicle [ ]

• Electro-Shock Generator
• Recording Module
• External Camera light
• Stethoscope
• P.K.E. Meter
• Leather Case
• Plastic Petri Dish
• PC-4 Calculator
• Casio Micro-Mini Calculator
• Ghost Sniffer
• Aura Video-Analyzer
• Particle Thrower
• Tobin's Spirit Guide (mentioned)
• Spates Catalog (mentioned)
• CWU-27p Flight Suit (Uniform)
• Pistol Belt
• Electrical Gloves
• Proton Pack
• Ecto Goggles
• Motorola MT500 Radio
• Gamma Rate Meter
• Containment Unit
• The Roylance Guide to Secret Societies and Sects (mentioned)
• Stay Puft Marshmallows
• The Atlantic Monthly
• Wise Foods Products
• The Twinkie

Environmental [ ]

• Symmetrical Stacking
• Psychokinetic Atmospheric Influence
• Mass Sponge Migration (mentioned)
• Philadelphia Mass Turbulence of 1947 (mentioned)
• Tunguska Blast of 1909 (mentioned)

Places/Locations [ ]

• New York City
• New York City Public Library
• Weaver Hall
• Manhattan City Bank
• Central Park
• Dana's apartment
• Louis' Apartment
• Temple of Gozer
• Sedgewick Hotel
• Saks Fifth Avenue
• Sabrett Hot Dog Cart in front of McGraw-Hill Building
• Tai Hong Lau Restaurant
• Fort Detmerring (dream)
• Lincoln Center
• Tavern on the Green
• Times Square
• Columbus Circle
• Empire State Building
• NYPD Lock-Up
• New York City Hall
• Camp Waconda (mentioned)

Plot Synopsis [ ]

The Ghostbusters at the New York City Public Library .

Three misfit parapsychology research professors that specialize in ghosts, Dr. Egon Spengler ( Harold Ramis ), Dr. Raymond Stantz ( Dan Aykroyd ), and Dr. Peter Venkman ( Bill Murray ), find themselves looking for work after Columbia University terminates their grant.

Before they are kicked out of Columbia, they investigate a haunting at the New York City Public Library and after seeing some symmetrical book stacking they encounter a ghost librarian (the Gray Lady ) that runs them out of the Library.

Without a way to share their findings, Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler take matters into their own hands. They start a business named "Ghostbusters", a "professional paranormal investigation and elimination service", out of an old firehouse, using a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance dubbed " Ecto-1 " to get about the city and hiring Janine Melnitz ( Annie Potts ) to handle the phones and clerical work. Dana Barrett ( Sigourney Weaver ) of 550 Central Park West , comes to the Ghostbusters and asks for their help after she experiences some horror in the kitchen of her own home. The Ghostbusters do a few tests to determine that she isn't crazy as she recounts a paranormal experience in her kitchen centering around the name " Zuul ". Peter seizes the opportunity to get romantically closer to Dana and goes with her to the apartment. Using the Ghost Sniffer he checks out the place, finds nothing in the main room, and bedroom. Dana then directs him toward the kitchen where he finds eggs that cooked themselves on the counter but gets no readings on the Ghost Sniffer despite using it correctly.

The boys make their first bust

Meanwhile, their funds are nearly dried up eating a Chinese food dinner, which they ate slowly. Janine gets a call with a serious client, and she rings the alarm bell. The Ghostbusters run and get dressed, then leave in the Ecto-1 . They show up at the Sedgewick Hotel and the Hotel manager tells them that they are having problems with a resident ghost . Following a successful test of the equipment, they split up to search the hotel for the ghost. Peter finds the ghost which then slimes him. Egon calls Ray to tell him that the ghost is now in a ballroom. They enter the ballroom and as they attempt to capture it, they destroy the room and make a lot of noise. They ultimately manage to capture the ghost, and they find themselves an overnight success across both New York City and the nation. As the amount of calls grows, the team is required to hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore ( Ernie Hudson ). An unwanted side effect of their newfound popularity produces Walter Peck ( William Atherton ) from the Environmental Protection Agency. He comes to the firehouse trying to inspect the Storage facility which Peter refuses to let him do.

Zuul attacks and possesses Dana

One night, Dana enters her apartment and is talking on the phone to her mother. After she hangs up, she gets grabbed by claws that burst out of her chair. She is taken into the kitchen where she becomes possessed by Zuul. Meanwhile, Louis Tully ( Rick Moranis ), another resident of the apartments, is hosting a party for the fourth anniversary of him becoming an accountant when a dog (also described as a bear and a cougar - but really a Terror Dog ) attacks, and chases him out of the building and to a restaurant where it possesses him.

Dana, possessed by Zuul, floats above her bed

Peter makes a visit to Dana's apartment. He quickly realizes that she has been possessed by Zuul, the Gatekeeper of Gozer . Changed radically by her possession, Dana aggressively tries to seduce him but ends up growling fiercely and levitating above her bed in frustration after he repeatedly rejects her advances.

Louis, similarly possessed by Vinz Clortho , Gozer's Keymaster, stumbles around Central Park. He harasses locals until finding a carriage horse and confusing it with the Gatekeeper. When the coachman questions him, Louis responds by angrily flaring his eyes red and growling at the man. Later, the cops bring Louis to the Firehouse and ask Egon if he'd take him, as he is exhibiting strange behavior. Egon recognizes that Louis is possessed. Peter later calls Egon to tell him about Dana being possessed by Zuul, aka the "Gatekeeper".

Louis, possessed by The Keymaster, growls at the coachman

The next day, Walter Peck accompanied by an officer and laborer, obtains a court order to shut the containment grid down, and unable to stop him, the team flees the firehouse as the grid collapses and hundreds of freed ghosts flood the city. The explosion of supernatural energy causes Zuul to awake in her bed and allows Vinz Clortho to escape and make his way back to 550 Central Park West where they unite inside Dana's apartment with a passionate kiss. Peck orders the Ghostbusters arrested while the ghosts create panic across the city. While waiting in jail, the team recognizes that Dana's apartment building was a huge super-conductive antenna, designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. The mayor ( David Margulies ) orders the release of the Ghostbusters from jail. He has a conversation with the Ghostbusters about the events while Peck tries to counter-attack their story. In the end of the discussion, Peter wins over the mayor's judgment allowing them to get to work to prevent the potential catastrophe overriding Peck's demands.

The Ghostbusters confronting Gozer

Assisted by the police and Army, the Ghostbusters make their way to the top of 550 Central Park West. They are too late to prevent the possessed Dana and Louis from completing the ritual for the coming of Gozer. When the Ghostbusters reach the hidden part of the building, the possessed Dana and Louis open a dimensional gate at the top of the building and are transformed into the Terror Dog forms of their possessors. They then take their positions beside Gozer's Temple as the Ghostbusters stare in shock. When Gozer ( Slavitza Jovan ) emerges in a female humanoid form, the team tries to shoot her with their packs, but fails to harm her. Gozer disappears and tells them to select the next form it will take, and though the team tries to empty their minds, Ray is unable to. Ray thinks about the most innocent thing he could imagine: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man . The team finds that a giant version of the marshmallow mascot has begun to lay waste to the city as it makes its way to the apartments and starts climbing the building. Egon realizes that the only way to end the destruction is to reverse the particle flow through the gate by crossing the streams, resulting in "total protonic reversal" which would destroy Gozer and the interdimensional gate. The plan is risky at best, but there is definitely a very slim chance of their survival. As the giant creature reaches the top of the building, the team executes Egon's plan, causing the gate to seal itself, creating an explosion and burning the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man away into large amounts of liquid marshmallow fluff. The Ghostbusters find that they have all survived and that Dana and Louis have returned to their normal, unpossessed, human forms. The team is cheered on by the vast population of New York City as they leave the building and drive away.

Ghostbusters taking out Gozer

Development [ ]

Ghost smashers [ ].

The concept was inspired by Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal, and it was conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for himself and for his friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi. The original story as written by Aykroyd "Ghost Smashers" was very different than what would be eventually filmed. In that version, a group of Ghostbusters would travel through time, space and other dimensions taking on huge ghosts.

In late 1981, Dan Aykroyd began writing his first draft. [3] Work on the script was slow and steady over the next few years due to other projects Aykroyd worked on. On March 5, 1982, while he was writing one of Venkman's lines, Aykroyd heard Belushi had passed away. [4] Aykroyd sent a half-completed script to Bill Murray and spoke to him about picking up the mantle left by Belushi. Murray responded favorably to the script's concept so Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman. [5] [6] Reitman looked through the script, which only had 40-50 pages done at that point, and had no idea how he could make it into a movie- alternate dimensions, very little character work, an all black somewhat sentient car that could dematerialize and a special effects budget he estimated to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, Reitman did like the comic attitude contrasted with a serious script. He set it aside. [7] [8] [9] [10] Undaunted, Aykroyd kept working on the script and finished it months later on January 20, 1983. The finished script was around 180 pages. He submitted the final script to Reitman in April along with concept drawings by artist friend John Daveikis and a videotape of himself wearing a jumpsuit based uniform and makeshift nutrona wands and a Proton Pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. At the time, several of Reitman's projects were stalled in various stages of development. Eager to get something into production, Reitman took another look. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

• "Ghost Smashers" - more information on Dan Aykroyd's script first script

The Meeting [ ]

Reitman honed in on the idea of a group of men operating from a firehouse and responding to emergency calls like firefighters would. Reitman got a laugh out of the concept, equipment, car and logo but had reservations about the fantasy elements. He had a lunch meeting with Aykroyd at Art's Delicatessen in May 1983. [16] Reitman made some suggestions to which Aykroyd immediately took to such as setting the movie in a modern American city, doing an origin story, and bringing in Harold Ramis. [17] [18] After their meeting, Reitman and Aykroyd went to The Burbank Studios and talked to Harold Ramis. At the time, Reitman and Ramis had offices there. Ramis happened to be reading one of Aykroyd's other scripts, one about the Canadian Mounted Police. Aykroyd told him to put it aside and take a look at his Ghostbusters script. After about 20 minutes, Ramis was in. [19] Later in the afternoon, Reitman called his agent Mike Ovitz, who also represented Aykroyd, Ramis and Murray, and asked him to set up a meeting with Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price. [20] Reitman did a 5 minute pitch to Price about the Ghostbusters concept. Price liked it and asked about the budget. Without a final script and knowledge of such a movie, Reitman pulled a number out of thin air since his last movie was $10 million. Price advised him to keep the budget in the mid-$20 million range and gave Reitman 13 months to make a summer tentpole movie for 1984. [21] [22] With no script, two writers, two associate producers, most of the main cast, and no special effects house, Ghostbusters was greenlit.

• Scripts - for more information on scripts for Ghostbusters
• Casting History - for more information on casting history for Ghostbusters

First Aykroyd-Ramis Draft [ ]

The first collaborative script between Aykroyd and Ramis was completed on June 6, 1983. The main thrust of the draft was to come up with a new story that made sense to Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman. [23] Ramis came up with setting up the main characters as parapsychologists working at a university. [24] More were slowly added to the crew - John DeCuir, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, and editor Sheldon Kahn. With input from Edlund and DeCuir, the budget was adjusted from $25 million to $30 million. [25] [26] A rough story outline was achieved in the first draft. They settled on how the main characters would start out and where they would end up but the fine details still needed to be worked out. In terms of pacing, the movie didn't take off until the hotel around page 40. [27] The Ghostbusters were fired from a small college in New England and went to New York. They investigated a converted farmhouse where a family was being bothered with incessant knocking. [28] [29] Aykroyd and Ramis added in a love interest named Zuul, an alien fugitive from another dimension. After watching a diet cola commercial, the alien and her compatriot transforms into a beautiful female human and a heavy set male human. [30] [31] The romance proved too comedic. Peter and Zuul go to a restaurant. Zuul sees woman taking their wraps off and attempts to take her blouse off. After leaving a restaurant, Zuul takes pity on a carriage horse and kisses it with genuine emotion, leaving the driver concerned. Peter takes Zuul to the Times Square Motor Hotel. The next morning, he wakes up to find Zuul has taken on a warthog form. [32] [33] [34] Some effects were still rather elaborate. When the Containment Unit releases the ghosts, they descend upon a subway station and hover over the tracks then hitch a ride on the express train to uptown. [35] Like the beginning, the end wasn't solely set in New York. Egon concluded a small community in northern New Jersey was the likely epicenter of major psychic activity. The reason was its proximity to three nuclear power plants and chemical waste storage areas. [36] The Ghostbusters would ultimately regroup in New Jersey and battle Gozer, who took on the form of a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions [37]

Second Aykroyd-Ramis Draft [ ]

Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman relocated to Martha's Vineyard for two and a half weeks around the July 4th weekend to work on the second draft. Aykroyd was living there at the time and work took place in his basement with an old Royal electric typewriter. [38] [39] New things were added and characters evolved. Egon demonstrated his prototype equipment but after it was plugged into an AC outlet, the Firehouse and Manhattan suffers a black out. [40] The 'foul-smelling amorphous vapor' from Aykroyd's first script became a green, potato-shaped ghost that haunted the hotel. [41] Louis Tully was a visiting conventioneer. [42] The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man became the Ghostbusters' final encounter. [43] Aykroyd, Reitman, and Ramis concluded they needed a fourth Ghostbuster to explain certain things in a more down to earth sort of way. Reitman also felt the movie could use another good guy coming in and joining the Ghostbusters. [44] [45] Initially, Winston came to the firehouse for the job as security guard before Dana went to the Ghostbusters for help. [46] The ending was grander and wrapped up everything. Ghostbusters became a highly successful multinational corporation named Ghostbusters International. Peter and Dana moved in together. Egon and Janine got married. Ray returned to Fort Detmerring for another visit from its resident female ghost. [47] The July rewrite was completed on July 6. The July rewrite was constantly rewritten, re-edited and re-commented on. Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman left on July 10 with a strong script. As rewrites continued, Reitman started auditions. [48]

Preproduction Ramps Up [ ]

As preproduction went along, Reitman's team hired many freelance artists to draw out ideas for the ghosts and entities that would be in the movie. The artists were supervised by Michael Gross. Hundreds of concepts were conceived. Reitman did a simple mix-and-match to come up with the best assortment of designs. [49] [50] [51] [52] Gross was also doing preliminary research into who would work on special effects. [53] The only major special effects houses at the time was Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Apogee. ILM was too busy with its current slate of projects, which included Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones, and Star Trek III. Apogee was busy with Dune. [54] Michael Gross and Don Shay grew up in the same town and have been close friends since high school. Gross called Shay in for consultation on visual effects. Shay heard Richard Edlund was leaving ILM to set up his own effects studio. He set up a meeting with Ivan Reitman, Michael Gross, and Richard Edlund. During back surgery, Edlund received a phone call from Reitman to work on Ghostbusters. [55] Edlund's Boss Films (later Entertainment Effects Group) was hired to work on the movie. [56] [57] Columbia fronted $5 million to Richard Edlund to start his own effects house. It exclusively worked on Ghostbusters. [58] They had 10+ months to get their studio up and running, make up new techniques and styles, and design and construct everything. [59] It was discovered Filmation produced a children's live action comedy series called "The Ghost Busters" for the 1975-76 television season. Columbia entered negotiations with Filmation to secure the rights. Talks bogged down and uncertainty developed about the name of the movie. [60]

Third Aykroyd-Ramis Draft [ ]

The next rewrite was fine tuned even more. Some scenes were still elaborate from an effects standpoint. The scene where Dana's eggs start cooking was accompanied by a loaf of bread splitting up into pieces of toast and every metal appliance and utensil flew across the room and stuck to the refrigerator door. [61] [62] Characters were brought back from the original script. Shandor was now a human with a morbid past. He was reimagined as a deranged surgeon and architect who worshiped Gozer who met his end when a failed abduction led police to his penthouse apartment, which was furnished with human bones. He was executed at Sing Sing by the electric chair. [63] Other characters were fleshed out better and were close to being finalized. Slimer's design and part was basically locked in. Peter and Ray discovered Slimer in the hotel. [64] Louis Tully, still scripted for John Candy, had rather earthier interests and hosted a party. [65] The sequence of Louis being chased by a Terror Dog was present. Louis attempts to hail a taxi but the Terror Dog jumps on the hood. Honing in on the New York attitude, the taxi driver isn't scared but really ticked off at the Terror Dog. Eventually, it falls off the cab and resumes his chase. The chase then shifts to Central Park. [66] The third rewrite was finished on August 6.

Final Shooting Script and Principal Photography [ ]

The final shooting script was completed on October 7. In total, the new script took about three months. [67] Around the time of shooting, it became apparent John Candy was going to pass on the role of Louis Tully. On the same day, Reitman called up Rick Moranis. Moranis was available and was sent the script. Two hours after receiving it, Moranis called back the same day and accepted the role. Moranis helped mold Louis into the accountant character seen in the final version. [68] [69] Bill Murray was due to return to the States a week or two before shooting began in October. Murray did some costume fittings then went back to Paris for a few more days of last minute photography for his movie "Razor's Edge." [70] Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis drove to La Guardia International Airport and pick up Murray. Murray's private plane landed an hour later than scheduled. Murray then came through the terminal with a stadium horn programmed with 80 different fight songs. Reitman and Ramis 'dragged' Murray to a restaurant in Queens. [71] With about a week before principal photography, some camera and wardrobe tests were being conducted. Reitman decided to shoot a montage piece of the three Ghostbusters in uniform running down a street. Murray started filming on October 27, 1983 after taking a Concorde to New York and driving to 62nd Street and Madison for an 11 am start. [72] Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis suited up and Reitman filmed the montage piece on Madison Avenue around 61st Avenue. [73] In late October, a week of preliminary second unit work and three-and-a-half weeks of principal photography began in New York. [74] [75] Most of the Tavern on the Green scenes were filmed the week before principal photography. [76] [77] The scene with the Subway Ghost was also shot before principal photography. [78] New dialogue continued to be discovered, suggested and inserted during rehearsal and shooting. Scenes were rearranged, such as when Zuul and Vinz reunite. Some scenes and lines were ultimately cut. Some were improvised and looped later. [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] [84] On the first day of principal photography, shooting took place at the Avenue of the Americas at the New York Public Library and Irving Trust Bank. [85] [86] [87] The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was also done on Madison Avenue during the first week of shooting. [88] The scene where possessed Louis walks and just before Slimer appears in the hot dog stand was shot in Broadway. It was also one of the very first things shot. [89] [90]

The montage pieces were mostly shot in one day with a small unit. There were two trucks used to transport the unit, made up of six crewmen, a cameraman, and a soundman, and equipment. Aykroyd drove the Ecto-1. No permits were obtained for shooting at places like Chinatown, the Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the United Nations. [91] The crew went to bed at around 6 am and got up at 10 am. They went and chased Ecto-1 around making up scenes. They shot the night before and the night after. They shot on Central Park West all night with the crowds. Then they went to bed for a couple hours and started shooting all the reaction shots to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on the street. [92] Edlund and his crew also filmed background plates around New York, such as on the top of RCA Building for the ghost montage. [93] While the police department was very cooperative with helping the film crew, the shoots caused a lot of major traffic jams. The locals weren't very happy with the various disruptions. In one instance, Gross hid his Ghostbusters badge while Medjuck simply lied and said they were filming "The Cotton Club." [94] Some local businesses minded as well. The most trouble the film crew got in during shooting in New York was at Radio City Music Hall. It was private property. The crew was shooting on the street and a man in a suit asked Ivan Reitman and if he had permission. Reitman pulled over the location manager and told the man they had a permit. The man then said that the city couldn’t give a permit there since it was private property. Reitman then directed the man to talk to Joe Medjuck. Medjuck kept him busy while Reitman just kept on shooting. Finally, the man called a police officer over and reiterated it was private property and the cop said, "They have a permit, I can’t stop them from shooting." The man then pointed to a plaque in the sidewalk that said that the property was owned by Radio City and the cop just replied, "Hey, anyone could have put that there." [95] Surprisingly, the film crew was allowed to shoot scenes in New York City Hall for two days. City Council president Carol Bellamy's office was used as a stand-in for the Mayor's office as both were identical. [96]

Three weeks into shooting, the crew quickly edited some footage together and did a first screening at Columbia Ranch. Footage from the library scenes were part of the first screening. The Library ghost's transformation was one of the only special effects done so far. The audience screamed and laughed. [97] Four weeks into shooting, the rights to the title Ghostbusters were still up in the air. As a precaution, three different signs were made to hang over the firehouse door. Ghoststoppers was on the only other name seriously considered. During the Central Park West shoots, when Ecto-1 makes its grand entrance, Joe Medjuck called Columbia from a phone booth to check on negotiations. He held up the receiver so the shouts of 300 extras chanting 'Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!' could be heard. [98] Luckily, a deal was finally made with Filmation thanks in part to Frank Price after he left Columbia in October 1983. [99] [100]

Los Angeles Filming [ ]

Around November-December, the main unit wrapped up filming in New York and went to Los Angeles for nine weeks of shooting at The Burbank Studios and various locations. [101] On the first day, only one shot was finished. Three shots were done on the second day. The production fell seven days behind. Murray hated being called to the set when the crew wasn't ready so assistant director Gary Daigler gave him a two way radio. Murray and Aykroyd hung out at a nearby sushi restaurant until they were called back. [102] [103] A standing set was used for the Fort Detmerring scene. [104] Stage 12 at The Burbank Studios was used for Fort Detmerring interiors, Dana and Louis' apartments, the apartment hallway, Sedgewick elevator, and Sedgewick corridor [105] [106] [107] John DeCuir constructed the million dollar Temple of Gozer set on Stage 16. [108] [109]

Locations used in Los Angeles included the Biltmore Hotel for some Sedgewick Hotel and 550 Central Park West scenes, a firehouse for interior Firehouse scenes, and the Los Angeles Public Library for the downstairs stacks scenes. Two days were spent at the Biltmore's banquet hall. [110] [111] [112] [113]

Postproduction [ ]

Filming wrapped in February 1984 after 15 weeks of shooting in New York and Los Angeles. Richard Edlund and his special effects team had less than four months to complete about 200 to 260 optical effects. [114] [115] With around four to five weeks left, Ivan Reitman added 50 more shots then wanted to add 80 to 90 shots. Edlund allegedly met with Reitman out in the parking lot with a samurai sword and told him they had to do "the samurai cut." Edlund talked him down from a number of additional shots he requested. [116] The effects cost $5.6 million total. [117] Ghostbusters grossed more than $225 million. [118]

Scene names taken from the 1999 DVD release and the 2005 DVD release . These articles are image intensive.

• 02. Shock the Nerd
• 03. "Get Her!"
• 04. Terminated
• 05. Fixer-Upper
• 06. Spook Central
• 07. Fried Eggs & Zuul
• 08. "Bug-Eyes Thing"
• 09. The 1st Customer
• 10. Checking Out Dana
• 11. "We Got One!"
• 12. "He Slimed Me!"
• 13. "Nice Shootin', Tex."
• 14. Welcome Aboard
• 15. E.P.A. Man
• 16. Dogs Drag Dana
• 17. "Who Brought the Dog?"
• 18. Terror on the Tavern
• 19. Peter's Date with Zuul
• 20. Keymaster
• 21. Out of Biz
• 22. Holding Cell
• 23. Keeper Meets Master
• 24. Biblical
• 25. Working the Crowd
• 27. Stay Puft Man
• 28. Crossing Streams

Deleted Scenes [ ]

Promotion [ ], trailer [ ].

For full coverage of trailers for the film, see Ghostbusters Movie Trailers article .

For full coverage of promotion and advertising for the film, see Ghostbusters Movie Advertising article .

January Draft [ ]

For more trivia, see Ghost Smashers

• The Particle Throwers were wand-like and attached via black flex cords to a back-mounted proton power source. The wands were strapped in place at the wrist - one in each arm - and extended out along the palm to a point 6 inches beyond the fingertips. When fired by means of an elbow toggle switch on the back pack - phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth. [119]
• The Slimer scene was originally drafted as a call from the Greenville Guest House's kitchen about a gluttonous yellow mist of grotesquely altered form. [120] The fee was to be $500. [121]
• The Containment Unit was in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey taken over and converted by the Ghostbusters. [122]
• Zuul was a generic term for the other-dimensional creature that would later evolve into the Terror Dogs. [123]
• Gozer was absolute ruler of the sixth dimension. [124]
• The "Stays Puft, Even When Toasted" slogan for Stay Puft Marshmallows originated in the original script. [125]
• One of the manifestations in the original script was a skeletal biker terrorizing residents of a small town. This entity became the skeletal cab driver in the final script. [126] [127]
• Ivo Shandor was the interdimensional employer of the Ghostbusters. [128]
• When ghosts were released from the Containment Unit in Jersey, a 25 acre sinkhole is created which disrupts a long inactive fault line which somehow transforms most of northern New Jersey into an inferno. [129]

June Draft [ ]

For more trivia, see June 6, 1983 Draft

• The graffiti on the Paranormal Studies Laboratory door read 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' as a reference to "The Exorcist." Ivan Reitman decided to take the high road and the message was changed. [130]
• The Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. It was realized there was something vital to the story taking place in New York. The opening sequence was set in a nice, converted farmhouse where a family was bothered by incessant knocking they couldn't trace. The theme of mundanity in supernatural phenomena was preserved when the scene was rewritten to take place in the New York City Public Library. [131]
• In a deleted scene in the June (and July) drafts, Zuul feels sorry for a horse in a bridle and harness and kissed it. [132]
• Peter's love interest was an interdimensional woman posing as a beautiful woman. [133]

July Draft [ ]

For more trivia, see Ghostbusters July 6, 1983 Draft

• In the July draft, Peter Venkman appeared before a university funding committee. Dean Yaeger was up for a Nobel in Stockholm the previous week but didn't win. [134]
• The widescale blackout idea was seemingly reused in Ghostbusters II.
• Louis Tully was a visiting conventioneer. [136]
• Peter's love interest was a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien. [137]
• Ghostbusters became Ghostbusters International, a high rolling multinational corporation. Egon and Janine married in Las Vegas with Louis as their witness, Ray paid another visit to Fort Detmerring, Winston arrived at HQ in a limo, and Peter and Dana hung out at her apartment as a baby chick hatched out of an egg in the kitchen. [138]

August Draft [ ]

For more trivia, see Ghostbusters August 5, 1983 Draft

• Louis' party portrayed John Candy's Louis and his earthier interests. [139]
• While running out of the apartment, Louis jumped into a cab first. [140]
• Ivo Shandor was electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably with stacks of human bones. [141]

September Draft [ ]

For more trivia, see Ghostbusters September 30, 1983 Draft

October Shooting Script [ ]

For more trivia, see Ghostbusters October 7, 1983 Draft

Production [ ]

• Dan Aykroyd originally wrote a 40 page treatment featuring himself and John Belushi. [142]
• After reading the treatment, Ivan Reitman met with Dan Aykroyd at a deli about the concept of Ghostbusters and suggested bringing in Harold Ramis and Bill Murray. [143]
• With no script and no special effects team, Ivan Reitman managed to get Ghostbusters greenlit for a $30 million budget but only had one year to make it starting on June 8th, 1983. [144]
• Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman suggested the idea of focusing the story on how the Ghostbusters started out. [145] [146]
• Thom Enriquez was brought on in June 1983 and was asked to draw a scene in which a "ghost seduces Chase ." [147]
• When Thom Enriquez was hired on June 2, 1983, the movie's title was Ghost Chasers. On June 17, it was changed back to Ghost Busters. [148]
• Officially, principal photography was scheduled to start on October 26, 1983. [149] [150]
• Ivan Reitman did three days of shooting in New York in October 1983 without the main cast before principal photography started in November. [151]
• According to Ivan Reitman, the hardest aspect of developing the story was what was going on in the apartment. The Keymaster-Gatekeeper idea came very late in the process. [152]
• During principal photography, flying books in the library scene was deemed too obvious a concept and Dan Aykroyd suggested several volumes to be made to float mysteriously across aisles. [153]
• After the film came out in theaters, Ivan Reitman got an idea to help keep the phenomenon going. Taking a 'junk buy' cross-country on late-night TV and running the commercial just as it appeared in the film only with the superimposed phone number changed to an 800 number, 1-800-654-1984. People could call in and get an answering machine with message from Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. [154] [155]
• Ivan Reitman knew the movie was a hit when he saw knock off merchandise for sale during the second weekend of release. [156]
• According to Ivan Reitman, there was plans to do a second commercial as an elaborate MTV music video with the Ghostbusters singing the Ghostbusters song (that could actually be played on MTV) but the song wasn't just right until too late in post-production. [157]
• According to Michael Gross, at one point a Stay Puft Marshmallows spot was considered for either the ending or beginning of the Ghostbusters commercial. A cartoon Stay Puft Marshmallow Man would be dancing around like the Pillsbury Doughboy. It was deemed overkill and discarded. [158]
• According to Joe Medjuck, it was only 4 weeks into shooting before the name Ghostbusters could be legally used. As a contingency, three different signs were also made up but the only other serious alternate was Ghoststoppers. [159]
• The slime was derived from methylcellulose ether - a powdered thickening agent used in pharmaceuticals and food products. [160]
• The P.K.E. levels analogy started out as "the universe as an expanding four dimensional balloon" but it was later changed to the Twinkie, according to Harold Ramis. [161]
• Originally, the three arms that grab Dana were different - one human, one hook, and one green frog-like sucker arm. Ivan Reitman thought the sucker arm was too cartoonish and it was discarded. [162]
• There was some debate over the costly $250,000 sinkhole effect. Ivan Reitman felt it should stay because it showed what the Ghostbusters were getting into. [163] The scene shifted between the actual Central Park West and the Columbia back lot, where John De Cuir recreated Central Park West and the first three floors. Half a police car was placed into the hole. [164] [165] [166]
• Around 25 representatives from Coca-Cola came to the set one day. Bill Murray sensed their presence, stopped in the middle of filming a scene, walked over to them, and talked to them for about 40 minutes while the crew and rest of cast waited around. The Coca-Cola team left and never came back. [167]
• The movie went a little over budget at around $31 million. [168] The final budget was $38 million with marketing costs factored in. [169]

Locations [ ]

• Although permission was granted for the production unit to shoot on the Columbia University campus, it was with the understanding that the school not be identified as such in the film. [170]
• There is no actual Weaver Hall at Columbia University. [171]
• The Paranormal lab scenes were also filmed at Columbia. [172] [173]
• The electric shocks were inspired by the Milgram experiment. [174] [175] Ivan Reitman commented the shocks scene spoke volumes about Peter Venkman and set him up as the skeptic of the group. [176]
• It was discussed at length when Scott would spit out his gum. [177]
• The scaffolding seen at the New York Public Library were part of an ongoing cleaning project at the time of filming. [178]
• Joe Medjuck crosses the screen just before the one minute mark. [179]
• The room Alice and later Peter, Ray, and Egon check out were filmed in the Los Angeles Public Library. [180]
• The floating book effect cost $250,000. [181]
• Filming at the library had to be done before 10 am. [182]
• Footage from the library scenes were part of the first screening. The Library ghost's transformation was one of the only special effects done so far. [183]
• Some of the library shoots were done on the first day of principal photography. [184]
• The Irving Trust Bank on Avenue of the Americas eventually became the fictional Manhattan City Bank with the sequence being filmed directly across from the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. [185]
• The bank scene was shot at the end of the day when the library scenes were filmed. [186]
• Production designer John DeCuir made a foam core mockup of the Firehouse to establish a feel for the set before construction and renovation of the shooting location and for Ivan Reitman to determine blocking action and camera angles. [187]
• The Firehouse was used, essentially as found, in the sequence where Egon, Ray, and Peter look around the hall. Once the initial scenes were shot, John DeCuir and his staff moved in and made the necessary modifications for later sequences. [188]
• Both the Los Angeles and New York Firehouses were built in the same year, 1912. [189] [190]
• Dan Aykroyd really wanted to use the fire pole. It wasn't just a line for Ray. [191]
• The "We Got One!" scene was filmed in the Los Angeles Firehouse. [192]
• When Egon and Janine interview possessed Louis, they simply had Louis duck out and used a one of the rubber heads of a Terror Dog during the parts where the screen shows Vinz Clortho. [193]
• The first choice for the Shandor building was 1 Fifth Avenue because it was felt the Washington Square Arch would have been a suitable landmark for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to walk past. Plans were dropped when the co-op committee for the building voted against its use in the film, according to Michael Gross. [194]
• At least one of the gargoyles was added in optically to the Shandor building. [195]
• Most of Vinz' pursuit of Louis to Central Park was filmed before principal photography. [196] [197]
• The bulging and glowing kitchen door was Ivan Reitman's nod to a similar effect done by Steven Spielberg on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." [198]
• When Peter shows up at the Shandor building for his date, the exterior was filmed in a back lot of Columbia Studios. [199]
• The filming of the Ghostbusters arrival at the Shandor building caused major traffic in Manhattan, effectively shutting down most the area. [200] Dan Aykroyd got to meet science fiction writer Isaac Asimov during this shoot, but Asimov was angry about the traffic. [201] Police had to arrest an obnoxious motorist during the shoot. [202]
• The hotel scene was planned to be shot in New York's Waldorf Astoria but the lobby was too small and would have cost too much, according to Joe Medjuck. [203]
• Ivan Reitman also used the Biltmore lobby for filming in "Dave". [204]
• Slimer flying around the chandelier in the hotel ballroom is one of Reitman's least favorite effects. [205]
• The ballroom sequence took about three to four days to film. [206]
• The guard can be seen in the teaser trailer but not in the movie itself.
• The Lincoln center scene was the first scene shot between Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. For long shots, the crew had to loop the dialogue because the fountain created too much noise. For close ups, it was okay for the fountain to be shut off. [209] [210]
• While scouting locations and emulating Louis Tully's movements, he saw the Tavern on the Green and decided to use it. [211]
• The scene in Central Park where possessed Louis talks to the horse is near 6th Avenue and was really done in the middle of the night. [212]
• The incarceration scene was shot on location at an actual New York prison facility that was out of commission and essentially abandoned. Scratches were discovered in the film used for the shot but Sheldon Kahn was able to work around them in editing and a reshoot wasn't necessary. [213] [214] [215]
• The prison is somewhere in Lower Manhattan somewhere in the middle of 14th Street. [216] [217]
• Ivan Reitman fired an extra during the prison filming. [218] [219] [220]
• Filming was done at the actual New York City Hall. [221] [222]
• Joe Medjuck, in the commentary, misremembered it as Elizabeth Holtzman's office on the other side of the building where the actual Mayor's office was. [224]
• In a variation of the Mayor's office scene, Ray called Walter Peck 'wee wienie winkie' and Bill Murray broke up completely - a rare occurrence he almost never does. [225]
• There were only two flights of stairs at the Biltmore Hotel. The rest were added in post-production. [226] [227] [228]
• The Temple of Gozer was in part inspired by the book "Rooftops of New York". [229]
• The whole rooftop sequence took a few weeks to film on a stage. [230]
• An early concept by Stephen Dane was a device that resembled a metal detector. [231]
• Only Harold Ramis knew how to use the P.K.E. Meter. [232]
• Dan Aykroyd primarily drove Ecto-1. [233] [234]
• Ecto-1 died in the Chapter 20 "Keymaster" scene where Ray and Winston drove across a bridge. [235]
• Sound designer Richard Beggs incorporated a modified leopard snarl played backwards in the siren sound. [236]
• Sound designer Richard Beggs did a feedback loop in the harmonizer and generated a sort of rhythmic pulsing sound between the uniform base sound he made first and the Moog synthesizer. Beggs then made a library of raw sounds in six or seven different families of sounds for different situations like whimpery for when the thrower was turned on, the degree of violence or impact, and one distinct sound for each of the Ghostbusters. [237]
• The smoke made from after the Trap captures a ghost was made from fabric strips socked in smoke-generating liquid. [238]
• An early version of the concept was a visor worn like an eyepatch-like monocle. [239]
• The Ecto Goggles are a modified version of the U.S. Army's AN/PVS-5a night-vision goggles introduced in 1972. [240]
• The ornamental lamps affixed to the exterior of the Shandor Building appear on the ex-Cardassian space station in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Fascination" (from Season 3). The lamps were even immortalized in the Star Trek Online video game. [241]
• Dan Aykroyd insisted on the haircut done for Ray Stantz. [242]
• Harold Ramis credits Peggy Semtob for Egon's hairstyle. [243]
• Egon Spengler's name was combined from the names of Egon Donsbach and Oswald Spengler. [244]
• Harold Ramis also took inspiration from Egon Schiele , an Austrian Expressionist painter from the early twentieth century, and Léon Krier , a Luxembourg architectural theorist and urban planner for Egon. [245] [246]
• Costume designer Suzy Benzinger found Egon's gray suit in a thrift store on St. Mark's place and his glasses in a eyeglass store on Seventh Avenue. [247]
• Winston Zeddemore was originally named Ramsey. [248]
• Harold Ramis wrote the line about Egon trying to drill a hole in his head. It was inspired by a thwarted experiment by John Lilly, a prominent researcher in dolphin communication who proposed drilling a hole in his head to test some higher brain function. [249]
• Until the final shooting drafts, Winston had been seen in the script as a security man for the company. [250]
• The original concept for Winston was younger and hipper for an actor like Eddie Murphy. Dan Aykroyd wrote Winston's predecessor Ramsey in the Ghost Smashers with Murphy in mind. Gregory Hines was spoken to for the role. [251] [252] [253] [254]
• In all drafts but the final, Stay Puft was conjured up by Winston. [255]
• Dana Barrett was originally a model but Sigourney Weaver suggested it would be more interesting if she were a musician. According to Harold Ramis, Weaver's suggestions really grew and strengthened the character. [256]
• Dana Barrett's wardrobe was based on costume designer Theoni Aldredge's. [257]
• Theoni Aldredge chose a lavender dress for when Dana was possessed by Zuul but Bill Murray suggested orange. Aldredge and Suzy Benzinger took influence from "Flashdance" went with a Jennifer Beals sort of dress. [258]
• For possessed Dana's hair, Sigourney Weaver suggested that it should look like she was electrified, other-earthly, and unlike anything Dana would logically do. [259]
• John Candy was originally going to portray Louis Tully and thus, molded to match his persona. Louis first appeared in the June draft as a fellow refugee of the creature which was to become Peter Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola commercial, one creature turns into a beautiful woman while the other turns into a heavy-set man. Joe Medjuck notes Louis would have been similar to Candy's Johnny LaRue character from SCTV. Rick Moranis took on the role and added to the character, even improvising lines during the party scene. [260] [261] [262] [263] [264] [265]
• Sigourney Weaver auditioned for the role of Dana by acting like a dog. [266]
• Sigourney Weaver suggested the 'game show host' line, which was deemed more amusing and apropos of Peter Venkman's persona. [267]
• Sandra Bernhard was offered the role of Janine Melnitz. [268]
• Janine's look was based on costume designer Suzy Benzinger. [269]
• The "What the hell are you doing" was originally Frances Nealy's reaction to the prerigged cart's pyro work going off. The line was added into the script. [270]
• According to John Bruno, the name "Slimer" came about in reaction to the "It slimed me" scene in the Sedgewick Hotel. [271]
• Dan Aykroyd described Slimer as a vapor - a kind of confluence of stored up psychic energy, an accumulation of spirits that haunt the hotel who doesn't want to leave. [272]
• Dan Aykroyd's original Ecto-1 was an all-black, rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. While going through the script, the cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs first pointed out the black design would be a problem since part of the movie would be shot at night. [273]
• Thelma Moss, of the Parapsychology Department at UCLA, told Harold Ramis Slimer was similar to a classic type of haunting known as 'hungry ghosts' - a ghost who just eats and drinks. Ramis admitted they didn't know about that when they wrote the script. [274]
• During pre-production, Ivan Reitman remarked Slimer was sort of like Bluto in the film "Animal House" like the ghost of John Belushi. Dan Aykroyd never argued with that point. [275]
• Several national newscasters were approached but turned down the offer cold. It appeared newscasters were very sensitive about doing anything other than "real news." [276]
• Casey Kasem was included at the very last minute during post-production. Kasem was called up, a deal made, and he appeared the next day to rad his bit. Kasem's lines were cut into the film all in 24 hours. [277]
• Michael Ensign originally read for the part of Walter Peck. [278]
• William Atherton was heckled a lot after the movie came out in theaters. [279] [280]
• According to Dan Aykroyd, Gozer was based on several things - a Gozer Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York and was a name related to a documented haunting in England, the one "Poltergeist" was based on. During the haunting, the name Gozer appeared on walls and things. [281]
• Gozer was originally supposed to look like Bert Parks then in later Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, a Richard Young-type. Ivan Reitman thought it might be more interesting if Gozer was rather androgynous-looking, someone like David Bowie or Grace Jones. [282] [283]
• Anna Carlisle, a punk rock singer, was offered the role of Gozer but she declined. [284]
• In earlier drafts, the Terror Dogs were sympathetic creatures from another dimension trying to escape from Gozer. They sought help from the Ghostbusters. [285]
• Ivan Reitman provided all of the unearthly voices, such as Dana's demonic Zuul voice and Slimer, except for Gozer's. [286] [287]
• The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally an intermediate form of Gozer. [288]
• In the concept phase, an alternative to the Stay Puft Marshmallow created by Thom Enriquez was a monster that was based on Ray's pet lizard from his childhood. [289]
• The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man originally rose up by the Statue of Liberty. [290]
• One faction in the production unit argued for a 100 foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, another argued for 125 feet but Ivan Reitman ultimately declared 112.5 feet. [291]
• The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally a throw away character in the midway point and didn't become the final encounter until the July draft. [292]

Montage Scenes [ ]

• The scene at at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street near 280 Broadway with the TV Reporter was the first thing filmed for the movie before principal photography started. [293]
• In the first montage, the part where Peter, Ray, and Egon run down Madison in full gear was the first thing they shot for the movie. [294]
• During the montage, the USA Today is dated Tuesday, October 8, 1984. The date was actually a Monday in reality. [295]
• Ivan Reitman kept some of the magazines and newspapers from that montage. [296]
• When the Omni Magazine cover appears, Joe Medjuck makes his second cameo. He is behind Egon. [297]
• The television in Dana's living room is a Sony Trinitron KV-1711.
• The radio in Dana's kitchen is the Panasonic RXF20.
• The red book near the small Sony TV when Ray is asked about Elvis is "Who's on First" by William F. Buckley. It is a spy thriller and the third in a series.
• In the second montage, when the escaped ghosts shoot towards the Shandor building, film crews shot from the apartment next door. [298]
• The scene with the Subway Ghost was shot in October 1983 before principal photography. [299]
• The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was also done during the first week of shooting on Madison Avenue. [300] *The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was filmed on the first day of shooting. [301]
• The scene where possessed Louis walks and just before Slimer appears in the hot dog stand was shot in Broadway. It was also one of the very first things shot. [302] [303]

Deleted and Discarded Scenes or Ideas [ ]

• There was going to be a second stage to the Library ghost's transformation where it became even more demonic-looking but Richard Edlund nixed it due to budgetary concerns despite the puppet being almost done. [304] [305] [306]
• Ivan Reitman thought the bride and groom scene was one of the funniest sequences but ended up cutting it because it stopped the movie cold. It was one of the tougher decisions Reitman made. [307]
• The bride and groom were played by Charles Levin and Wendy Goldman. [308]
• During the Sedgewick case, Egon ran into a woman in a towel. Mary Woronov was cast but the scene was never shot. [309]
• Ivan Reitman rejected an airbrush rendering of the Chinese ghost to be used during the montage. [310]
• The encounter between a policeman and the Ecto-1 was the only scene in the final shooting script that suggested the vehicle had some extranormal powers carried over from Aykroyd's initial draft. It was removed because it slowed down the montage. [311]
• There was going to be a scene in Little Italy for the montage with the Ghostbusters leaving a store with Traps but the Mafia in control of the area wanted $1500 for permission to film. [312]
• Ivan Reitman came up with the idea of treating the Fort Detmerring deleted scene as dream in the montage sequence. [313]
• In the August 5, 1983 draft of Ghostbusters, the Mink Coat manifested during a fashion show when the Containment Unit was shut down. [314]
• The mugging scene involving the possessed Louis was cut because there was simply no time left in the production process and Richard Edlund had no time to do effects. [315] [316]
• The tip of Roosevelt Island was to be used for a scene but it was discarded and never filmed. [317]
• Marine Ecto-8 was originally one of Aykroyd's unused ideas from early drafts of the first movie. [318]
• An unused concept by Thom Enriquez for the montage was a "pizza ghost," a demonic pizza deliveryman with cheesy flesh dripping from its face. [319]
• Mrs. Reitman, Jason, and Catherine were originally going to have a cameo in Ghostbusters panicked residents fleeing from 550 Central Park West but it was scrapped when both got too scared after the first take and Jason would not do a second take. [320] [321]
• There was a planned scene that was storyboarded of Stay Puft stepping on a police car. The Boss Film crew joked about adding a bit where the crushed car was embedded in the bottom of his foot. The scene was ultimately discarded. [322]

Trivia by Chapter [ ]

Alternatively and more comprehensively are trivia organized by chapter

References in The Real Ghostbusters [ ]

• In the aftermath of the party, Peter refers to the Ghostbusters' first encounter with Slimer, seen in the movie. [323]
• Peter mentions their usual fee for standard capture and containment is $1500, much less than their $5000 charge for catching Slimer in the movie. [324]
• As Peter jumps into the Boogieman's portal, he tells Egon, "See you on the other side, Egon." [325]
• "Take Two" is the episode that directly dealt with the movie to cartoon issue. The making of the movie took place during the animated Ghostbusters show.
• It is also one of two episodes that explains the differences between the cartoon and the movie (something rarely done with animated series based on films), the other being "Citizen Ghost".
• The Ghostbusters are mystified by the names of the actors supposedly playing them; they claim that they've never even heard of them and Winston thought it was a law firm at first. [326]
• At the end of the episode it has a bit of Ghostbusters on the screen. About the end of Chapter 1: Start to the beginning of Chapter 2: Shock the Nerd is seen on screen.
• The voice of Bill Murray was dubbed during the movie.
• When Venkman sees Bill Murray onscreen, he comments "he doesn't look a thing like me." Which, in a way, is true. [327]
• Peter tells Cynthia Crawford how and why Slimer came to live with the Ghostbusters, in events immediately following their film encounter with Gozer.
• One of the photos hanging on the wall near Peter's office is of the Firehouse, after it blew up during the events of the movie.
• In storyboards, deleted from the episode, the Shandor Building is alluded to in script excerpts. When Peter starts his story, the scene was supposed to start on one of the frames in his office which had a photo of the building after it blew up then shift to the frame of the Firehouse in ruins. [328] [329]
• Peter instantly recognizes the green ghost as the one who slimed him at the (Sedgewick) Hotel. [330]
• Peter alludes to the Ghostbusters' first encounter with Slimer and getting slimed. [331]
• The Mayor also mentions the manifestations of the Terror Dogs and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man . [332]
• After the first meeting with the Mayor, Egon's plan prompts Ray to tell Peter to give Egon a chocolate bar. [333] This is in reference to the post-New York City Public Library scene in the movie.
• Peter offers to tell the Diva how he saved the world, a likely reference to the movie. [334]
• Peter quotes his "Heat 'em up!" line as heard in the movie, and the other three Ghostbusters respond "Smoking!" accordingly. [335] [336]
• The ABC Theater has a showing of "Ghostbusters" which was premiered, in-universe, at the end of the episode "Take Two".
• Peter says, "I've always wanted to do this." While in the restaurant, the same thing he says at the Sedgewick Hotel in the movie. [337] Instead of pulling the table cloth, he throws a plate of pasta at a ghost.
• Jon mistakenly calls the Ghostbusters the " Ghost Smashers " three times in the episode. This was the original name of the Ghostbusters movie. [338]
• Uncle Horace reads aloud the Ghostbusters' phone number, NO GHOST or 664-4678. This marks the first time the phone number is stated or seen in the animated series. Previously, in the first Ghostbusters movie, it was 555-2368 but the 664-4678 phone number was first used in Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular , a novelization of the first movie, as 1-212-NO-GHOST. [339]
• The opening shot of a focus on the library's lion statue is similar to the opening shot of the first film.
• In the script, when Ecto-1 departed the Firehouse for the library, there was an exchange between Ray and Peter. Peter referred to the Library ghost in the dialogue. [340]
• Egon references Gozer as the team departs from the library. [341]
• The man on the train says he would have thought Venkman was an astronaut. The man at the Sedgewick hotel in the first movie asks Venkman, "What are you supposed to be, some kind of a cosmonaut?"
• Winston voiced his regret over answering the ad the Ghostbusters placed during the events of the movie. [342]
• The Ghostbusters speculate the surge in paranormal activity could be hailing the return of Gozer. [343] [344]
• Janine refers to the Containment Unit as the Storage Facility like in the first film. [345]
• Egon mentions Gozer. [346]
• Winston mentions the giant Twinkie analogy from the movie. [347]
• A larger Terror Dog pursues the Ghostbusters. Winston comments he hasn't seen a Terror Dog in a long time, most likely referencing the movie. [348]
• Walter Peck reveals that he lost his job after the events of the movie. [349] [350]
• A Terror Dog briefly invades the Firehouse.
• When the Ghostbusters pull up to the New York City Public Library, Peter reminisces about how their first case was there, as seen in the movie. [351]
• The Ghost Governor has two large sized Terror Dogs.
• When Ray and Egon conduct research at the New York City Public Library, there is construction going on, shown by a man working on scaffolding like in the movie.
• Peter says, "Nice shootin' Tex!" to Winston. [352]
• Peter says he's been waiting five years to slime Slimer. This is true, since he was first slimed by Slimer in the movie. [353]
• J. Michael Straczynski, during a visual commentary, points out that the destruction of the Containment Unit is stylistically lifted from a similar scene in the first Ghostbusters film.
• Brian O'Neal , the voice of Boogaloo, was also a member of the The Bus Boys . That group performed the song "Cleanin' Up The Town" from Ghostbusters and its soundtrack album . [354]
• Egon mentions facing Gozer. [355]
• Peter reminds Egon of the first case at the New York Public Library, and hopes for Egon's sake that the spirits in Heck House never saw the movie based upon that incident. [356]

References in Ghostbusters II [ ]

• On page 5, Ray retells the final battle from the first movie. He alludes to 550 Central Park West and mentions the two Terror Dogs.
• On page 12, Lane Walker tells Egon she remembered the old Ghostbusters commercials.
• On page 15, Egon and Ray waiting for Peter but he vehemently refuses to help, citing they bubbled up a 100 foot marshmallow man and blew off the top 3 floors of a very big apartment building.
• On page 16, Peter reminds them they are on probation and he won't risk ending up in jail again... until he sees Lane Walker, the new romantic interest.
• On page 43, Peter, Ray, and Egon go to the old Firehouse, boarded up, still wrecked, and the gaping hole in the roof is still there. Peter concludes they got too big too fast and their liability insurance didn't cover saving the world.
• On page 46, they encounter Slimer in the Firehouse basement and are slimed.
• On page 48, the Firehouse's old logo comes crashing to the ground then the new one is put up.
• St. Mark's Playhouse was a discarded idea from drafts of the first movie. Ultimately, the Movieland Theater takes its place in Ghostbusters II.
• On page 85, Peter points out to the Mayor the last time they helped the city, he stiffed them and brings up "Ancient Sumerians, big lizard dogs, and a hundred-foot marshmallow man." Peter wants them to be paid upfront this time.
• On page 131, Slimer flies out of the Statue of Liberty's torch to the screen like the ending in the first movie.
• On page 120, Slimer flies out of the Statue of Liberty's torch to the screen like the ending in the first movie.
• In Chapter 01: Start , Winston alludes to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and blowing up part of 550 Central Park West but they ended up getting sued by every state, county and city agency in New York.
• In Chapter 02: "World of the Psychic" , Peter alludes to the battle with Gozer, calling it a "little job" the Ghostbusters did for the City a while back but they got stiffed on the bill by some bureaucratic bookworm like Jack Hardemeyer.
• In Chapter 03: Dr. Janosz Poha , Dana talks about getting back to the orchestra. In Chapter 14 of the first movie, she left a rehearsal at Lincoln Center.
• In Chapter 05: Investigating Oscar , Peter plays Dana's cello like a stand-up bass. This was an unused idea from the Ghostbusters October 7, 1983 Draft when Peter went to initially investigate Dana's apartment on page 24.
• In the Ghostbusters II (Deleted Scene): Dana's Curse , Peter's "It's technical" line is a callback to when Dana asked about the Ghost Sniffer.
• In Chapter 06: Late-Night Excavation , Ray is silently voted as the volunteer by Peter and Egon after he asks who will go down the shaft. This mirrors when Peter was silently voted to talk to the Library ghost.
• In the deleted scene Ladies and Gentlemen of the Audience , Louis mentions being turned into Terror Dog as well.
• In Chapter 12: Two in the Box , Peter, Ray, and Egon did a similar jog down a sidewalk in the first montage of the first movie in Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard. This time, Winston is included.
• In Ghostbusters Chapter 12: Two in the Box, a new commercial is shown. Elements of commercial originated in the commercial in pages 17-18 in the October 7, 1983 draft of the first movie. It featured a frightened family. One of the mother's lines, "It's that darn ghost again," is spoken by Janine. One of the father's lines, "I guess we'll just have to move," is spoken by Louis.
• In Chapter 13: Mood Slime , Rudy the Museum Guard is reading a Star magazine featuring "Ghostbusters Save Mayor" and "Team of Venkman Stantz & Spengler in heroic deed." [357] [358] The photo of the trio is from a promo shot taken during production of the first movie in New York at 696 Madison Avenue which became the Ecto-1 Parking Ticket deleted scene.
• Near the desk in Peter's apartment on the wall are frames with the magazine and newspaper covers from the first film's montage in Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard, the New York Post, USA Today, and Time magazine.
• Near the doorway to Peter's bathroom is the lamp that was on Peter's desk in the Firehouse in the first movie.
• Row 2, Left: The TIME magazine issue from the first movie, Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard.
• Row 2, Center: The USA Today edition from the first movie, Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard.
• Row 3, Left: The Omni magazine issue from first movie, Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard.
• Row 3, Right: The Atlantic Monthly issue from the first movie, Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard.
• The Theatre Ghost scene in the montage mirrors the Subway Ghost terrorizing people.
• The Mink Coat originates from the August 5, 1983 draft of the first movie. It manifested during a fashion show after the Containment Unit was shut down. [359]
• The Slimer ending does appear in the November 27, 1988 and February 27, 1989 drafts. [360]
• The Slimer ending does show up in a storyboard.

References in Ghostbusters: The Video Game [ ]

• Peter alludes to when he saw the possessed Dana Barrett levitate above her bed. [361]
• Ray and Peter allude to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and the events of the first movie when the former laments about another childhood icon of his being ruined. [362] [363]
• Winston recalls when Dana Barrett turned into Zuul's Terror Dog form. [364]

References in IDW Comics [ ]

References in ghostbusters: afterlife [ ], references in ghostbusters: spirits unleashed [ ].

• "Ghostbusters" plays in the opening title sequence.
• In Act 1 Scene 1, Ray alludes to Gozer.
• After the Act 1 Scene 3 cutscene, talking to Catt Delgado reveals she was a Ghostbusters fan since she was seven or right when she saw the cross-rip in 1984.
• In Act 3, Scene 3, Nameless is wearing the Aura Video-Analyzer colander helmet.
• In Act 3, Scene 3, Eddy Chan mentions Zuul .
• The footlockers still bear the name plates of Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore.
• Throughout the Firehouse are boxes of Yellow Cake Logs, a stand-in for Twinkies.
• On the front desk is Janine Melnitz's whale figurine from the first movie.
• In the back office are some of the newspaper articles from the first movie, including the "Ghost Fever Grips New York" one in Chapter 14: Welcome Aboard.
• An area for a spores, mold, and fungus collection, a nod to Egon's line in Chapter 8: "Bug-Eyes Thing".
• On a desk are Egon's Stethoscope from the first movie.
• On the counter is a bag of Stay Puft Marshmallows and box of Cheeze-Its.
• One of the arcades is Star Explorer based on Star Gazer seen in Ghostbusters.
• In the lab, on the right is an old computer with the game title screen for the Ghostbusters Commodore 64 video game.
• Right near the old computer is the colander helmet for the Aura Video-Analyzer.
• In the far corner of the lab is the MEDRAD Mark IV Angiographic Injector from the Paranormal Studies Laboratory in the first movie.
• On the table at the far side of the lab is a Ghost Sniffer from the first movie.
• The Stay Puft Marshmallows ad originally seen in Chapter 22: Out of Biz is in the alley between the Firehouse and Ray's Occult Books.
• The graffiti under Stay Puft in the alley advertisement quotes Winston's line "What did you do, Ray?" in the first movie in Chapter 27: Stay Puft Man.
• In the alley between Ray's Occult and the Firehouse, behind the targets on the wall and on a pile of junk is "Venkman Burn in Hell," a nod to the message left on the Paranormal Studies Lab door in Weaver Hall from Chapter 2: Shock the Nerd.
• Hanging on the shelves behind the counter in Ray's Occult is a framed copy of the famous Revelations quote from the first movie in Chapter 20: Keymaster.
• If the player flies the ghost to the top of the Ghost Realm map, Mick Smiley's "Magic" song plays.
• "Magic" also plays in the last cutscene.
• Added on August 1, 2023, the Fab Coat full suit is based on the lab coats worn by Peter, Egon, and Ray in their commercial in the first movie in Chapter 7.

Theatrical Releases [ ]

Statistics without references are from The Numbers [390] , which was found first on Proton Charging (Fan Site) [391] .

Known USA Runs:

Versions and Releases of Ghostbusters [ ]

Prior cuts [ ].

The original 114 minute test screening was completed on February 17, 1984. Sheldon Kahn is known to have owned a copy on Betamax tape. [399] The Ghostbusters Ultimate Edition 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 2022 Gift Set includes this test screening, referred to as a "preview cut" that contains alternate takes, additional scenes, and early effects.

Home Video Releases [ ]

The VHS version of the movie was released on October 31, 1985. [400] [401] The DVD version of the movie was released on June 29, 1999 and became one of the fastest selling units ever on Reel.com. Sony had announced at Comic-Con 2008 that the Blu-Ray version of the film was to be released on October 21, 2008, but it was actually released on June 16, 2009 to coincide with the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the film's 25th anniversary.

To read more on home video releases of the film, go to Ghostbusters Home Video Releases

Edited-For-Television Version [ ]

In the United States, Ghostbusters premiered on the ABC television network on Thursday September 24, 1987 at 9:00 PM Eastern as the season premiere of the "ABC Thursday Night Movie" series. The movie ran, with commercials, until 11:07 PM. The "edited for television" version features several alternate takes to replace some of the more objectionable dialogue.

For more information to the edited for television version click here .

Foreign Markets‎‎ [ ]

The Ghostbusters Movie was released all over the world. However, many aspects of the movie had to be localized.

References [ ]

• ↑ Theater Poster
• ↑ IMDb- Ghostbusters / release info
• ↑ Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 05:28-05:34). Columbia Pictures. Dan says: "Uh, '81. Really was when I started to write it. In late '81."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Other films and projects interrupted the screenwriting process, and John Belushi's sudden death put a further temporary hold on the work. "I'd been working on it, on and off, for a couple of years -- always with the idea of having John involved. I was, in fact, writing one of his lines when I heard that he had died.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Aykroyd presented his half-completed script to Bill Murray -- a fellow Saturday Night Live expatriot and alumnus of the Chicago-based Second City troupe. When Murray responded favorably to the concept, Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman, with whom he had worked briefly -- years before in Toronto -- as a comedian and announcer for a live television variety show."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 05:41-05:48). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "It languished for a bit. Then I think you sent it to me... you spoke to Bill about perhaps picking up the mantle and he sent it to me."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: ""Dan had written only forty or fifty pages at that point," Reitman recalled, "and frankly, I had no idea how I would go about making it into a film. For on thing, it was set in the future -- not far in the future, but far enough -- and it took place on a number of different planets or dimensional planes. And it was all action. There was very little character work in it. The Ghostbusters were catching ghosts on the very first page -- and doing it on every single page after that, without respite -- just one sort of supernatural phenomenon after another. By the tenth page, I was exhausted. By the fortieth or fiftieth page -- however many there were -- I was counting the budget in hundreds of millions of dollars. And there really weren't very many laughs. Although I could detect a comic attitude, the whole thing was written rather seriously. In the end I just kind of set it aside and forgot about it.""
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 06:10-06:34). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "The idea of the firehall, the No Ghost symbol - this wonderful thing - it was right in the script Danny sent me. And amongst the 100 odd special effects monsters that were there, there was something called the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And it happened on page 20 or 30. It was really just one of many things."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 95. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The encounter between the policeman and the Ectomobile is the only scene in the final shooting script which suggested that the vehicle itself had some extranormal powers -- a carryover from Dan Aykroyd's initial draft in which the Ectomobile was equipped with an advanced dematerializing capability that allowed its operators, functioning somewhat outside the law, to readily elude police pursuit."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 67 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd's original Ectomobile was an all-black rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. Though kept essentially intact through all the drafts, the vehicle concept -- suggesting a hearse rather more than an ambulance -- was clearly more in keeping with the darker tone of Aykroyd's first draft than with the lighter ones that followed it. It was cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, however, who first pointed out a serious problem with it."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 7-8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd, however, did not. When the script was finished some months later, he submitted it to Reitman once again -- complete with conceptual illustrations and a quickie videotape of himself in a jumpsuit-based uniform embellished with makeshift nutrona wands and a proton pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. With several projects stalled in various stages of development, Reitman -- championing at the bit to get a film into production -- decided to give Ghostbusters a closer look."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 66 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "To help sell his original screenplay, Dan Aykroyd commissioned an artist friend -- John Daveikis -- to render a few preliminary design concepts. Among them was a proposal for the Ectomobile -- which, in contrast to its written description, was depicted as being white rather than black."
• ↑ Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Richard Edlund quote 11/7/14
• ↑ Labrecque, Jeff (2014). "Ghostbusters: An Oral History". Entertainment Weekly.
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 9. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Ivan Reitman says: "It was April 1983, and I was sent Dan Aykroyd's inventive futuristic treatment that introduced the idea that a group of men, acting much like firefighters, would trap and catch ghosts as part of a new protective emergency service for the universe at large."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "What I focused on, as I read the script again, was Dan's really brilliant initial concept -- the idea of a group of men who work out of an old firehall and respond to emergencies much the way firemen do. The only difference is that these emergencies are supernatural in nature -- and so what the Ghostbusters do is go out, trap ghosts and incarcerate them. Dan had come up with that concept, and had worked out the equipment and the car and all that sort of thing. He even thought out the basic idea for the Ghostbusters logo -- the little ghost inside a stop sign. That was one of the few things in the original draft that I had actually laughed at. But it seemed to me that the overall concept was diluted by setting the story in the future and then introducing fantasy elements and going off into other dimensions. So I called Dan and we had lunch at Art's Delicatessen and I told him what I thought ought to be done."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "I told Dan that I felt we should set the film in a modern American city and that we should tell how ghostbusting came about -- how the guys invented their equipment and the story of their first really big bust."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Without hesitation, Dan Aykroyd expressed his agreement with the direction Ivan Reitman felt the screenplay should be taken. Reitman next suggested a writing collaboration between Aykroyd and Harold Ramis -- an extremely gifted comedy writer who had worked on the scripts for all three of Reitman's previous hits."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Dan Aykroyd says: "Right after our lunch meeting, Ivan and I walked over to Harold's office -- which, like Ivan's, was on The Burbank Studios lot. At the time, Harold happened to be reading another script I'd written about the Canadian Mounted Police. I told him to put that script aside, and I replaced it with the Ghostbusters one. After looking through the script and listening to what we had to say for about twenty minutes, he said, 'Okay, I'm in.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Later that same afternoon, Reitman called his agent, Mike Ovitz -- who also had happened to represent Aykroyd, Ramis, and Murray -- and asked him to set up a meeting with Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 8-9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "There was really nothing for him to read. I didn't want to give him Danny's script because it wasn't really relevant to where we were going, and it probably would have scared him. I just told him who was going to be involved and gave him a five-minute synopsis of the story -- the way it was going to go -- and he said, 'Well, what's it going to cost?' I said I had no idea -- there was no screenplay and no budget -- but that it was going to be expensive And he said, 'Keep it in the mid-twenties and you've got yourself a deal.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The $25 million commitment had only one hitch -- but a big one. Columbia needed a major release for the summer of 1984. Reitman and his team had exactly one year to come up with a script, mount the production and complete the extensive and time consuming visual effects -- and his team at that point, aside from his writers, consisted solely of associate producers Joe Medjuck and Michael Gross."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 10. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Basically we worked out a new story that made sense to the three of us. Then Dan and I divided up the responsibility of getting it down in screenplay form. Ivan, as always, was a good validator -- which is a useful function for a writer."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 10. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "It was my idea to set the guys as parapsychologists at a university."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "With studied inputs from Edlund and DeCuir, Ghostbusters' seat-of-the-pants budget estimate was refined and adjusted to just under $30 million."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the months that followed, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs joined the group, as did costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge and editor Sheldon Kahn."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "After our first draft, we has the story pretty well locked in. We knew basically how we were going to have them start out and where we were going to go with them, but what took us several more drafts to work out were the details. For the longest time, the movie never really got going until the hotel scene -- which was around page 40. Then we added the library ghost, which got us off much earlier in the film; and by the time we started shooting, the ESP scene had been written in, which was very funny and got us moving right from the beginning."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "In our first draft, the Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. But we realized that there was something very vital about being in the city, so we began thinking maybe we should start the film there. That's when we came up with the idea of using the New York Public Library for our opening sequence."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Prior to that, it had been set in a nice, converted farmhouse where this family has been bothered by incessant knocking that they're unable to trace. So we're in there climbing all over the house, knocking out walls and ripping up floorboards in their nicely remodeled kitchen. And at the end of the scene, all we're able to tell them is, 'Well, you've got a knocking.' 'We know we've got a knocking! What's causing it!' 'We'll have to get back with you on that.' It was a little cruel and not very dynamic -- but it sort of touched on the mundanity of some supernatural phenomena."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Dana Barrett's character changed dramatically as the script evolved. Aware that the story needed a love interest, Aykroyd and Ramis decided to write one into their initial collaborative draft. Being more attuned to comedy than romance, however, their first effort resulted in an alien fugitive from another dimension which transforms itself into human female form."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The character makes his first appearance in the June draft as a fellow refuge of the creature which was to become Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola television commercial for inspiration, one creature transforms itself into a beautiful woman, while the other transforms into a heavy-set man."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 124 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The exchange between Louis and the horse harkens back to a deleted scene from the June and July drafts in which Venkman and the alien Zuul -- masquerading as human in Dana's body -- leave the restaurant and encounter several carriage horses. Noticing the bridles and harnesses, Zuul inquires if they are prisoners. Uncertain of her reaction, Venkman responds promptly: "No, no. They're volunteers. This is considered a good job for a horse." "They look so sad," Zuul laments, and then kisses one of the beasts with enough genuine emotion to elicit a worried look from the carriage driver. In the June draft, Venkman pulls her away and segues -- ever so smoothly -- into an invitation which leads to his surprise wakeup the next morning: "You know, I was just thinking. No trip to this dimension would be complete without a visit to the Times Square Motor Hotel."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Venkman's affair with the interdimensional creature was funny, but not very romantic. He wakes up with her one morning and she is this kind of wart hog -- which we realized was rather lacking in real human connection and love."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Eventually cut from the script was a restaurant sequence which appeared in the June and July drafts. In both, Venkman takes Dana -- an interdimensional alien masquerading as a beautiful woman in the first draft, and a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien in the second -- to a fashionable restaurant. Her unfamiliarity with the finer points of human etiquette becomes apparent when, upon arrival, she observes several ladies removing their wraps and proceeds to follow their example by taking off her blouse."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 145 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The flying fish-like ghost which fits out of the subway entrance was a mere reminder of a much more elaborate introduction to the montage conceived by Ramis and Aykroyd in their first collaboration. In that draft, rather than making an aerial passage uptown, the ghosts descend into an all but deserted subway station. As a transit cop chats amiably with a female cashier, the subway turnstiles begin spinning unaccountably. Investigating, the officer discovers a huddled mass of ghosts and vapors hovering directly over the tracks. When a speeding express train passes by, the spirits hitch a collective ride uptown - taking over the cars en masse and sending everyone from motormen to muggers fleeing before them.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph says: "In the first collaborative draft, even though the storage facility was now in the firehall, a similar concept was employed - with Spengler pinpointing a small community in northern New Jersey as the likely epicenter of major psychic activity, due to its central proximity in three nuclear power plants and a number of chemical waste storage areas."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 18:44-19:03). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "My favorite time working on this movie was the three of us - Dan, Harold and I went to Martha's Vineyard. We each had a house. Aykroyd was already living there. And we spent 2 and a half weeks around the July 4th weekend and basically hammered out this new draft."
• ↑ Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 19:04-19:09). Columbia Pictures. Dan says: "In my basement. So we wouldn't look out at the sea. With an old Royal electric typewriter."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 68 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the July and August drafts, Spengler conducts an early demonstration of the experimental ghostbusting equipment for his comrades at the firehall. Since the self-contained unit is still under development, the existing prototype is plugged into an AC outlet. An audible surge of power runs from the wall socket along the extension cord to the power pack on Spengler's back. The pack heats up to 550 degrees and kicks the electrical surge back down the wire to the wall outlet which melts. At once, all the lights in the room black out. Compounding the gag, the action then cuts to an exterior of the firehouse as all the lights in and on the building go out, as does the street lamp and the stoplight at the corner. Then the action cuts once again to a long shot of downtown office buildings as they all black out in rapid succession, leaving dark silhouettes against the night sky."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "After going through an evolutionary design process, the hotel ghost finally emerged as a green, potato-shaped creature -- and it was at this point, in July, that its description as such was incorporated into the script. Prior accounts were less specific, indicating merely that it was an incredibly foul-smelling amorphous vapor."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Later in the July draft, Louis Tully -- then a visiting conventioneer, also possessed -- enters the same restaurant..."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Time Is But A Window: Ghostbusters II and Beyond" (2014) (DVD ts. 09:00-09:21). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "As we were developing the uh second or third draft, we came to the conclusion that we needed this kind of character to explain certain things and be a more elegant way of doing it and I felt the movie needed a ump up in terms of a new character coming in on the good guy's side that helped."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 54 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads says: "The inclusion of Winston was in clear response to a perceived notion on the part of the filmmakers that the team needed to embrace a fourth member who could serve as the on-screen voice of the viewing public -- a no-nonsense professional, with a major streak of skepticism when it came to the avowed objectives of his employers. On further reflection, however, it was decided to delay Winston's introduction until after the Ghostbusters' first big score when, conceivably, they could really begin to need some augmentation."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 54 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the July and August drafts, Dana's appearance at the firehall is preceded by a scene in which Winston Zeddemore -- armed with enough references to nail down a job as security chief for the White House -- presents himself in reply to a trifling 'help wanted' ad for a guard."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 203 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Alternate endings in earlier drafts included scenes within the towering glass and chrome headquarters of Ghostbusters International - now a high-rolling multinational corporation "recognized everywhere as the first line of defense against interdimensional trespassers." The July draft even attempted to wrap up the romantic loose ends. Venkman and Dana set up housekeeping, Spengler and Janine are married, and Stantz returns to Fort Detmerring for spiritual renewal."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 19:10-19:39). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "And it was being constantly rewritten and re-edited. Re-commented on. And really by the time we left which was the 10th of July, we had a pretty good script. It wasn't the script we shot but it was enough of a script to say 'we need this character, we need this character down the hall, we need a woman.' I can start auditioning people while ther rewriting continued and we were shooting the movie in October and it came out in June."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 87 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Instructed to cut loose with his imagination, Italian comic artist Liberatore produced a number of extreme, highly eccentric ghost concepts -- none of which actually ended up in the film."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 143 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "During the script-writing stage, we didn't concern ourselves too much with what forms our ghosts would take. But as the director, I had to start worrying about that during preproduction. To help with the brainstorming process, we hired a number of freelance artists to sketch out ideas - there were literally hundreds of different concepts by the time they were done - and from those, I just basically mixed and matched and tried to come up with a delectable assortment.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 46. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "During the film's preproduction phase, Berni Wrightson produced some fifty conceptual illustrations, exploring everything from Terror Dogs and ghosts to transdimensional portals and beyond. Working under short deadline, Wrightson would sometimes respond to the tension with a momentary lapse into whimsy -- letting his cartoonist's instincts get the better of him, as in this comic rendering of a ghostly barbershop quartet."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "Under the auspices of Michael Gross, we hired a number of artists who were put to work doing sort of free-form designs for the various kinds of ghosts I could see developing in the story."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "Michael was also doing some preliminary research into who might be available to handle the effects."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "Unfortunately, most of the major effects facilities were already booked. Dune was over at Apogee at the time, and Industrial Light and Magic was finishing Return of the Jedi and beginning Indiana Jones and Star Trek III."
• ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 00:49-00:59). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "It was a... opportunity that came by way of a phone call from Ivan Reitman when I was having an operation on my back."
• ↑ Don Shay comment in blog about Cinefex #17 4/10/12
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "Then we learned Richard Edlund was planning to leave ILM to go into business for himself."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 18:05-18:43). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "And uh that was 13 months after that moment. There was no screenplay, there was no... we had the cast and a brilliant idea, no special effects team. There was one great special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic and it was already tied up doing the new Spielberg movie and we knew we couldn't go to them. We had to create out own. Columbia actually fronted $5 million to Richard Edlund and he started his own. Boss Films it was called. It was the start of his own special effects house that was exclusively working on Ghostbusters."
• ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 01:46-02:08). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "Once I got the "go," we all came together in a studio in Marina Del Ray which was kind of a pile of parts and we had, essentially, rebuilt the whole studio, came up with techniques and styles for doing the whole show, designed and storyboard everything and execute within the space of little over 10 months."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Preproduction was well underway before anyone realized that Filmation had produced a short-lived Saturday morning children's show called The Ghost Busters during the 1975-76 television season. Columbia promptly entered into negotiations with Filmation to secure rights to the title; but the talks bogged down, and through most of the New York location photography, Reitman and company were uncertain as to what their film would eventually be called."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 49 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "In our previous draft, there was another effect besides the self-cooking eggs. Also on the counter was a loaf of bread in a plastic bag. We wanted to have the bag puff out and steam up to the point where it started to peel away. Then, one by one, the pieces of bread were going to heat up, turn brown, and fall over as toast. But Ivan thought the eggs really sold the scene, and he didn't want to go to the time and expense of having a loaf of bread toasting itself."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "At one point, another scene was to follow Dana's departure. As soon as she left the kitchen, every metal appliance and utensil in sight was to fly across the room and stick to the refrigerator door. After discussing numerous ways to achieve the effect -- the most likely being attaching the implements to the refrigerator and then yanking them away with invisible wires as the camera recorded the action in reverse -- the idea was discarded as unnecessarily difficult. In the final edit, the entire sequence cuts immediately after Dana slams the refrigerator door."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Shandor was dropped altogether from the first two Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, but resurfaced in the third - in name, at any rate - with an even more unsavory background than that suggested by the final shooting script. As recounted by Spengler in the August draft, Ivo Shandor was a deranged surgeon, architect and Gozer worshiper, electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably - if not tastefully - with stacks of human bones."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 70 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The Onionhead's film debut, as depicted in storyboard form by Thom Enriquez. Though the ghost design and its essential action were already locked in, these early sketches show Venkman and Stantz discovering the ghost together -- a story point that was altered sometime between the August draft and the final shooting script."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 115 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "As originally scripted for John Candy, the Louis Tully character was to have had decidedly earthier interests -- best evidenced in the party sequence as it appeared in the August draft."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 121 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the August draft, Louis' attempted escape into Central Park is preceded by a sequence in which -- having just emerged from the apartment house -- he flags down a passing taxi and jumps inside. Seconds later, the Terror Dog bounds out of the building and launches itself onto the hood of the cab. In true New York form, the driver hurls a few expletives at the beast, guns his motor and speeds away, causing the creature to lose its balance and fall by the wayside. Undaunted, the Terror Dog takes off in hot pursuit, chasing the taxi through the streets of Manhattan."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "The whole script came together in about three months."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says "By the time shooting actually began, though, John was no longer available. Fortunately, Rick Moranis was and he really helped to tailor the character. He came up with the idea of Louis being an accountant, and the character really started to evolve from that point on."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 14:24-15:10). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "In terms of shifting from the original screenplay, I don't know if you remember we wrote it for John Candy. I remember sending it to Candy because I just worked with him again on Stripes and John didn't get it. He kept saying, 'Hey, well maybe I can do him with a German accent ' and I was a little hesitant right away. It was an odd thing in an American based movie and he was looking for a handle. And we got into the uncomfortable conversation. And finally it was clear he wasn't going to do it. And I literally called Rick Moranis the same day and sent him the script the same day. Candy turned it down. Rick called me like 2 hours after he got it. He said, 'Please thank Candy for turning this down This is amazing. I know what to do with it.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "I told him we were pushing for an October start date -- just a week or two after he was supposed to get back -- and he said, 'Okay, I'll see you then.' And that was about the extent of our preproduction discussion -- until about a week or two before shooting, when he flew in to try on some costumes and then disappeared back to Paris for a few more days of last-minute photography on Razor's Edge."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Ivan wanted me with him, so we drove out to La Guardia. Bill flew in on a private plane, an hour late, and came through the terminal with a stadium horn -- one of those bullhorns that plays eighty different fight songs -- and he was addressing everyone in sight with this thing and then playing a song. We dragged him out of there and went to a restaurant in Queens."
• ↑ Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever , p. 41. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243 . Line reads: "Such resolve had to carry Murray into Ghostbusters, which started for him on October 27. The Razor's Edge left him physically drained and thirty-five pounds lighter. Unfortunately, there was no time to rest. "I got off the Concorde from Razor's Edge and drove to 62nd Street and Madison to work on (Ghostbusters)," he said. "I left Paris at 9:30 in the morning and went to work at 11 o'clock in the morning in New York. I will never do that again. That was terrible. I mean, I was asleep the whole time." Nerves kept Peter Giuliano from doing anything but sleeping his first day on Ghostbusters."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014) , "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 03:17-03:44). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "It was a week before shooting began but we were doing some camera tests that day and also wardrobe tests. And for the wardrobe test I thought 'Well, let's just shoot one of those sort of montage pieces when they first become Ghostbusters and it's the three Ghostbusters running down the streets in their uniforms. It was Madison Avenue around Sixty First and I sort of just look up and I see them for the first time and I got this amazing shiver up my spine."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "With a final script at last in hand, Reitman and his production team gathered in New York in late October for a week of preliminary second unit work, followed by three-and-a-half weeks of principal photography."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 26. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Commencing in late October 1983, first and second unit crews blanketed the island of Manhattan recording all the scenes necessary to adequately ground the Hollywood production in a convincing New York environment."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:01-54:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Yeah, this was in October when... "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:02-54:06). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was when we went a week early. Shot for five days. Most of this. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:26-1:09:30). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This is all part of that very early shooting we did back in October as I remember. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Venkman's line was a last-minute insertion into the script."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Some things are impossible to anticipate as you're writing. When we actually got to the jail scene and saw all those brutes standing around us, I suggested to Ivan that they watch us and listen intently to all this physics and technical stuff we were talking about. Then Bill could say, 'Everybody with us so far?' It's a natural. But it's something you wouldn't think of until got to the actual set and saw the physical relationship between everything."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 156 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Dialogue in the mayor's office changed considerably during rehearsals and shooting."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 160 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "As shot, the long-delayed joining of Zuul and Vinz took a somewhat different form and was cut into the film between the Ghostbusters' release from the holding cell and their arrival at City Hall. Since it was decided earlier that a definite link needed to be established between the ghostly disturbances and the apartment building on Central Park West, a scene was added at the end of the ghost montage showing the possessed Dana looking out her window as clouds of disembodied spirits stream up from lower Manhattan. As they swoop past her penthouse apartment, en route to the rooftop temple, the wall between them explodes outward."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 160 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The conversation between Venkman, Stantz and the mayor was cut from the film, as was Spengler's subsequent exchange with Janine - yet another attempt to establish an off-beat romantic tie between them."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph says: "Missing from the script is the dialogue between the men as they trudge up the stairs - some of which was improvised on the spot and some of which was added later in looping."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:25-12:27). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "No, this was the first day of principal photography. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 16 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Exteriors of the New York Public Library and scenes within its main reading room consumed only part of a single day's location shooting. From a logistics standpoint, the interiors were especially demanding since the expansive reading room had to be lit, the action staged and photographed, and then everything cleared away -- all within the few short hours available between the crew's 5 a.m. call and the library's 10 a.m. opening to the public."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 37 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The Irving Trust bank on Avenue of the Americas eventually became the fictional Manhattan City Bank -- with the sequence being filmed directly across from the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, late in the afternoon of the same day the exterior and interior library footage had been shot."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:40-1:09:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Also from the first week of shooting on Madison Avenue. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:53-1:09:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is Broadway, I think. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "The hot dog vendor was one of the very first things we shot. It was included because it provided an opportunity for us to reintroduce the Onionhead ghost from the hotel - again eating and belching. Not only that, we thought, ' How can we shoot the streets of New York without including a hot dog cart?'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 91 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "Most of the montage was shot in one day in New York. We had been working late the night before with the full crew, then got up early in the morning and went all over town with a small crew, shooting stuff. We went to Chinatown, Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue and the United Nations -- all in one day. We didn't really have permits to shoot in any of these places -- we just made quick stops here and there. That's pretty much the way Ivan made movies in the old days -- a small crew, moving fast. We had two small trucks with equipment, and Danny was actually driving the Ectomobile, having a great time. And the crowds on 42nd Street are real. You put Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd on a street corner, and you have no trouble drawing a crowd."
• ↑ Beyond the Marquee Joe Medjuck Interview 9/15/14
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 143 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The ghostly multitudes streaming uptown from lower Manhattan would ultimately become the first shot in the ghost montage - a whirlwind assemblage of scenes featuring supernatural entities of various forms and demeanors running rampant through the city. Background plates for the panoramic view were shot from atop the RCA Building by Richard Edlund and his crew. Spectral imagery - as with the firehall 'ghost geyser' material - was generated and added later at Entertainment Effects Group.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "The city - particularly the police department - was wonderfully cooperative. But an awful lot of the local populace was less than happy with the disruption of their daily routine. Even when you're shooting at one in the morning, things are going to get congested in New York. There were times when we had traffic backed up for miles in all directions. We all wore buttons that said 'Ghostbusters Crew' so we could move around the shoot without being stopped by production assistants. One night, just after we finished, I went into a bar down the street from where we'd been shooting. A guy came in, really angry, yelling: 'What the hell's going on? Traffic's backed up for miles!' I just sat there, quietly removed my crew button, and hid it in my pocket. Joe Medjuck had his own way of dealing with the problem. Whenever somebody asked him what we were shooting, he told them The Cotton Club."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 154 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The production unit filmed for two days in and around New York's City Hall, during which time the office of City Council president Carol Bellamy was graciously made available as a stand-in for the actual mayor's office cited in the script."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 10:24-11:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "But he um this first moment of seeing the Librarian and the Librarian shift... I remember our first screening. Our first test screening was only three weeks after we finished shooting. We edited the movie very quickly. It came together nicely and we didn't have much of our special effects but we had this one here, not so much this one but the one that's coming up - the transformation and when we screened it for this audience for people at Columbia Studios they just freaked out... both screamed and laughed at the same time. It was a sense of how the movie was going to work, both truly scary and really funny. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 162 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "At the time we were shooting the big arrival outside Dana's apartment building, we still didn't know for certain whether we were going to be able to use the Ghostbusters title. Negotiations were still underway, I remember going to a phone booth on the corner, calling Columbia and holding up the receiver so they could hear the three hundred screaming extras we had tying up traffic, shouting 'Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!' as the guys arrived. And I said to them, 'You better damn well get that title!'."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "We were about four weeks into shooting before we knew for certain that we could use the name. Because of that, we had three different signs made up for the carpenter to hang over the firehouse door -- each with a different name on it, although the only other serious contender was Ghoststoppers. Finally, we struck a deal with Filmation that allowed us to stick with our original title."
• ↑ Frank Price (2019). The Movies That Made Us Episode 3 Ghostbusters (2019) (Stream ts. 38:04 to 38:41). Netflix. Frank Price says: "It was serendipitous that I happened to go there and I was able to say ‘make the deal’! Get... Give ‘em the title!"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The main unit then reassembled back in Los Angeles for an additional nine weeks of shooting on The Burbank Studios soundstages and at various area locations."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 47. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "While on the East Coast, the crew notched a record of twenty-six shots in a single day, but during their first day in LA, they finished only one shot. The second day bagged only three. Almost immediately, the production fell seven days behind."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 47. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Gary Daigler says: "Bill hated to be called to the set when we weren't ready. I said to the cameraman, 'Look, I can't bring these guys back-especially Bill-and do ten minutes of relighting. I wound up giving Bill a two-way radio. He and Danny would to to a nearby sushi restaurant, and I'd call them on the radio and say, 'Dan, Bill, we're ready for you now.' He respected that, and it wound up being a good relationship."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 130 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In a scene deleted from the final film, the Ectomobile arrives at Fort Detmerring -- a standing set at the Columbia Ranch, dressed rather simply with an identifying sign and a guard shack."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 135 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd discuss an upcoming shot in the truncated Fort Detmerring sequence, filmed on a small set adjacent to Dana's apartment on Stage 12."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 71 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The interior of the elevator and all the corridors of the hotel were actually sets constructed on Stage 12 at The Burbank Studios.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 45 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The sprawling apartment house interiors -- two key apartment and the hallway between them -- extended over two adjoining soundstages on the Burbank studios lot."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "John DeCuir's mammoth rooftop set constructed on Stage 16 at The Burbank Studios."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 107 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Prior to construction of the million-dollar set, DeCuir prepared a small foam core study model."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 81 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Though the hallway action took place on a soundstage, the sequence which follows was shot at the Biltmore Hotel. Modified with a breakaway chandelier and a set of prefabricated replacement walls, the ornate banquet facility was taken over by the film crew and occupied for two days."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph says: "The apartment building's 'thirty-five flights of stairs' were, in reality, only two flights of stairs - filmed at the Biltmore Hotel location used earlier for the fictitious Sedgewick Hotel. The remaining flights were added in postproduction by the Entertainment Effects Group matte department."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 38 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "The firehouse in Los Angeles is a huge place -- three stories high. And all of the scenes that were supposed to take place in the firehouse were actually filmed in the firehouse. None of that was done at the studio. When the script says 'basement of the firehouse,' we are actually in the basement of that firehouse. Though John DeCuir added lots of things to dress the place, most of the essential elements were already there."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 32 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis were filmed on location at the Los Angeles Public Library, while the actress playing the ghost was photographed on an effects stage at Entertainment Effects Group and then inserted optically in the shots."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "When the show wrapped in early February, Richard Edlund and his crew had less than four months to complete nearly two hundred postproduction opticals."
• ↑ Terry Windell (2009). Ghostbusters - Slimer Mode (2009) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:00-06:09). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Terry Windell says: "I mean, there was 200--I think we did 260-something shots. Multilevel, multi-pass photography. All shot in-camera and then all optically composited."
• ↑ Richard Edlund (2009). Ghostbusters - Slimer Mode (2009) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:37-07:04). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Richard Edlund says: "And then Ivan, I remember, towards the end of the show we had, like, I don't know, four or five weeks left. He added 50 shots. And he wanted to add, like, about 80 or 90 shots. And I met him out in the parking lot with a samurai sword and said, "Ivan, we gotta do the samurai cut." And so I talked him down from this outrageous number of shots that he wanted."
• ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 03:15-03:26). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "And the effects ultimately, in Ghostbusters, wound up costing $6.5 million. If we done Dan's original script, it would have been $40 million."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 13. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "When the final count was in, Ghostbusters had grossed more than $225 million -- making it the most successful motion picture comedy of all time."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 82 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Though the nutrona wands employed in the film are clearly rifle-inspired firearms, the high-tech ghost-herding devices of Dan Aykroyd's original concept were indeed wand-like. Attached via thick black flex-cords to a back-mounted proton power source, the wands were strapped in place at the wrist -- one on each arm -- and extended out along the palm to a point six inches beyond the fingertips. When fired -- by means of an elbow toggle switch on the backpack -- phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 84 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Overall, the Onionhead entrapment follows -- with a fair degree of faithfulness -- the opening sequence in Dan Aykroyd's solo script. As originally drafted, the Ghostbusters respond to a call from the Greenville Guest House regarding the discovery in the kitchen of gluttonous yellow mist or grotesquely altered human form -- a 'FRVP' or 'free-repeating vaporous phantasm' in ghostbusting lingo. After chasing the apparition -- described as 'onion-headed' at one point -- through the rustic guest home, the Ghostbuster corner it in the basement, encircle it with nutrona beams and maneuver it into a small collapsible trap."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 86 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the first Dan Aykroyd script, the Greenville Guest House proprietor balked at a mere $500 fee."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 102 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's first script, the spectral storage facility was not at the firehouse itself, but rather in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey, taken over by the Ghostbusters and surreptitiously converted into a holding cell for wayward spirits."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, the root of New York's widespread psychic disturbances lay in the fact that a 'Zuul' -- a generic term for the other-dimensional creature which would later evolve into the Terror Dogs -- had somehow strayed out of its rightful time and place and was being held captive by the Ghostbusters' employer, himself a transdimensional being."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it. When this concept was superseded in subsequent drafts, Zuul became a given name for the female Terror Dog, which -- along with her like companion Vinz Clortho -- is seeking refuge from the Gozer in New York."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 138 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "A large billboard -- rendered in matte painting form by Matthew Yuricich -- appears on one of the buildings adjacent to the firehall. Featured on it is a representation of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man and the words "Stay-Puft Marshmallows -- Stays Puft, Even When Toasted -- an advertising slogan lifted from Dan Aykroyd's original script."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "One of the many supernatural manifestations encountered in Dan Aykroyd's first script was a skeletal biker who has been terrorizing the residents of a small upstate town.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Often, in early drafts of a script, you have one scene with good dialogue, another scene with a great visual impact, and yet another scene that makes a really expositional point. But what makes a really dense comedy is when you can take the good dialogue and the physical business and the raw exposition for all these different scenes and load them into one strong scene with a definite reason for being. That's what happened with the skeletal biker. It was a wonderful concept, but it was too far removed from the main story. With the skeletal cab driver, we were able to save the visual effect from that original scene and put it in a place where it made better sense.'"
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, Shandor was the name of the Ghostbusters' interdimensional employer - a decided eccentric whose walls were lined with mounted trophy heads taken from such challenging big game as bats, rats and lobsters. Though Shandor was invariably to be found sequestered in his darkened office, perched on a swivel armchair and covered entirely by a near-opaque mosquito bonnet, no one seemed to suspect that there might be anything inherently out of the ordinary about him."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph says: "A sinkhole of much grander scale was included in the original Dan Aykroyd script, when the accidental release of the Ghostbusters' incarcerated spirits triggers a twenty-five acre sinkhole around their gas station storage facility. The sinkhole, in turn, disrupts a long inactive fault line which somehow transforms most of northern New Jersey into a blazing inferno."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, the graffiti read: 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' -- an amusing reference to one of the shocker lines from The Exorcist. An occasional R-rated expletive -- strictly for humorous effect -- was also to be found in the early Ghostbusters drafts. In the end, however, Ivan Reitman opted to take the high road with regard to language and taste."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 22. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Though present -- in somewhat differing form -- in all three of the early Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, Venkman's appearance before a university funding committee was ultimately scratched in favor of the ESP testing sequence. In the July and August drafts, the opening segment with the screaming librarian cut directly to her apparent point of view -- in actuality a ceremonial demon mask being used by Venkman as a visual aid..."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 126. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 .
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Shandor was dropped altogether from the first two Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, but resurfaced in the third - in name, at any rate - with an even more unsavory background than that suggested by the final shooting script. As recounted by Spengler in the August draft, Ivo Shandor was a deranged surgeon, architect and Gozer worshipper, electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably - if not tastefully - with stacks of human bones."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman , Joe Medjuck , Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 06:21-06:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We uh we all went up to um, where was it?"/ Joe Medjuck says: "Martha's Vineyard."/ Ivan Reitman says: "Martha's Vineyard! The story of the making of this movie actually uh has... it all happened very quickly. Danny Aykroyd wrote a 40 page treatment. That happened over years and years which I was fortunate to get sent to me and uh... I think he originally wrote it for he and..."/ Joe Medjuck says: "John Belushi."/ Ivan Reitman says: "That's right, he and Belushi and unfortunately John Belushi passed away before they could make that one. When I read it, it took place in the future with tons of..."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:43-13:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "When I read the very first sort of treatment it took place in the future. There were many groups of Ghostbusters, the Marshmallow Man came out on page 20 and was one of 50 large scale monsters. Frankly, if I was going t make that particular script, it would have cost $300 million in 1984 and...but there was this one fantastically brilliant idea which there was a group of men who much like firefighters who could catch ghosts and I remember sitting down at a deli with uh Danny and said "Look this is a great idea but we should work on it some more and why don't you get Harold Ramis involved because he outta be a Ghostbuster as well. He's great, he's got just the right sort of brilliance to him and let's bring Billy into it" and he went with it and about a month later we were making this picture. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 13:44-14:21). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I went into Frank Price's, who was the head of Columbia Pictures, office and uh I said "Okay, we're going to do this movie, it's called Ghostbusters. This is sorta what the story is about..." because we of course didn't have a script at the time, and um he said uh "What will it cost?" and I said "$30 million." It was just a number off the top of my head because that was more money, three times as much I spent on my last movie and he uh he said "Fine, have it out by June." and that was exactly 12 months from that moment. We had no script, no special effects team but we had three willing actors. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:27-15:43). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "I should probably point out also in Dan's original script, there was no development of the Ghostbusters as parapsychologists working in the university, starting up the company... all this stuff. Ivan and I both had the idea we wanted to see how the Ghostbusters got to be Ghostbusters. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:43-15:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Yeah, I always thought the movie should be a going into business story. Really smart guys that go into business. Just a very unusual business. I like the idea of them going to a bank, getting a place, dealing with a realtor, fixing the place up... I thought these were all things an audience could relate to. "
• ↑ Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever , p. 24. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243 . Line reads: "Chevy Chase has said he turned down a role in the movie but has never elaborated about the details (storyboard artist Thom Enriquez says that when he was brought aboard to work on the film in June 1983, he was asked to draw a scene in which a ghost seduces Chase)."
• ↑ Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever , p. 26. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243 . Line reads: "When I was hired on June 2, 1983, (the movie) was called Ghost Chasers. It changed back to Ghost Busters on June 17."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 16:57-17:00). Bueno Productions. Ivan Reitman says: "Our official start of principal photography was the end of October."
• ↑ "Columbia Plans Production Increase." Variety Daily, 11 October 1983. Article reads: "Reitman currently is doing second unit on Columbia's upcoming "Ghost Busters" with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Principal photography starts Oct. 26."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:07-54:31). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember because of the amazing schedule we were under which was that we started writing in May or June of '83 then the movie the movie was going to be out in June of '84 and that I decided arbitrarily to do three days of shooting without the main cast in October when we actually did principal photography in November. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "The whole Keymaster-Gatekeeper idea came very late, and we struggled with it all the way."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "During principal photography, it was decided that the flying books concept was too obvious an effect. At Dan Aykroyd's suggestion, several volumes were instead made to float mysteriously across the aisles, exchanging places while the librarian's back is turned."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 47 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "After the film was out and doing well -- just to keep the phenomenon going -- Ivan came up with the idea of taking a 'junk buy' cross-country on late-night TV and running the commercial just as it appeared in the film, only with the superimposed phone number changed to an 800 number. Then people would call it and get an answering machine with Danny's and Bill's voice saying: 'Hi, we're the Ghostbusters. We're not in right now -- we're out catching ghosts...' Well, they did that, and they got a thousand calls per hour, 24-hours-a-day for six weeks."
• ↑ Southland Ghostbusters Facebook "1984 Ghostbusters Hotline audio recording" 1/24/2020
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 08:15-08:30). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I knew we had a hit actually when... the second weekend of release when I was walking through Manhattan there were sort of... kiosks at every corner with guys selling illegal black market T-shirts with sayings from the movie and the logo on it. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 47 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "At one point, we planned to do a second commercial for the film -- one that we could work into the montage after they've become famous. I was going to do it as an elaborate MTV music video, with the guys singing the 'Ghostbusters' song -- which we later could have actually played on MTV. Unfortunately, we didn't get the song we liked until late in postproduction, and by that time it was too late to go back and do it."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 49 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "The Stay-Puft marshmallow man appears several times in the film, because we wanted to build a continuity of his presence. In fact, at one point, we considered either ending or beginning the Ghostbusters commercial with a Stay-Puft spot -- complete with a little stop motion countertop like the Pillsbury doughboy. We discarded that idea, though, as being a bit of overkill."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 81 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Joe Day applies 'ectoslime' to Bill Murray. In reality, the gooey substance was derived from methylcellulose ether -- a powdered thickening agent used in pharmaceuticals and food products."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "We were delighted with the notion that this script could be so 'out there,' and yet still have a scientific and parapsychological plausibility. From a physics point of view, Dan was always talking about things like 'holes in the reality envelope.' Well, I didn't know what that would mean to an audience, so I came up with this 'Mr. Wizard' kind of analogy -- describing the universe as an expanding, four-dimensional balloon. And as I was talking, I'd be blowing up this balloon. Then I'd explain, 'If something were to penetrate the envelope of our reality...' -- and the balloon would pop. That then led to the 'Twinkie' analogy. The whole thing made sense in terms of the plot but it was just much too long, so only the Twinkie survived."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 112 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "It was always the intention to have only two, but when Thom Enriquez storyboarded the sequence, he showed the movement of one of the arms by drawing it in two positions, with cartoon-style movement lines in between. This drawing was misunderstood by the guys in the 'monster shop,' so they built three -- and since they had, we used them. When it came time to shoot the scene, Ivan decided to have the third arm come right up between Sigourney's legs. It really made the sequence much more terrifying and threatening. Originally, each arm was different. One was a human arm, one had a hook on the end of it and one was a green, frog-like sucker arm. Ivan didn't like the sucker arm -- he thought it looked too cartoonish -- so we ended up with two human arms and the one with the hook."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "There was a lot of debate over whether or not the sinkhole effect was worth doing. It was, after all, a very expensive stunt - about $250,000. The studio didn't want me to do it, and my associate producers both felt it was something we could give up. But I thought it was really important because up to then, nothing really bad had happened to these guys. They'd had their hair tousled and blown around, but there was no real sense of the threat. It seemed to me that prior to the final battle we had to demonstrate - immediately and simply - just what they were going up against. The sinkhole effect showed how though and violent things would get. I was convinced it was a great sequence, so I stuck with it."
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:20-1:20:25). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Here's a great switch from the real Central Park West to the back lot. This is all the back lot now. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:26-1:20:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "All these effects John De Cuir recreated the street and [first two floors] actually three so I could get wide enough for the shot and these are all on hydraulics underneath so we could redo it over and over and there's... "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:45-1:20:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Then in New York, the police car slid into the street. They took a police car and just literally cut the front half off the car and laid it in the hole in the street, the fake hole in the street. "
• ↑ Indie Wire "Bill Murray Says He's Ready to Do Another 'Ghostbusters': 'It Paid For My Son’s College'" 5/15/19 Bill Murray says: "They came to set one day. All of a sudden, there were like 25 guys from Coca-Cola hanging around in suits. You can smell people who don’t belong on sets, right? You can just smell 'em. You can feel that there's weird energies. You can almost smell the enemy because the enemy is distraction. I just like to tell this story because it's funny to me. So they came, and we're in the middle of a scene. I immediately stopped what we were doing, and just sort of walked over and started talking to them. And I kept talking to them. It went on and on. It wasn't two minutes, it wasn't 10 minutes, it wasn't half an hour. When we passed half an hour and got into the 40 minute range, they started going, 'There's 250 people watching us talk to this mother****er. Maybe we should go.' And they left, and never came back. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 50:31-50:39). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Amazingly enough, the budget as I said earlier was $30 million and I think we finally made the film for $31 million. We went slightly over budget. "
• ↑ Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever , p. 56. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243 . Line reads: "This was especially true considering the film's reputed final budget of $38 million (a number that factored in marketing costs)."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 35 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Although permission was granted for the production unit to shoot on the Columbia University campus, it was with the understanding that the school not be identified as such in the film. Neither Weaver Hall nor a 'Paranormal Studies Laboratory' actually exists at Columbia."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:40-02:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "There's no Weaver Hall but this is Columbia University. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:45-02:47). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Even this was at Columbia, wasn't it? "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 03:39-03:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And t his was actually a room at Columbia University, we should have--we were planning to shoot this on the set but were moving so fast in New York that we went to our cover sets that John De Cuir aged it but otherwise it's in the basement somewhere in Columbia. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:57-03:00). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And this was based on a real experiment, wasn't it, Harold? "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 03:01-03:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "We based it on the Milgram Experiment which was to psych--subjects in a psychological study were instructed to give electrical shocks to people trying to learn a list of words but what they were really testing were the peoples' willingness to give electrical shocks to other people. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 20 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Our original concept for the scene was to have the ESP test and Venkman reinforcing the girl by telling her she's getting them all right, even when she's not. Then I came up with the added dimension of having him give shocks to the poor nerd -- an idea that was based on a real experiment, were people had to give electric shocks to test people; but the people giving the shocks didn't know that they were the test subjects. The idea was to see how far people would go in giving shocks to other people. I thought that was a very interesting psychological problem, and I loved the notion of the hero of the film giving electric shocks. It has an interesting moral edge for people, and it just seemed like a delightful setup."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 04:47-04:58). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "There was a lot of conversation I remember about when the spitting of the gum moment should occur. Should it be on the first? The second? The third? We used it as a climax moment. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:25-00:41). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Now we actually shot this in New York at the Public Library. But unfortunately there was scaffolding everywhere because they were cleaning the building... "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:56-00:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And this handsome young man is me 15 years ago crossing the screen. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:59-01:07). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And through the magic of cinema, as she [Alice] walks down the stairs we are now shooting in the Los Angeles Public Library. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 01:27-01:29). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "$250,000. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 07:45-07:46). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "All before 10:00. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 37. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 .
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:17-15:27). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "I remember because we finished in the library at 10 am then we went outside, took a break, went outside of the library, and shot this same scene at the end of the day. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 39. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Production designer John DeCuir examines a foam core mockup of the firehall -- an existing structure to which he would be adding the enclosed office area at the rear as well as other modifications and refinements. Such mockups were invariably useful in establishing a three-dimensional feel for the sets -- before costly construction or renovation was initiated -- and often proved useful to Ivan Reitman for blocking action and determining camera angles."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 39. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Once these initial scenes were shot, DeCuir and his staff moved in and made the necessary modifications for later sequences in the film."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:00-16:10). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "More creative geography. This is an actual old Firehouse in Los Angeles but the interior is an actual in-use Firehouse in New York. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:10-16:13). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Coincidentally built in the same year, 1912. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:17-16:24). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And it's true, as soon as we did see this pole, Danny said we gotta use it. It wasn't just a moment in the movie. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 28:32-28:36). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "This really was fun. This was also back in LA. We got to slide down the pole. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:01:24-1:01:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "We used that same um machinery we saw on Sigourney and as the camera moves across Rick ducked out and we put the head of one of those rubber dummies of the Terror Dog in so it would appear like that's what was inside of him. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 41 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "Plans to use the 1 Fifth Avenue building progressed to the point of designing preliminary rooftop sets for it, but were dropped when the co-op committee for the building voted against its use in the film."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:52-16:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was added optically, this gargoyle. "
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 60. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "The illumination peeking through the doorframe was Reitman's nod to a similar effect in Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 55:05-55:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And this was the street we created in the back lot of Columbia... Columbia Studios. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:18:44-1:19:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "So this is 65th and Central Park West so what happens there's the East-West crossing through the park on 65th and 66th. Columbus Circle is just off the street so when we were shooting this scene for three days, we stopped traffic here which shut down Columbus, 8th, Broadway, 7th, and 59th Street. Shot the East-West pass through the park, traffic started backing up to Times Square then Herald Square, Eastside, all the way to the river and they told us at one point we shut down 60% of Manhattan. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:19:24-1:19:50). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Ah right, so we're taking a break one day, Danny and I are standing on 65th and Central Park West, Danny sees Isaac Asimov, who lives in the neighborhood. Danny was so excited, he was one of the great science fiction writers of our age, 'Mr. Asimov, Dan Aykroyd, we're shooting the Ghostbusters movie'... he says 'Are you the ones responsible for this?'... and he walks away. He couldn't get home. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:05-1:20:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember there was a guy trying to get through, a really obnoxious guy in a car in the area and he started giving the policemen who were working on the film some real grief so they just pulled him out of the car and arrested him. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 67. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 .
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 29:52-29:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I used this moment in "Dave" when he exits as the supposed President of the United States. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:05-35:10). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "One of my least favorite special effects. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:32-35:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We ended up shooting I guess in the hotel for three or four days on this sequence. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:02-40:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "The guy chasing here is not an actor, he was really chasing...The guy chasing was really someone from Rockefeller Center because it was illegal to shoot there. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 96 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Venkman's interception of Dana outside the Metropolitan Opera House -- ostensibly to give her a progress report on her case -- was actually the first scene shot between Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 96 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "For the long shots, we had to loop the dialogue because the Lincoln Center fountain in the background created so much noise. For the closeups -- when the fountain was out of frame -- we were able to have the water shut off."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 123 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "The original idea was for Louis to be trapped by the Terror Dog in a dark corner of the park. But Ivan was scouting locations one day, emulating Louis' moves from the time he runs out of the apartment building -- 'Louis runs here, then he runs here, and then he runs ... there!' And there was the Tavern on the Green -- a logical distance for Louis to have run, and a logical place to seek refuge."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 59:15-59:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is uh 6th Avenue I think. This is the middle of the night near Central Park I remember. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 151 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The incarceration scene was shot lon location at an actual New York prison facility, now out of commission and essentially abandoned."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:01-1:11:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Yes, this was a real jail, deserted I believe. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:13-1:11:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Danny claimed it was haunted and the film got scratched, we had to cut around it. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:10:44-1:10:46). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "This is a jail in Lower Manhattan. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:07-1:11:12). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "No, it was in the middle of 14th Street or something. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:12-1:11:15). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Ivan, you fired an extra on this day, do you remember that? "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:16-1:13:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Some guy mouthing off... 'You, out and never come back'. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:20-1:13:23). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "And he thought you were kidding and you said 'No, get out'. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:28-1:14:32). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is actually the City Hall yes. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:37-1:14:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We were given amazing access actually by the filming group in New York. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:54-1:15:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was I believe Elizabeth Holtzman's office if my memory serves me. It's a twin to it on the other side of the building. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 156 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "There were several variations of that scene on the set. During one take, Danny called Peck 'wee wienie winkle' and Bill Murray broke up completely - which is something he almost never does on camera."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 165. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 .
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:02-1:22:07). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is one or two stairs then everything up is a matte painting. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:08-1:22:16). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I think this was shot at the Biltmore. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 24:04-24:38). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Let me say about the rooftop. We were thinking about where, what would be the center of the disturbance. And different kinds of buildings and places all over the city and we...I don't know if this this is how it occurred to everyone but I remembered a rooftop in St. Louis which was a replica of a temple and we started looking at the rooftops of New York and someone produced a coffee table book called 'Rooftops of New York' and we saw all these interesting temples on rooftops of buildings and all these strange Gothic structures and they went with that as a design concept."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:23:34-1:23:49). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "The whole rooftop sequence took us a few weeks to film. It was all on this stage. The Ghostbusters are actually in there in that shot in the hole, closer you can see the guys walking around. "
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 59. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "Stephen Dane's concept sketch for a metal detector-style ghost-detecting device."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 08:31-08:40). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This piece of equipment, only Harold got to learn how to use it. He had sort of had a secret way to use the three buttons that were on it that made the little wings rise and fall. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 39:54-40:01). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Danny Aykroyd is actually driving the car in most of these shots. We shot it all in one day after we been up late the night before. We went off with just the car... "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:50-41:03). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Yeah and Dan, we used that as part of the pre-publicity for the movie. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:03:21-1:03:23). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is when the car died at the end. "
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 42. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Richard Beggs says: "It was a leopard snarl that I had done a number of things to. I looped it, cut it in quarter-inch tape, and played it backward. Usually I am very loath to play things backward, because they have a very telltale characteristic and I think it's sort of a cop out. I played it backward and it did that err-reearr-err-reearr- the exact opposite of an animal going arghh. It lost some of its organic sound and it became this 'mechanical animal' claxon."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 56-57. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Richard Beggs says: "There was a liquid part to the sound. I wanted something that sounded splashy but electronic, like a plasma flow. I'd gotten the base sound of it down, but it was too uniform and not very dynamic. So I did a feedback loop in the harmonizer and got this sort of rhythmic, pulsing thing between it and the Moog. I made the sound of the neutrona wand depend on the violence of the shot or the impact. Some were a little whimpery, like what happens when they start up, and at low, medium, and high intensity. I created this library of raw stuff in six or seven different families of sounds, then I would choose one for Bill Murray, one for Dan, and so on, and that would be theirs."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 57. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "Fabric strips soaked in smoke-generating liquid produced the effect during filming."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 59. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "An early ecto-goggle concept imagines the device could be worn as an eyepatch-like monocle."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 58. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "The ecto-goggles in the film were modified versions of the U.S. Army's AN/PVS-5a night-vision goggles, which were introduced in 1972 and still in widespread use at the time the movie was made."
• ↑ Spook Central Facebook Page - Image Comparison
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 06:08-06:12). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Danny insisted on the spectacular haircut of his, as well. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 07:08-07:15). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Nah. The French hair... the French-Moroccan hair dresser you found. Peggy Semtob!"
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 21:46-21:56). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Egon Spengler. Egon came from Egon Donsbach. I went to school with a Hungarian refuge and Spengler was from Oswald Spengler. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters , Deleted Scenes (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:20-00:26). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "And the other was Egon Schiele, the painter-the Expressionist painter."
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters , Deleted Scenes (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:29-00:38). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "I came across an architectural digest that featured a visionary urban planner and theoretical architect and designer named Léon Krier."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 27-28. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Suzy Benzinger says: "Harold Ramis loved that gray suit he wore, which I got at a thrift store on St. ark's Place. The first time I saw Harold, I thought, 'He really doesn't look like a professor. He doesn't have that scientist look.' So I took him to an eyeglass store on Seventh Avenue. I said, 'I really want to change your eyeglasses, is that OK?' and I knew just the glasses [he should wear]. He put them on, and I think he wore those forever."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Stantz and Venkman and Ramsey -- the character we changed to Winston -- were all essentially the same. That was fairly representative of Dan's writing at the time. He was very much concerned with story and structure and effects, but he would sort of stay on the surface of his characters."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 27 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Venkman's line was inspired by a bizarre, but thwarted, experiment by John Lilly -- a prominent researcher in dolphin communication -- whi seriously proposed drilling a hole in his head to test some higher brain function. Harold Ramis, who wrote the line, piggy-backed on it during the take by responded: "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 99 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Until the final shooting script, Winston had been seen in the script as a security man for the company. When it became apparent that the Ghostbusters had no real need for a security man, he became instead a full-fledged -- if not altogether convinced -- Ghostbuster."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 99 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "I think the original concept for Winston's character was younger and hipper. At one point, we were talking with Gregory Hines about playing the part. We also considered getting a young, black comedian -- somebody like Eddie Murphy. But in retrospect, it's probably just as well we didn't. It would have been just too much. As it is, there is a nice balance among the four characters. Winston is the moderate character against which the other three can play."
• ↑ Michael C. Gross (1999). Ghostbusters - Subtitles Production notes (1999) (DVD ts. 45:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Michael C. Gross says: "At one point, we were talking with Gregory Hines about playing the part. "
• ↑ Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Dan Aykroyd quote 11/7/14
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In all of the drafts but the final one, it is Winston - not Stantz - who inadvertently conjures up the Stay-Puft marshmallow man."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "And, of course, once Sigourney Weaver expressed an interest in the role, we took the character much more seriously. We had made her a model, but Sigourney suggested it would be more interesting if she were a musician."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 28. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Suzy Benzinger says: "Sigourney was totally based on Theoni. Theoni was also a very tall woman, so when she saw Sigourney she started to name off designers that she loved. Sigourney loved those designers too. Theoni said, 'We're going to dress her basically like me.' She wore a lot of sweaters, long skirts, and boots."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 28. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Suzy Benzinger says: "Bill picked out the color. Theoni wanted to put her in a lavender dress, but Bill said, I think it should be orange.' We were trying to use a dress that looked sort of dated and weird and strange. Flashdance had been out for a while, and it was very outre to have that off-the-shoulder look. We did it as a Jennifer Beal sort of dress."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 28. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "I said, I wanted my hair to be like I've been electrified, like I put my finger in a socket.' I wanted to my make up to be – not really Bride of Frankenstein – but to be other-earthly, and unlike anything that would logically happen to Dana."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In anticipation of getting John Candy for the role, the character Louis Tully was originally molded to suit Candy's persona."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says "At first, Louis was a much different character than the one you see in the film. He was similar to the Johnny LaRue character that John did on SCTV."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman , Harold Ramis , Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 17:44-18:33). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Now the part was originally written for John Candy. Do you remember that? We called up John and said 'John, you got to be in this, Harold is in it... Harold and John had worked together in SCTV up in Canada and all of us worked in Stripes and only naturally he should be in this film. And John didn't understand this part. He kept coming back and saying well maybe I'll play him in German. He'll have a German accent and he'll have Rottweilers. I said you can't have dogs, we already have too much dog imagery in the movie. And he finally passed on the film. Rick Moranis, who had been sent the script by his agent, was waiting patiently in the wings and was very happy when John passed..."/ Joe Medjuck says: "But we changed the character a lot. Rick really helped create this character."/ Harold Ramis says: "He brought some fine speeches to this character."/ Ivan Reitman says: "And I think he chose the wardrobe."
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:32-35:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Now he improvised most of this party dialogue which I think is brilliant. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 17:18-17:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And um actually agreed to audition. She came into my office and not like I'm giving anything away saying she turned into a dog at some point in this film and uh I remember her getting up on the couch and actually auditioning like a dog and I knew at that point she had to be in the film. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 60 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Although the finished sequence bears only a cursory resemblance to the script, certain elements were retained -- at least in part. Sigourney Weaver suggested that 'game show host' was both more amusing and more apropos of Venkman's persona than 'used car salesman.' and so her line was changed accordingly."
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:27:01-1:27:04). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Remember you offered Sandra Bernhard Annie Potts' role? "
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 28. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Suzy Benzinger says: "When Annie came in for her measurements, she said to me, 'Oh my God, I think you're the character.' So I actually did her up like me."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 53. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . John Bruno says: "For the woman who was playing the maid, they said, 'OK, push this cart, and at the end of the hallway it's going to blow up, because they're going to shoot at you.' The cart was all prerigged with pyro work. So she pushes the cart out, strobe lights go off, the cart exploded---and it scared the hell out her. She fell to the ground, looked up, and was like, 'What the hell are you doing?' It wasn't scripted. It's just what happened."
• ↑ John Bruno (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 56:27-56:33). Bueno Productions. John Bruno says: "Slimer, by the way, got the name Slimer when he says, "It slimed me." That stuck. It was the Onionhead until that moment."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 64 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Dan Aykroyd says: "So, in reading the literature and reading about full head and torso apparitions, I found out that it is very rare that you see a full figure -- it is usually just a hint of the former being. The Onionhead is a vapor -- a kind of confluence of stored up psychic energy. He's an accumulation of spirits that haunt this hotel, and he just doesn't want to leave."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "Thelma Moss, of the parapsychology department at UCLA, told me after seeing the movie that one of the classic types of hauntings is known as the hungry ghost -- a ghost who just eats and drinks. We didn't know that when we wrote the Onionhead into our script, but it's a nice coincidence."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "One day, during preproduction, we were all sitting around talking about the Onionhead concept, and Ivan remarked that the character was sort of like Bluto in Animal House -- like the ghost of John Belushi, in a way, Danny, who was obviously a good friend of John's, never argued with that. Even so, we never officially said that and we never mentioned it in the script. It was just one way to look at the character, because Onionhead's grossness is like Bluto's in Animal House. We certainly never expected anyone to recognize him as such, although somehow the word did get out and we received some calls from a few newspapers saying they'd heard we had the ghost of John Belushi in our movie."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 93 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "We approached several national newscasters, but most of them turned us down cold. Newscasters, it seems, are very sensitive about doing anything other than real news -- bad for their credibility."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 93 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "Casey Kasem was included at the very last minute during postproduction. In fact, the idea of putting him in came to us the day before we recorded it. We called him up, made the deal, he appeared the next day, read his bit and we cut it into the film -- all in 24 hours."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 48. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Michael Ensign says: "I had read for the William Atherton [Walter Peck] part, and one day I got a phone call saying, 'Do you want a consolation prize?' I keyed in intuitively to that part. The fussy little man in the bow tie."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 46:23-). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I ran into Atherton about a year after this film had come out and was expecting him to greet me with open arms because of the success of the film and he had become quite famous from the movie and he was genuinely pissed. He came up to me and said 'You know I can't walk into a bar without people lining up to pick a fight with me. Kids scream at me and make fun of me wherever I go'. "
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. -47:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "The worse is... I'll tell it. Later in the movie, Danny calls him 'Dickless.' Atherton told me he was walking down the street in New York and a bus load of tourists yelled at him and he turned, smiled and waved and they all went 'Yo, Dickless!'. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 97 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Dan Aykroyd says: "Gozer is based on several things. For one, there's a Gozer Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York. A little more to the point, though, is the fact that Gozer was a name that related to a documented haunting in England -- the one Poltergeist was based on, in fact. During this particular haunting, the name Gozer appeared mysteriously throughout the house, written on walls and things. So we figured we might as well take something that had been reported in the public domain as an actual occurrence and use it in the film as our main demon and supernatural force."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 170 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Appearing before the Ghostbusters as a kind of New Wave demon, the character of Gozer had passed through more drastic conceptual variations than any other creature in the film. Described in Dan Aykroyd's script as looking like Bert Parks, and in later collaborations with Harold Ramis as a Robert Young-type character, Gozer - in its final form - resembled neither."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 170 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "Ivan thought it might be more interesting if Gozer was rather androgynous-looking - someone like David Bowie. That idea led logically to the consideration of androgynous-looking female rock stars - someone like Grace Jones would have been perfect. Unfortunately, by the time we came up with this concept, it was too late to sign on a big name. We did retain the basic idea, however, which is why Gozer appears in the form of a woman."
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:26:20-1:26:33). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Remember you offered it to Anna Carlisle, who was a punk rock singer at the time? Her complaint was 'No, the chicks in this movie are just to be had!' "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 114 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "The concept of the Terror Dogs changed considerably -- both in the way they fit into the story and in their design. In earlier drafts, they were sympathetic creatures from another dimension -- sort of 'strangers in a strange land' -- who were terrified of Gozer and trying to escape him. They took the form of human beings and went to the Ghostbusters seeking help. By the time the script reached its final form, however, that idea had been completely reversed. Design-wise, they began as rotting, dead dogs -- creatures that had been dug up from the grave. We began to realize, though, that we didn't have to be literal, or 'earthbound,' in the design. As with the ghosts, the Terror Dogs could be anything we wanted them to be. Ultimately, they evolved into creatures that are not particularly canine, but the name 'Terror Dog' seemed to stick."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 56:49-57:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I actually do the voice, the deep voice of...that's me. I did Slimer and the voice that comes out of her here. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 127 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "In an unusual twist on the directorial cameo, Dana's demonic voice -- reminiscent of Mercedes McCambridge's intonations in The Exorcist -- was actually that of Ivan Reitman. Reitman, in fact, provided all of the unearthly voices in the film, except that of Gozer."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 180 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Early brainstorming had the Stay-Puft marshmallow man as but an interdimensional form which the Gozer assumes on its way to becoming something truly monstrous, both in size and appearance. Berni Wrightson's exploration of this theme was both surreal and terrifying."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 16. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "A Thom Enriquez concept for a Stay Puft marshmallow man alternative. Enriquez came up with the idea that this monster could be Ray Stantz's pet lizard from his childhood."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Michael Gross says: "Originally, we were going to have the Stay-Puft marshmallow man rise up out of the river, right by the Statue of Liberty, to give him scale. Understandably, the effects people didn't like the idea - any effects shot involving water is really hard to pull off. We finally realized that it didn't make any difference where he came from - he could just appear. The audience assumes that he just materializes."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 186. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "A John Deveikis illustration for the original Dan Aykroyd script suggested a much larger marshmallow man than was ultimately decide upon. Since one faction within the production unit argued for a 100-foot tall version while another favored a somewhat larger 125-foot tall version, Ivan Reitman settled the dispute by declaring that the Stay-Puft marshmallow man would be 112.5 feet tall."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations. The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied sphid's head of monstrous proportions."
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 17:16-17:25). Bueno Productions. Joe Medjuck says: "Someone's doing a stand up newscast on the street, and there's a guy behind him playing with his beard. And I think that was the first thing we shot."
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:22-41:03). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This is the first shot we shot in the movie. Bill Murray had just arrived from France on an airplane, immediately got taken to downtown Manhattan, put on one of these outfits and boom were shooting on Madison Avenue. I had an amazing shiver when I saw the guys in their outfits. I knew there's something special here.. "
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 92. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 .
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 39:33-39:38). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember getting permission, I still have a few of these these uh magazine and newspaper covers. "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:07-40:08). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "There's me again! "
• ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters - Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:01-1:09:13). Columbia TriStar Home Video. 'Joe Medjuck says: "I love this shot. This was taken next door from 55. I remember Ivan, we went up to the apartment building next door to 55 Central Park West and shot as high as we could to photograph this view. "
• ↑ Ivan Reitman (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 17:16-17:35). Bueno Productions. Ivan Reitman says: "The first day shooting was a car crash because some skeletal-like ghost had taken over a taxi cab and so we did the stunt. The very first day of shooting."
• ↑ Mark Siegel (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 29:51-30:01). Bueno Productions. Mark Siegel says: "There was going to be a second stage to the transformation that would push out her muscle and there were these sharp-like monstery teeth."
• ↑ Mark Bryan Wilson (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 30:03-30:08). Bueno Productions. Mark Bryan Wilson says: "Then Steve Johnson sculpted the head for that based off of what we had done for the first part of the transformation."
• ↑ Steve Johnson (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 30:09-30:20). Bueno Productions. Steve Johnson says: "And Richard is like, "Nope. No second puppet. No second puppet. Don't break the bank, Steve-O." But it's almost done. It'll be so much better! "36 frames. Leave it. Just leave it"."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 63 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "When I shot the bride and groom scene, I thought it was one of the funniest sequences I'd done in the film. And when I looked at the rushes, I thought, 'Yeah, this is definitely going to be one of the funniest scenes in the movie.' But when I actually cut it into the film, it just didn't work. It was like a skit out of Saturday Night Live -- funny in itself, but it stopped the movie cold every time. Cutting it was one of the tougher decisions I had to make."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 65. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "A honeymooning couple - played by Charles Levin and Wendy Goldman - have less than blissful wedding night at the Hotel Sedgewick when a foul-smelling vaporous ghost pays a visit to their bridal suite.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 72 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Deleted from the final draft was a scene in which Stantz and Venkman are followed about by an obnoxious ten-year-old boy who -- to their growing annoyance -- thinks they're nothing more than janitors. Meanwhile, Spengler has his encounter with the woman in a towel. Though Spengler's scene remained intact through all four of the collaborative drafts, it still failed to make it into the film.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 90. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "Since the montage featured a dearth of actual ghosts, it was decided that perhaps still photographs could be appropriately doctored and incorporated into the sequence. One such image -- a photo of Stantz and Venkman enhanced with an airbrush rendering of the Chinatown ghost -- was prepared for possible use on the New York Post front page, but was ultimately rejected by Ivan Reitman."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 95. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Paragraph reads: "The encounter between the policeman and the Ectomobile is the only scene in the final shooting script which suggested that the vehicle itself had some extranormal powers -- a carryover from Dan Aykroyd's initial draft in which the Ectomobile was equipped with an advanced dematerializing capability that allowed its operators, functioning somewhat outside the law, to readily elude police pursuit. Though the ticketing sequence was shot and cut into the film, it was ultimately removed because it slowed down the breakneck pace of the montage"
• ↑ Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters , Deleted Scenes (2019) (Blu-Ray ts.5:37-6:34). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "We went into Little Italy which was famous for being a Mafia-controlled area of New York. And we just want to come running out a little store with the Traps and someone said, "Oh, you gotta ask Vinnie down the street. Third door down there." So we walk into the third door. I was with the guys and there's three older Italian men sitting on folding chairs. There was nothing in the store but folding chairs and a little table. Maybe they were playing cards and, "Is Vinnie here?" "Yeah." "We just want to come running out the store with Traps." "Eh, $1500." "That's crazy, we'll just-won't pay it, we'll go to this store on this side." "I own that one, too." "Well, we'll go down the block." "I own that one, too." So apparently the Mafia controlled that whole street and we decided not to pay for it, I guess."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 137 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Harold Ramis says: "The plot was moving much too fast at this point to introduce anything even slightly extraneous. The idea behind the scene was to give Dan a love interest -- a woman who's been dead for a hundred years. But the scene was too long and it was in the wrong place in the film. We all loved the notion of Stantz having sex with a ghost, though, so Ivan came up with the idea of treating it as a dream and inserting it into the very end of the montage."
• ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 102). Paragraph reads: "She starts down the runway in a very exotic furcoat. She reaches the end of the runway and pirouettes for the customers. Suddenly a yapping mink head pops out of the shoulder of the coat, then another and another until the whole coat is a mess of writhing, yapping rodents. The model screams and throws the coat off.""
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 148 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Joe Medjuck says: "It would have been a good scene to include a little earlier in the movie because it reveals that Louis, as the Keymaster, possesses extraordinary powers. Unfortunately, there just wasn't time for it at this point in the movie and it had to go."
• ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters , p. 148 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685 . Ivan Reitman says: "I cut the scene between Louis and the muggers before we ever had a screening. Richard Edlund didn't really have time to do the necessary effects; and frankly, I didn't think I'd handled the actors very well in it. But I know if I'd ever screened the movie with that scene in it, I would have kept it in. There'd have been no choice. Louis is a favorite with the audience, and to see him pay back a bunch of scary guys would have been a natural cheering point."
• ↑ Levin, Brett (January 2013). GQ Magazine , p. 102. Condé Nast Publications, New York NY USA.
• ↑ Playstation Blog "Inside the Development of Ghostbusters: The Video Game" 10/2/19 John Melchior says: "The upstate NY location and boat were things that he had created in some form for the movie, but it never made it in."
• ↑ Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History , p. 16. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108 . Line reads: "An unused "pizza ghost" concept by Thom Enriquez for the montage sequence in Ghostbusters, showcasing a pizza delivery demon with cheesy flesh dripping from its face."
• ↑ Entertainment Weekly "Ghostbusters resurrected: Jason Reitman will direct a new film set in the original universe" 1/5/2019 Paragraph reads: "Jason, his mother, and sister played panicked residents fleeing the “Spook Central” haunted skyscraper in the first film, but they were ultimately cut.""'
• ↑ Ghostbusters News "Details on the “surprise” video shown at Ghostbusters screenings" 7/3/2020
• ↑ Mark Stetson (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 1:46:20-1:46:36). Bueno Productions. Mark Stetson says: "There was a storyboard. It was originally drawn for--it showed a police car getting crushed, and we were ready to do that, and we had actually started on that, but we decided not to do it. We were also joking about maybe the Marshmallow Man could pick up his foot, and you'd see the squashed police car embedded in the bottom of his foot."
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Slimer, Come Home " (1986) (DVD ts. 06:36-06:37). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "First time I saw you, you slimed me!"
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Boogieman Cometh " (1986) (DVD ts. 05:23-05:26). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Well, our usual fee for a standard capture and containment is $1500."
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Boogieman Cometh " (1986) (DVD ts. 15:37-15:38). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "See you on the other side, Egon."
• ↑ Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Take Two " (1986) (DVD ts. 06:20-06:24). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "Murray...Aykroyd...Ramis. What's that? A law firm?"
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Take Two " (1986) (DVD ts. 22:56-22:58). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Y'know, he doesn't look a thing like me."
• ↑ Boyette, Pat (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume One Disc Five, "Citizen Ghost" Storyboard p. 24. CPT Holdings, Inc. Line reads: "We see photo of the high-rise building used in GHOSTBUSTERS movie -- in its post-battle, marshmallowed, shattered state -- PAN OVER."
• ↑ "Citizen Ghost" Storyboard showing Shandor Building ruins
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - Citizen Ghost (1986) (DVD ts. 7:44-7:47). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "It's him! It's the one who slimed me at the hotel!"
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Adventures in Slime and Space " (1987) (DVD ts. 04:07-04:12). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Listen, he slimed me the first time we met. He's been looking for a second chance ever since!"
• ↑ Mayor Lenny (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Adventures in Slime and Space " (1987) (DVD ts. 11:51-11:55). Time Life Entertainment. Mayor says: "First, Terror Dogs. Then a walking marshmallow. Now this!"
• ↑ Ray Stantz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Adventures in Slime and Space " (1987) (DVD ts. 13:02-13:04). Time Life Entertainment. Ray says: "Peter, give him a chocolate bar."
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "A Fright at the Opera" (1986) (DVD ts. 13:20-13:21). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Did I tell you about the time I saved the world?"
• ↑ Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 9. CPT Holdings, Inc.
• ↑ The Real Ghostbusters (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "Doctor, Doctor" (1986) (DVD ts. 18:47-18:49). Time Life Entertainment.
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost? (1987) (DVD ts. 3:03-3:04). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "I've always wanted to do this."
• ↑ Jon (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Ghost? (1987) (DVD ts. 1:42-1:45). Time Life Entertainment. Jon says: "I say Olivia, weren't those the ah the Ghost Smashers who just ran by?"
• ↑ Mueller, Richard (August 1985). "Ghostbusters: The Supernatural Spectacular," p. 65. Tor Books, New York NY USA, ISBN 0812585984 .
• ↑ Reaves, Michael (2009). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Volume Two Disc Five, p. 3. CPT Holdings, Inc. Peter says: "I just hope Ray doesn't find another phantom librarian."
• ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Collect Call of Cathulhu " (1987) (DVD ts. 05:57-06:00). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "Cathulhu makes Gozer look like Little Mary Sunshine."
• ↑ Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - "The Collect Call of Cathulhu" (1987) (DVD ts. 17:16-17:19). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "Sometimes I really regret answering that ad you guys ran."
• ↑ Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster " (1987) (DVD ts. 06:21-06:25). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "This is as bad as when Gozer was around."
• ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster " (1987) (DVD ts. 06:29-06:30). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "No. None of the readings indicate a return of Gozer."
• ↑ Janine Melnitz (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Janine Melnitz, Ghostbuster " (1987) (DVD ts. 10:31-10:32). Time Life Entertainment.
• ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Revenge of Murray the Mantis " (1987) (DVD ts. 10:05-10:08). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "It could have a life energy as high as Gozer's."
• ↑ Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Revenge of Murray the Mantis " (1987) (DVD ts. 10:09-10:10). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "Great. Another big Twinkie."
• ↑ Winston Zeddemore (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Egon's Ghost " (1987) (DVD ts. 14:25-14:29). Time Life Entertainment. Winston says: "A Terror Dog. Haven't seen one of those in a long time."
• ↑ Walter Peck (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Big Trouble With Little Slimer " (1987) (DVD ts. 04:08-04:11). Time Life Entertainment. Peck says: "Did I tell you how they made me look like a fool and cost me my job?"
• ↑ Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 27. CPT Holdings, Inc.
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Elementary My Dear Winston " (1989) (DVD ts. 17:02-17:06). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Brings back memories, huh, Egon? Our very first case started here."
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " Loose Screws " (1989) (DVD ts. 20:23-20:24). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Nice shootin', Tex!"
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Halloween Door " (1989) (DVD ts. 01:44-01:46). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Five years I waited to do that!"
• ↑ Eatock, James & Mangels, Andy (2008). The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection booklet, p. 33. CPT Holdings, Inc.
• ↑ Egon Spengler (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Haunting of Heck House " (1990) (DVD ts. 04:27-04:36). Time Life Entertainment. Egon says: "We faced demons, monsters, Gozer, multi-dimensional invasions but there is nothing you can say that will get me within a mile of Heck House."
• ↑ Peter Venkman (2009). The Real Ghostbusters - " The Haunting of Heck House " (1990) (DVD ts. 08:09-08:23). Time Life Entertainment. Peter says: "Yeah, you're probably okay unless it heard about our first case. You know, the one at the New York Public Library. Where books started flying out of the bookcases. Hundreds and hundreds of guided missiles. Well, let's just hope they never saw the movie made about all that. Toodles."
• ↑ Ghostbusters International "Indianapolis Children's Museum Exhibit" 2/1/2015
• ↑ Rob Zetzer imgur "Bill Murray's proton pack from Ghostbusters 2" 1/31/2015
• ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1983). Ghostbusters (First Draft August 5, 1983) (Script p. 102). Paragraph reads : "She starts down the runway in a very exotic furcoat. She reaches the end of the runway and pirouettes for the customers. Suddenly a yapping mink head pops out of the shoulder of the coat, then another and another until the whole coat is a mess of writhing, yapping rodents. The model screams and throws the coat off.""
• ↑ Aykroyd, Dan & Ramis, Harold (1989). Ghostbusters II (February 27, 1989 Draft) (Script p. 120). Line reads: "Slimer flies out one of the observation windows, THEME MUSIC KICKS IN and the CAMERA PULLS UP and AWAY FROM the island TO a HIGH SHOT of the Statue, lower Manhattan and the shining sea beyond."
• ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 124). Peter Venkman says: "What can I say? I've got a thing for levitating women."
• ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 151). Ray Stantz says: "How many more beloved icons from my youth does the paranormal have to ruin for me?"
• ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 151). Peter Venkman says: "Now Ray, the last icon that tried to destroy New York was technically your fault."
• ↑ Dille, Flint & Platten, John Z. (2009). Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Draft Revision February 11, 2008) (Script p. 227). Winston Zeddemore says: "At Dana's apartment the night she turned into a dog."
• ↑ Image of Ghostbusters advertisement via Spook Central FB
• ↑ TomWaltz Tweet 6/19/18
• ↑ Parade "Ghostbusters Then and Now! See the Original Cast Today and the New Stars of Ghostbusters: Afterlife" 10/29/2021 Line reads: "Those mysterious tones that foreshadow something's going to happen? They're produced by an ondes martenot, an old French electronic keyboard. Cynthia Millar performed on it for the original movie and for the opening of the new film. She recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London."
• ↑ Dobly YouTube "Embracing Sonic Nostalgia with "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" | Sound + Image Lab" 32:53-33:16 11/23/2021 Will Files says: "And it goes like a full octave deeper and he was saying on-during the recording, he was like what can you do with this instrument that we never did in the first film? And she goes 'Well, it does go lower than we ever used so that's why you know Rob built in that extra-goes one just full octave lower that it's a very satisfying moment right in the beginning of the movie."
• ↑ Dobly YouTube "Embracing Sonic Nostalgia with "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" | Sound + Image Lab" 5:50-6:25 11/23/2021 Will Files says: "We even sampled the noise from the original when as soon as the Sony logo comes on if you-if you're listening at a loud enough level you'll hear a noise floor shift and that's actually the noise that we sampled from the original multi-track recording of the-of the score and it just gives it a little flavor. It was one of those things we put it in and we're like this is going to be silly. We put it in, we're like 'nope, that actually really feels good so it's-there's a noise floor to this film that it's not normal for 2021."
• ↑ IGN YouTube "Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Exclusive Trailer Breakdown with Director Jason Reitman" 02:06-02:14 7/26/2021 Jason Reitman says: "First of all, I'm gonna point out that if you look at the top of the house, you see all these antennas and you know it was meant to kind of echo the top of Ecto-1."
• ↑ dredmakerroberts Tik Tok "Were original shoe polishers used for the PKE meters?" 00:25-00:27 12/11/2021 Ben Eadie says: "The originals were used. They were 3-D scanned."
• ↑ Variety "How ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Pays Homage to the Original With Audio Easter Eggs" 11/24/2021 Will Files says: "We took the sound when Dan Aykroyd slides down the pole at the beginning of ‘Ghostbusters. We just stole it from the original and we put it into Phoebe's [scene]."
• ↑ Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Visits Ghostbusters: Afterlife's Costume Department!" 3:33-3:45 1/12/2022 Danny Glicker says: "Like in this knife pocket in the original suit, this little curve goes above the seam and in flight suits you get now, the curve is way below."
• ↑ Tested YouTube "Adam Savage Visits Ghostbusters: Afterlife's Costume Department!" 4:36-5:19 1/12/2022 Danny Glicker says: " One of the fun things was working with the embroiderer to create this kind of old school process where we were really using a lot more--we were covering a lot more space with a lot fewer stitches exactly like the original patch and everything you see in this patch is an exact replica of the original patch including how we sew it on the original patchs were sewn by machine then with these hand stitches around the ghost and then there's a detail in here that's really special and really insider, there's a repair right here which is an exact reproduction from the original Ghostbusters patch."
• ↑ Farley, Jordan (November 2021). Spiritual Reawakening , Total Film magazine #317, page 42. Future Publishing, UK. Line reads: "In order to recreate Egon's Proton Pack, Harold Ramis' original prop was Lidar-scanned, rebuilt "down to the millimetre" and aged to give it "the kind of battle scars you would think it would have by now"."
• ↑ Grove, David (November 2021). Ghostbusters: Afterlife Links The Original Busters To The Next Generation - And Pays Tribute To A Fallen Hero , SFX Magazine #345, page 32. Future Publishing, UK. Article reads: "I'll never forget pulling the original proton packs from Sony's archives in order to scan them for our own equipment. Violet Ramis, Harold's daughter, joined us that day and actually tried on her father's pack. She was nervous at first but eventually slipped her arms through the straps and took up the blaster. She began to well up, and by the time that she put the pack down, we were both shaking"
• ↑ Variety "How ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Pays Homage to the Original With Audio Easter Eggs" 11/24/2021 Article reads: "As it turns out, Columbia Pictures did a really good job of archiving, and Files discovered a treasure trove of sounds. There were also digitized work tapes from the original sound designer — as well as outtakes that had never been used in the first film. Those outtakes sounded like part of the "Ghostbusters" world, so Files used some in the teaser. Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) turning on the pack for the first time was one of the very first sequences Files created. But since the pack was supposed to be 30 years old, he took the original sounds and added new notes that made it feel rusty and miscalibrated. "It hasn't been turned on in so long," he explains, "it needs that shake-up and for the oil to be redistributed." For the spinning of the pack as it's starting up, Files recorded an old railroad welding turbine from the 1800s. "We did a lot of experiments taking those original sounds and made new sounds of them. We took the wand and proton stream sound and processed it and made it sound like it was spinning around. It's what you hear when you're up close on the back of the pack and you see the light," says Files."
• ↑ Dobly YouTube "Embracing Sonic Nostalgia with "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" | Sound + Image Lab" 52:00-53:55 11/23/2021 Will Files says: "We took a lot of Richard's original sounds including all you know all this sound when she's turning on all the different things and it's making all the different beeps and stuff, a lot of that was actually sounds that he had made that never made it in the film so most of those sounds were things that he had made 30-40 years ago and then we were assembling in a way that felt you know took a lot of manipulation and careful stitching together but that's was I think one of the reasons that it feels so authentic was that it was all that stuff-it was 40 year old synthesizer and recordings and things like that. And then the next challenge was how do you make the specifics of that the cyclotron and what does that sound like and things like like that so that was where we sort of took more creative license. We took some of the original identifiable Proton Pack sounds and we started using more modern techniques like let's doppler that and make make it sound like it's swirling around. Let's-there's a piece of software called Sound Particles that basically let's us build particle systems much like you would for creating visual effects for fire or water of things like that and you can take a sound and feed it in there and it can create thousands of little sound particles from that sound and then you can have them swirl around and do things that physically we could never actually do but it has this really cool effect so we made a bunch of stuff like that and you know tried to weave it together in a way that felt not just sort of mechanical but almost like musical where it was one thing was becoming another and then another and and another and then it was also just wonderful that was a moment that Jason was like 'I don't want to play music on this so you guys have to make it work with just sound design.' Yeah."
• ↑ Entertainment Weekly "How a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man got toasted in Ghostbusters: Afterlife" 10/8/2021 Line reads: "Joseph and his team studied footage of the original Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the 1984 film to make their CG versions match."
• ↑ Entertainment Weekly "How a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man got toasted in Ghostbusters: Afterlife" 10/8/2021 Kerry Joseph says: "The proportions are pretty similar, I think we may have brought a little bit more emotion to the eyes, but that first one was physically built, there was only so much they could do."
• ↑ Ghostbusters Interdimensional Crossrip "#743 - Arjen Tuiten, Special Make-Up & Live Acton Creature Effects Designer" 7:42-8:13 11/29/2021 Arjen Tuiten says: "At one point, they were talking about changing him in design. They came by my shop, I remember which is a very common thing with films unfortunately especially follow-ups and sequels where they have to change things. I felt strongly that was a mistake. And I just put my foot down, and we just cannot change the Terror Dog. It's an iconic character. It's like E.T. Coming back with ears."'
• ↑ Ghostbusters Interdimensional Crossrip "#743 - Arjen Tuiten, Special Make-Up & Live Acton Creature Effects Designer" 6:52-7:00 11/29/2021 Arjen Tuiten says: "After I got the show, they called two weeks later, again to say, "Would you be willing to do the Terror Dogs as well?" I'm like of course."
• ↑ Ghostbusters Interdimensional Crossrip "#743 - Arjen Tuiten, Special Make-Up & Live Acton Creature Effects Designer" 7:25-7:41 11/29/2021 Arjen Tuiten says: "Sony actually gave me access to some of the never-before-seen stills from that time and, I mean, there's quite a bit of reference of the actual sculpture so for us, it was more of the excitement."
• ↑ Ghostbusters Interdimensional Crossrip "#743 - Arjen Tuiten, Special Make-Up & Live Acton Creature Effects Designer" 9:34-10:27 11/29/2021 Arjen Tuiten says: "We started with a maquette actually. It was sculpted by Steve Koch, a very talented sculptor, and we followed everything, that's again, to reference to Andy Cook and once we had that done and it was approved, we-Nowadays, we could probably scan it and mill one out in foam. The process is a lot faster and every accurate but I felt, also for my own crew, this was such a special moment and to capture that handcraft and feel within the creatures, I felt 'Let's just sculpt it.' In other words, we'll photograph the maquette, we'll project it on the wall to four times the size, we'll make an armature and we'll get 600 pounds of wet clay like they did back then. And we did. And we had the best two weeks sculpting that."
• ↑ Stan Winston School "The Phantasmic Makeup & Creature FX of Ghostbusters: Afterlife" 1/11/2022 Line reads: "The Terror Dog's body skin was run by Spectral Motion foam technician Bill Fesh, while the head foam skins and other cosmetic elements were created at Arjen, LLC."
• ↑ Stan Winston School "The Phantasmic Makeup & Creature FX of Ghostbusters: Afterlife" 1/11/2022 Line reads: "With the cosmetic work underway, Spectral Motion's Bill Sturgeon scanned the core and designed all the internal head and body mechanisms. Spectral's Jurgen Heimann would be tasked with building the head mechanism based on Sturgeon's design."
• ↑ IGN YouTube "Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Exclusive Trailer Breakdown with Director Jason Reitman" 07:12-07:25 7/26/2021 Jason Reitman says: "We actually found the original special effects 70 mm footage and scanned it, so, again we were always attempting to go back to the original recipe and recapture as much as humanly possible."
• ↑ Avid YouTube "VIP All Access — Ghostbusters: Afterlife — Film and Sound Editing Team" 26:20-27:10 12/9/2021 Will Files says: "We got the actual you know piece of production sound and I was like 'Wow, I feel like I'm mixing the original film for a second here and it was fun to-we had to this we added a bunch of sounds there to sort of try to recreate that moment in the film where there was lots of crowd action and there's police sirens and that sort of thing going on and we first put it all in kind of the way we would mix a modern film and it sounded weird up against this older image and older kind of thinner sounding dialogue so we actually ended up kind of filtering the-all the background sounds that we were adding to make it feel like more like the 80 like literally more like the 84 version as if this was you know a whole chunk of the movie that that had been snipped out and dropped into this one."
• ↑ Avid YouTube "VIP All Access — Ghostbusters: Afterlife — Film and Sound Editing Team" 27:14-27:23 12/9/2021 Will Files says: "There was one element that we stole from the original but no other but we couldn't find a piece long enough to do what we were trying to do that makes sense so we had to build it."
• ↑ The Numbers:Ghostbusters
• ↑ Proton Charging:Ghostbusters By the numbers
• ↑ Reading Eagle - Jan 17, 1985 on Google
• ↑ 393.0 393.1 The Spokesman-Review - Aug 23, 1985 on Google
• ↑ Star-News - Oct 31, 1985 on Google
• ↑ 395.0 395.1 395.2 395.3 395.4 Proton Charging:Ghostbusters re-release is weekly, starting October 13th! Sony makes it official!
• ↑ Reading Eagle - Jan 11, 1985 on Google
• ↑ Reading Eagle - Sep 13, 1985 on Google
• ↑ Star-News - Oct 25, 1985 on Google
• ↑ Tested YouTube "Adam Savage and Jason Reitman Talk Ghostbusters: Afterlife!" 11/23/21 Jason Reitman says: "He edited Ghostbusters and was going through old videotapes recently literally just a stack of VHS's when he found this. This is the first screening of Ghostbusters. The first time anyone ever saw-an aud-any audience ever saw the original. This is the test screening. It has all rough effects. It all-has you know scene missing banners, no-no marshmallow man, just drawings--on beta."
• ↑ Newspapers "Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey · Page 48" October 9, 1985 Line reads: "Ghostbusters The Video Event of the Year begins October 31st."
• ↑ Spook Central - Ghostbusters On Home Video, section "Advertisements", first ad Line reads: "Available on videocassette this Halloween!"

Gallery [ ]

• 3 Vinz Clortho

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories

To revisit this article, select My Account, then   View saved stories

Go Inside the Filming Locations and Set Designs of Ghostbusters

By Elizabeth Stamp

More than 30 years after Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson stepped onto the screen as the Ghostbusters, the franchise has been revived and refreshed in time for summer blockbuster season. Helmed by director Paul Feig, who cowrote the movie with Katie Dippold, the reboot follows four new Ghostbusters (Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones) as they save New York from a supernatural threat created by villain Rowan North (Neil Casey). Production designer Jefferson Sage, who has teamed with Feig on Bridesmaids, Spy, and The Heat, faced the monumental task of visualizing and realizing not only the something strange but also the neighborhood.

Production took place in Boston, with a few select filming locations and exteriors in New York. “We were lucky that in many ways Boston is architecturally like New York,” says Sage, who needed to find or create around 65 sets for the film. Three critical locations were the labs the Ghostbusters use throughout the movie, starting with the Higgins Institute of Science, where Abby (McCarthy) and Holtzmann (McKinnon) conduct their research. “We knew we were going to have several different labs that the Ghostbusters move between,” says Sage. “The arc of those places, the home bases, was important from the beginning.”

From the Higgins Institute, they move to a makeshift headquarters above a restaurant in Chinatown. Sage and his team found a building on the edge of Boston’s Chinatown and transformed it by covering windows, painting the exterior, and adding a garage to house their vehicle, the Ecto-1. The banquet room turned lab interior was built on a soundstage and was designed to look improvised. “It gave us an opportunity to have a little fun with what the space used to be and the ridiculous idea that the fate of humanity in New York City hangs on these guys doing this science surrounded by the banquet room’s leftover decor.”

When it came to the weapons and gadgets, Sage wanted everything—including the iconic proton packs—to feel cobbled together and evolve and improve throughout the film. “It gave them a little more cred as scientists and as engineers to do that rather than having them walk in with these full-blown things on their backs,” says Sage. The designer also called on a team of artists to dream up new weaponry that puts a twist on recognizable objects like a wood chipper or a bear trap. From there the visual effects team worked their magic to bring all the elements—both natural and supernatural—together into an eye-catching and entertaining experience.

By Juliet Izon

By Sam Cochran

By Elizabeth Fazzare

How Jason and Ivan Reitman crossed their creative streams to revive ‘Ghostbusters’

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

As a filmmaker, Ivan Reitman built a hugely successful career on a foundation of laughs with comedies like “Meatballs,” “Stripes,” “Twins” and “Dave.” But on a recent afternoon in Beverly Hills, Reitman was fighting back tears as he sat beside his son, Jason, discussing their new film, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.”

This particular day was already freighted with significance for the elder Reitman as he celebrated his 75th birthday. But more than that, he was feeling deeply moved to find himself, decades after directing the original 1984 smash “Ghostbusters” and its 1989 sequel, now passing the torch of his greatest success to his son. “I’m sorry I’m crying,” Reitman said. “This has been a very emotional experience.”

For the Reitmans, “Afterlife” — which hits theaters Friday after being delayed more than a year by the pandemic — marks an unlikely union of father-and-son filmmakers, a crossing of the proverbial proton streams that for years neither one imagined would ever happen. Jason, 44, who has earned four Oscar nominations for his work on the films “Juno” and “Up in the Air,” directed “Afterlife” and co-wrote the script with Gil Kenan, while Ivan served as producer.

Picking up the main “Ghostbusters” storyline more than 30 years after “Ghostbusters II,” “Afterlife” is itself a story about familial legacy, exploring the ways a younger generation can be haunted — in a very literal sense — by the actions of their forebears.

In the film, a single mother (Carrie Coon) and her two children (Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard) move to a decaying farmhouse in Oklahoma they have inherited. Investigating a series of supernatural events taking place around an abandoned mine, the teens soon discover they are part of a lineage stretching back to the original Ghostbusters who saved New York City from a paranormal invasion decades earlier.

Dan Aykroyd — who was one-fourth of the original team of Ghostbusters alongside Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and the late Harold Ramis, who died in 2014 — says it was touching to watch Jason pick up the baton of the franchise his father launched.

“Jason is a family member,” says Aykroyd, who reprises his original role in the new film along with fellow returning “Ghostbusters” cast members Murray, Hudson and Annie Potts. “He has a great amount of genuine affection for the property, and he was very respectful to make sure the story goes on and stays within a certain set of tracks.”

The Times spoke with the Reitmans about the improbable road to “Afterlife” and reckoning with ghosts from the past, cinematic and otherwise.

Ivan, you spent years trying in vain to make a third “Ghostbusters” movie. When Sony decided to reboot the franchise with director Paul Feig’s 2016 all-female “Ghostbusters,” did you think that was the end of the road for the original “Ghostbusters” storyline?

Ivan: The studio always wanted to do another “Ghostbusters,” and I wanted to do another one. But the studio was sort of unsure of itself in terms of actually greenlighting anything, and then Harold started getting sicker and sicker until he passed away. It was clear to me that I couldn’t do the movie next. And it was really a gift from God that Jason came forward three years ago and said, “Hey, Dad, you won’t believe this, but I think I’ve got this idea. What do you think?” And he told me this story that just knocked me out.

Had you two ever discussed the possibility of Jason taking the reins of the “Ghostbusters” franchise before?

Jason: I had kind of heard the comings and goings of attempts at making another “Ghostbusters” film, but I never thought of it as my problem. I was just like, “I’m sure you’ll figure it out, and meanwhile, I’ll just go make my movies.”

Having been on the set of the original “Ghostbusters” as a kid, what was your feeling about stepping into your dad’s shoes in this way?

Jason: Like any child of anybody, I ran from my parents’ shadow, first avoiding filmmaking, and then, even once I started directing, I clearly went a different route and tried to be an independent filmmaker.

People would ask all the time, “Are you going to make a ‘Ghostbusters’ movie?” And I made the arrogant mistake of thinking, “Oh, they really want to see my ‘Ghostbusters’ movie.” When the truth is, they just want to see a “Ghostbusters” movie. We all want another ride in the car. We all want to see Indiana Jones put the hat back on. We want to see the DeLorean hit 88 again.

I’d probably been thinking about a potential “Ghostbusters” movie the way everyone else had, which was always: You get four new people, and they open up a ghostbusting business in New York City. For me, the new angle was this family. I thought about this girl, and I thought about a brother. And once I knew who this family was, I had my way in. But I was really nervous about it. I was genuinely nervous that if I took on this franchise and failed, it would be a very public failure under a very hot spotlight.

Ivan: I was somewhat shocked when he came to me with this idea. It made me a little nervous for all the kind of obvious business reasons. The audience is very strict about “Ghostbusters,” and they want that sort of experience of the ’84 movie. And it’s harder and harder to do that. The world is different, and the comedic energy is different.

The audience is also coming to terms with the loss of a family member [since Ramis’ passing]. I think that gives an extraordinary kind of weight to the story, a good kind of weight, and still allows us to do something that is funny and scary. That was sort of the magic trick of Jason and Gil’s script.

The 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot was polarizing among fans and underperformed at the box office . How did that film impact your thinking about this one?

Jason: That film takes place in its own universe, so that really was never anything I had to think about. It is its own film, and it’s a really funny film with incredible performances, and I’m a fan of it. Really the only impact that had on my approach to “Afterlife” was that it made my life a lot easier because Paul had already taken up the burden of making the first “Ghostbusters” film that my father had not directed and had opened up people’s minds about what a “Ghostbusters” movie could be.

There were all kinds of choices in that film that, whether you liked them or not, were shaking the Etch A Sketch. So now I can make a movie about a family in Oklahoma with a different color palette and the characters aren’t opening up a ghostbusting company — and all these things are possible, and I’m not getting any headwind.

Jason, how did you approach making this movie your own?

Jason: The first person I wanted to make happy was my dad. Then the Ramis family was on my mind at all times. Then beyond that, it was “Ghostbusters” fans. The normal relationship you have with the audience is that the film belongs to the filmmaker until it’s released, and then it belongs to the audience. This is the first time I’ve ever had the experience that the film never belonged to me. I just carried the baton. So I wasn’t thinking about, “How do I make this my movie?” Because it never was mine.

My father was a little bit younger than me when he made “Ghostbusters,” so I found myself constantly thinking, “My instinct is to shoot this scene this way — did my father arrive at the same decision the same way?” It’s literally like putting your parents’ clothes on. It’s like finding out you shave similarly to your father because the hairs on your face grow in the same direction. And this would happen every day. I don’t know if any director has ever gone through that experience.

Ivan, what was it like for you to watch Jason make those kinds of filmmaking decisions on the set?

Ivan: It was joyful. He was very generous and respectful with me. We fought, but I thought it was healthy. It was hard because I felt I knew the right way to make a “Ghostbusters” movie, so when he took a different approach to blocking a scene or something, he would argue. I’d say, “OK, well, this is your movie.” And I had to learn how to do that in a sincere way.

Jason: I never will have a producer I trust more than my father. I mean, it is strange having your father sitting next to you at work reviewing your work in real time —

Ivan: And it’s my personality to be critical just in general. He’s had to live with this all his life.

Jason: Yeah, I mean, you’re literally interrupting my quote right now! [Laughs.] But it’s the experience of a lifetime. It put pressure on us, and it made us unbelievably close.

It’s been almost 40 years since the original “Ghostbusters” came out, and kids still go trick-or-treating on Halloween every year wearing proton packs. What is your sense of the film’s legacy and why it has endured for so long?

Ivan: It’s interesting to watch the great success of the Marvel Universe movies. They borrow a lot, actually, from “Ghostbusters” in terms of the mix of comedic tone and strong action. It’s just wonderful to watch.

Jason: If you think about comedies that would involve ghosts prior to “Ghostbusters,” they would treat the ghost goofy. They would acknowledge it was a comedy in every moment. But one of the things that made “Ghostbusters” truly groundbreaking was how genuinely scary it was. So when you ask what makes it enduring, it’s that if you were a certain age when it came out, it was the funniest movie you’d ever seen. But if you were a different age, it was the scariest movie you’d ever seen.

There’s 10 different ways in on “Ghostbusters,” so much so that it is somehow just as relevant today and does not feel dated. It’s part of the reason the film was so great — and part of the reason it’s so scary to make a sequel to it.

It's a date

Get our L.A. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Josh Rottenberg covers the film business for the Los Angeles Times. He was part of the team that was named a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist in breaking news for covering the tragic shooting on the set of the film “Rust.” He co-wrote the 2021 Times investigation into the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. that led NBC to pull the Golden Globe Awards off the air while the organization underwent major reforms. A graduate of Harvard University, he has also written about the entertainment industry for the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company and other publications.

More From the Los Angeles Times

AFI Fest struggles to find its niche amid a shifting festival landscape

Demons, killer sloths, analog terror: The 13 best new horror movies to stream this Halloween

Oct. 26, 2023

Review: Bah, humbug! ‘The Holdovers’ is a clunky, phony white-elephant gift of a movie

After a career wobble, director Alexander Payne rebounds, ready to play the long game

A Guide to the ENTIRE ‘Ghostbusters’ Franchise

in Movies & TV

When it comes to major movie franchises like Jurassic Park , Star War s , and Harry Potter , it’s easy to forget that the worlds they’ve created also exist beyond the silver screen, in many other forms of media. It could be a novel, video game, comic book, TV show, or all of the above.

This is also true in the case of the Ghostbusters franchise . Fans are currently in their element that four Ghostbusters movies now exist (even if the reboot leaves a lot to be desired), but sometimes, other material set in the Ghostbusters universe can get overlooked.

It would take forever to list all the Ghostbusters video games , tie-in novels, and comic books, but we’ve compiled the most relevant stories — the four movies, the two animated shows, IDW Publishing’s long-running comic book series, and even the canonical video game!

Here’s your guide to the entire Ghostbusters franchise…

Related: All 4 ‘Ghostbusters’ Movies Ranked Worst to Best

Ghostbusters (1984)

The 1984 film follows parapsychologists Peter Venkman ( Bill Murray ), Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), who discover a surge in paranormal activity in Manhattan. Recognizing a gap in the market, they decide to go into business as the Ghostbusters.

They buy an unused fire station as their headquarters, convert an old Cadillac into their emergency response vehicle known as the Ecto-1, and hire Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) as their fourth member. Almost overnight, the Ghostbusters become a citywide sensation.

The team winds up helping Dana Barrett ( Sigourney Weaver ) and Louis Tully ( Rick Moranis ), who have been chosen by minions Zuul (AKA “The Gatekeeper”) and Vinz Clortho (AKA “The Keymaster”) as vessels to allow a god known as Gozer entry into the human world.

Using their proton packs (unlicensed nuclear accelerators) to “cross the streams”, the Ghostbusters send Gozer — and the 112ft manifestation, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man — back to their dimension, saving the day and covering everyone in melted marshmallow in the process!

Related: All Halloween Movies Ranked Worst to Best

The Real Ghostbusters (1986 — 1991)

The Real Ghostbusters is an animated series inspired by the 1984 film, and ran for seven seasons before departing our TV sets. The premise is the same, however, instead of beige flight suits, the Ghostbuster sport retro colors (which is actually explained in the episode “Citizen Ghost”).

And the gang’s all here — Peter (Lorenzo Music), Egon (Maurice LaMarche), Ray (Frank Welker), Winston (Arsenio Hall), Janine (Laura Summer/Kath Soucie), and Slimer (Frank Welker)! Sadly, Dana Barrett isn’t, but Louis Tully (Rodger Bumpass) does appear on occasion.

The show depicts the Ghostbusters battling a huge number of supernatural threats across New York City. And if you’re wondering whether it’s canon with the movies, then wonder no more, because it definitely is (although this obviously isn’t the case the other way around)!

The episodes “Citizen Ghost” and “Take Two”, along with a few others, directly tie in to the 1984 film , while “Partners in Slime” references Ghostbusters II . In fact, the show influenced the 1989 sequel, in which Slimer is portrayed as a friendly ghost during his encounter with Louis Tully.

Related: All the Main Villains in the ‘Ghostbusters’ Movies Ranked Worst to Best

Ghostbusters II (1989)

Set five years after the original film, Ghostbusters II finds the team almost divided and disenfranchised. Despite saving the world, it seems New Yorkers have been quick to forget the supernatural events that plagued their city, which has put the team out of business.

Ray now runs a bookstore known as Ray’s Occult and does the odd side-gig with Winston (they dress up in their Ghostbusters outfits for kids’ birthday parties). Meanwhile, Peter is a talk show host, and Egon is studying the effects of negative energy on human beings.

But when paranormal activity across the city begins to rise again, the Ghostbusters reunite and discover a river of highly-energized “Mood Slime” running beneath the streets. They also learn that the supernatural substance is feeding off all the millions of miserable inhabitants above.

Eventually, the river causes the portrait of Vigo the Carpathian (Wilhelm von Homburg/voiced by Max Von Sydow) to come to life! But when the ancient sorcerer tries to possess the body of Dana Barrett’s baby, Oscar, the Ghostbusters use a positively-charged Statue of Liberty to save the day!

Related: The 10 Most HATED Moments From the ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy

Extreme Ghostbusters (1997)

Animated show Extreme Ghostbusters (1997) follows on from The Real Ghostbusters , serving as an almost direct sequel, though with a noticeable difference in the style of animation. But there’s also a huge shift in tone, as the show really flirts with the boundaries of family-friendly horror.

Extreme Ghostbusters is set years after The Real Ghostbusters and follows four college students, Kylie Griffin (Tara Strong), Eduardo Rivera (Rino Romano), Roland Jackson (Alfonso Ribeiro), and Garrett Miller (Jason Marsden). Together, they form the next generation of Ghostbusters.

To say that Extreme Ghostbusters  is a completely different animal to its ’80s-born predecessor, though, wouldn’t be entirely true. After all, the ingredients are all there: a team of Ghostbusters, New York City, Slimer, the Ecto-1, and so on. But make no mistake — this is pretty edgy stuff!

Original characters also make an appearance in the show, while Egon (Maurice LaMarche), Slimer (Billy West), and Janine Melnitz (Pat Musick) are part of the main line-up. Kylie Griffin also went on to become a frequently recurring character in IDW’s comic book series.

Related: ‘Ghostbusters 2’ Is a Better Sequel Than ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ — Here’s Why!

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009)

Before Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) entered our lives, Ghostbusters: The Video Game (2009) was considered the unofficial and canonical sequel to the original two movies. Even Dan Aykroyd himself, who co-wrote the game with Harold Ramis, confirmed this a few years ago.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game takes place in New York in 1991, two years after the events of Ghostbusters II , when a supernatural energy wave causes a surge in ghostly activity throughout the city. Returning spooks include Slimer, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and even Vigo!

The game is a near-perfect celebration of all things Ghostbusters , and Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and Dan Aykroyd even reprise their roles! However, you play a new Ghostbusters cadet known simply as “Rookie”(like Kylie Griffin, he also appears in the comic book series).

However, the existence of Ghostbusters: Afterlife does throw the game’s canonicity into question. While the 2021 sequel doesn’t go out of its way to retcon the game, it doesn’t seem to acknowledge it, either. But then it probably isn’t personal, as it doesn’t even mention the 1989 sequel.

Related: Everything You Need to Know About ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ the TV Series Before New Sequel ‘In Every Generation’

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016) was met with a whirlwind of controversy even before it hit theaters. The trailer for Paul Feig’s female-led film quickly became one of the most disliked videos on the Internet, and the film itself remains one of the most hated reboots of all time.

The reboot follows paranormal scientists Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Abby Yates ( Melissa McCarthy ), and Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), and MTA worker, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones), as they team up to fight a wave of supernatural entities in Manhattan.

Is it all that bad, though? Well, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call gets a few things right , but ultimately, it just isn’t funny, substituting the well-written jokes and believable protagonists of the original for cringe-worthy ad-libbing and one-dimensional caricatures.

Despite the fact that many fans wish this film didn’t exist, Ghostbusters: Answer the Call still forms part of the Ghostbusters franchise. However, while it is in no way canon with anything in the series, Anny, Patty, Erin, and Jillian do appear in the more recent IDW comic books.

Related: 5 Things the Controversial ‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot Gets Right

IDW Ghostbusters Comic Book Series (2011)

Ghostbusters comic books date as far back as the 1980s, when The Real Ghostbusters was in its heyday, but the most commonly known series is the long-running IDW Publishing version, which started in 2011, and is still in publication . As such, there are a huge number of issues to collect.

Just like the original two movies and The Real Ghostbusters , the Ghostbusters comic book series focuses on Peter, Egon, Ray, and Winston, and includes other iconic characters such as Janine, Louis, Dana, and Walter Peck (played by William Atherton in the films).

However, as it’s a comic book universe, naturally, Ghostbusters (2011) takes many liberties, often “crossing the streams” with over franchises in special one-off story arcs, such as Men in Black , The X-Files , Trans-Formers , and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles .

The series has also brought in The Real Ghostbusters versions of the characters, and even Abby, Jillian, Erin, and Patty from Ghostbusters: Answer the Call , using the concept of the “ multiverse ” to do so. The comic books also feature several other Ghostbusters exclusive to this particular continuity, which means that there are more than just 12 Ghostbusters !

Related: 5 REALLY Dumb Decisions in ‘Jurassic World’

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is one of the most long-awaited sequels of all time. For the best part of the last three decades, fans have waited for a third movie in the original Ghostbusters series , but it seemed like it just wasn’t mean to be. At least not until the 2016 reboot had been and gone.

That film’s underwhelming box office success led Sony Pictures to rethink their Ghostbusters strategy , and consequently, an actual sequel was greenlit and handed to Jason Reitman , the son of Ivan Reitman, who directed the original two Ghostbusters movies. Like father, like son!

Set in the backwater town of Summerville in Oklahoma, Ghostbusters: Afterlife  introduces us to new characters. After moving to an old farmhouse left behind by their late grandfather, Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) discover the legacy of the Ghostbusters.

Along with their mother, Callie (Carrie Coon), summer school teacher, Gary Grooberson ( Paul Rudd ), and fellow teens, Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), Phoebe and Trevor attempt to thwart a supernatural threat that the original Ghostbusters defeated in 1984.

Related: 7 Things in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ That Did NOT Go Down Well With Fans

Are you familiar with the world of Ghostbusters beyond the movies?

Comments Off on A Guide to the ENTIRE ‘Ghostbusters’ Franchise

Where was Ghostbusters filmed?

City locations.

New York, Los Angeles

Location Types

Apartment, Buildings/Offices, Hotels/Motels, Studios

Location Styles

Boutique Hotel, Office Building Style, Americana/Anywhere America

About Ghostbusters

Ivan Reitman, known for directing a series of hit films like “Twins,” “Space Jam,” and “Kindergarten Cop,” is also the man behind the first “Ghostbusters” movie. Released in 1984, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis star in the supernatural comedy.

Drawing from his fascination with spirituality and psychic lore, Aykroyd conjured up the project envisioning himself and John Belushi as the leads. Following Belushi’s untimely death, Ramis stepped in to assist with the rewrite.

The premise centers on a group of eccentric parapsychology professors and their experiences battling paranormal threats. In their quest to rid New York City of the supernatural scourge, the three, Peter Venkman (Murray), Egon Spengler (Ramis), and Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) establish a “ghost vanquishing” business.

The paranormal investigation and eradication business, dubbed the Environmental Protection Agency, operates out of an abandoned firehouse. They also develop nuclear-powered equipment but the business initially has a slow start.

Their breakthrough comes when Dana Barett (Sigourney Weaver), a cellist, engages their services after noticing some strange occurrences happening in her kitchen. She ends up being possessed by a demigod called Zuul, and a similar entity also commandeers her next-door neighbor Louis Tully (Rick Moranis).

It turns out that their apartment building functions as a conduit to another realm, and after rescuing the pair, the ghostbusting trio is hailed as the city’s heroes.

The perfect blend of action, comedy, and stellar performances earned the special-effects blockbuster critical acclaim. Even with Columbia Pictures unsure about greenlighting the $30 million budget, the production did exceptionally well at the box office and raked in $282.2 million on its initial run.

The Ghostbusters production also earned several accolades, starting with the Ray Parker Jr. theme charting at the top spot. The Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in 2015.

Ghostbusters Locations

The Ghostbuster production process started in October 1983 and filming wrapped in 1984. While the ghostbusting trio establish their phenomenally successful business in New York, actual filming took place between the cities of New York and Los Angeles.

In New York, the cast and crew filmed at several iconic locations including Central Park, Columbus Circle, and the Lincoln Centre. Other iconic locations that were featured in the film include the Manhattan Bridge, Madison Avenue, Times Square, The Rockefeller Center, and the East River. The team spent four weeks shooting in the Big Apple before moving production to Los Angeles for another 9 weeks.

The production team also filmed some of the scenes at Stages 12, 15, 16, and 18 within the Warner Brothers Burbank Studios. Lenox Hill, Manhattan is also listed as one of the filming locations.

Without further ado, here are some of the best scenes in Ghostbusters (spoilers ahead) and details about where they were filmed in real life.

In a clever bid to market the film during its 1984 theatrical release, Reitman ran a commercial featuring the Ghostbusters hotline number 555-2368. People who called heard a message Aykroyd and Murray pre-recorded saying they were busy fighting ghosts. The number reportedly received upwards of 1,000 calls daily, but sadly, it’s no longer operational.

The first supernatural occurrence scene in Ghostbusters

New York Public Library

The movie opens with the sun shining brightly on the recognizable façade of the New York Public. We see some people lounging on the building’s front steps which are flanked by the sight of the familiar stone lions.

A few scenes later, Stantz tells Venkman that 10 people witnessed a free-roaming, full-torso apparition at the main branch of the New York Public Library. He explains that the vaporous monster “...blew books from shelves at twenty feet away. Scared the socks off some poor librarian.”

The New York Public Library provided the setting for the external shots seen at the start of the film. Located at 5th Avenue, the location is a popular filming location seen in other productions like “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “Spider-Man. For the haunted stacks and library basement scenes, the team set up shop at the Los Angeles Central Library located at 630 West 5th Street.

The public library system comprises 53 locations which collectively house an estimated 53 million items. It’s the world’s fourth-largest and United States’ second-largest public library, right after the Library of Congress.

Get to the Ghostbusters location via the BM2, QM32, BM5, or Q32 bus. Subway M, F, 4, 7, 7X, and B will also get you there.

Venkman and Stantzs talk about venturing into the ghostbusting business scene in Ghostbusters

Low Memorial Library, Manhattan

When Venkman and Stantz get booted from Columbia University, where they work at the fictional Department of Parapsychology, they discuss setting up a paranormal fighting business.

Venkman takes their termination rather positively saying that Einstein did his best work while holding a day job as a patent clerk. Stantz points out that the University gave them money and facilities, both of which they need to produce anything to progress in their work.

That’s when Venkman delivers the relatable line, everything in life happens for a reason. “Call it fate, call it luck, Karma, whatever. I think we were destined to get kicked out of there. New York, NY, USA” Stantz asks for what purpose did they get the boot, and Venkman responds with conviction that they are meant to go into business for themselves.

The duo conceived the plan at the University of Columbia’s Low Memorial Library which is found at the Upper Quadrangle. To be precise, the Low is north of College Walk in Morningside Heights, Manhattan.

The area between West 120th, Broadway West 114th, and Amsterdam Avenue gas also had its cameo in productions like the “Spider-Man” films. Hop onto the Line 1 subway at Christopher St-Sheridan Sq, and from 116 St-Columbia University, the Ghostbusters location is four miles away.

Dana experiences paranormal activity in her apartment scene in Ghostbuster

55 Central Park West

At home unpacking her groceries, Dana witnesses a carton of eggs behaving peculiarly. The top of the carton opens, and one by one, the eggs erupt before spilling onto the counter.

The spilled eggs start sizzling and frying on the Formica surface. Her fridge doors also start opening while a frenetic chanting comes from the cooling device. Mustering the courage to open the fridge door, she finds nothing out of the ordinary except for spilled condiments.

The strange occurrence compels her to seek help from the experts. While explaining it to Spengler at their office, she says, “I think something in my refrigerator is trying to get me.

The Ghostbusters filming location is at 65th Street. Referenced in the movie as The Shandor, the studio’s art department added a couple of upper stories to the apartment building for cinematic effect.

Schwartz & Gross constructed the 19-floor cooperative in 1929. While it doesn’t have an official name, since the film’s release, most people refer to it as The Shandor Building, The Ghostbusters Building, Spook Central, or The Shandor Apartments. The Hudson train, BXM2 bus, or 1 subway will get you to the housing cooperative.

The trio settles on a firehouse as their headquarters scene in Ghostbuster

Firehouse, Hook & Ladder Company 8, New York

Once the trio has the funds to set up their business, they enlist the services of a real estate agent to help them find a suitable premise for their startup. They go on a tour of a four-story fire station with Engine Company #93 printed on the garage doors.

The real estate agent asks what they intend to call the business Stanz responds, “Ghostbusters.” She says, “Oh, well, this place is perfect for it.”

The dinky location seen in the film is an operational New York Fire Department located at 14 North Moore Street near the Tribeca area. The movie is credited for popularizing the building’s exterior. In downtown Los Angeles, you’ll find Fire station No.23 at 225 East Fifth Street. That’s where the production team filmed the interior scenes.

The filmmakers chose the decommissioned LA building for its accessibility and settled for the New York location for its aesthetics. The Ghostbusters filming location appears in other productions like “Flatliners'' and “Big Trouble in Little China.”

For a photo op at the Ghostbusters filming location, hop on bus M55, M20, or BXM18. The Path train or subway 1, E, or C can also get you to the fire station.

The trio vanquishes their first apparition scene in Ghostbusters

Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles

The trio busted their first apparition at the fictitious Sedgewick Hotel. After successfully vanquishing the onion-headed vapor, they walk out to a waiting mob of reporters and several photographers snapping photos of the Ectomobile.

The reporters start asking them a barrage of questions, and one asks if they have proof that what they saw inside the establishment was real. Stantz responds, “Proof? Well, the manager of the Sedgewick just paid us five big ones to get something out of there. Is that real enough for you?”

The Millennium Biltmore Hotel found at 506 South Grand Avenue stood in for the Sedgewick Hotel. It’s an equally popular filming location in Los Angeles and has hosted other productions like “Speed,” Beverly Hills Cop,” and “The Bodyguard.”

To recreate the Ghostbusters scene, you can book a stay at the beaux-arts-inspired hotel. It’s just a 10-minute walk from the Museum of Contemporary Art and Walt Disney Concert Hall. Their amenities include a club lounge, a full-service spa, and a Roman-style pool.

Bus 600, 14/37, 4, or 16/17 can get you to the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. The B Line (Red) subway will also get you to the historic hotel.

The ghostbusting trio gets a loan scene in Ghostbuster

489 Fifth Avenue, New York

Once the trio decides to open up a ghostbusting outfit, they get a loan from the Manhattan City Bank. It’s all thanks to Stantz, who takes out three mortgages on the house his parents left him, but after walking out of the financial institution, he isn’t too sure about the decision.

Spengler is also unsure about the nineteen percent interest, pointing out that the payments will set them back by $75,000 in five years. Venkman has a positive stance and tells the two, “we are on the threshold of establishing the indispensable defense science of the next decade…The franchise rights alone will make us wealthy beyond your wildest dreams.”

You’ll find the Ghostbusters location at East 42nd Street, opposite the New York Public Library. The Emporis Building dates back to 1971, and it currently houses several businesses. You can reach the Empire State Building and Times Square from the location.

Buses BM2, QM32, M42, or M55 will get you to the Emporis Building. Alternatively, make your way to the location via subway M, D, or 4 of the Hudson train.

Anyone who is set on embarking on a Ghostbusters filming locations tour has more than enough references to come up with a solid itinerary. While at it, also consider visiting some of these other locations.

The Tavern on Green located in Central Park served as the setting for the restaurant scene where Louis is attacked by an apparition. Venkman tells Dana about the nefarious Zuul at the fountain found outside the Lincoln Centre.

At 240 Center Street, you’ll find the location where they filmed the scene when the ghostbusting team gets arrested for performing unlicensed waste control duties. Marshmallow Man stepped on the Holy Trinity Church found at 55 Central Park West.

Last, but not least, Camp Wokanda is referenced in the film when Stantz talks about roasting marshmallows. The camping grounds are located in Illinois at1125 W Lake Avenue.

Advertisement

Supported by

‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Review: A Play for Nostalgia and Merch

Jason Reitman, son of the original “Ghostbusters” director, delivers a toothless film with Paul Rudd as a love interest and plenty of cutesy ghosts.

• Share full article

By Manohla Dargis

If it seems that the only movie Big Hollywood knows how to make is the one they made last year — and the year before that — there’s a reason. The industry’s franchise fever is real, though much depends on timing. My colleague Kyle Buchanan once determined that while successful sequels tend to be rolled out every few years, those that wait six years are often doomed to fail. That may be welcome news for the latest “Ghostbusters,” a cautious, painlessly watchable kid-centric romp that is opening precisely five years, four months and four days after the previous installment went splat.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was directed by Jason Reitman, whose father, Ivan Reitman, directed the first two movies in the 1980s, and was in line to take on the third. Over many years and after many more studio notes, a new director, Paul Feig, was brought in, and the third movie became a female-driven reboot . Before it even opened, the reboot became the target of viciously sexist and racist trolling and rage, a casualty of the culture wars . But much like the troublesome apparitions that haunt this series, profitable franchises (and even barely profitable ones) rarely truly die in Hollywood. And “Ghostbusters” is simply too goofy, too smart about dumb fun and too potentially lucrative to stay buried for long.

And so: “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” which is as cuddly and toothless as you would expect from a relaunched studio property in which the main characters are children and Paul Rudd plays a love interest. They’re all predictably adorable and have big, easy-to-read eyes, the better to widen in feigned surprise or mock fear when various ghosts come a-calling. For their part, the cartoonish apparitions range from the cutesy to the PG-13 snarly and include a roly-poly metal muncher, a pair of slathering hellhounds and some puffy, gurgling creatures whose wide-open arms and demonically cheerful smiles have been engineered for toy shelves and maximum nostalgia.

There’s a story, sure, though you don’t care and neither do I. What matters are the jokes, energy, boos and characters, who are appealing mostly because the performers playing them are too. The main kids are a brother, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard of “Stranger Things”), and his younger brainiac sister, Phoebe (the very good Mckenna Grace). With their mom (the reliable Carrie Coon), they move to a desolate farm in the middle of Oklahoma (played by Alberta, Canada), near one of those small, non-depressed towns straight out of classical Hollywood. There, the kids pick up two charming second bananas (Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor), crack jokes, battle demons, solve mysteries.

Jason Reitman makes easy-watching, frictionless mainstream comedies and dramas for adults (“Up in the Air,” “The Front Runner”) that deliver their laughs softly and their sanctimony seriously. Like his father, he is sentimental, but his father’s comedies are brasher, more down market and high concept: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are “Twins,” etc. The Reitmans have split the duties on “Afterlife,” with Ivan serving as the producer and Jason sharing script credit with Gil Kenan. Whatever influence the father had on the son, one of the nicer things about this joint venture is that, while the adults in the story tell the young’uns what to do, the emphasis remains on the action, not the life lessons.

Franchise sequels bank on dependability and giving the audience exactly what it expects. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” certainly makes good on that contractual promise: There are ghosts, and they are busted. By design, there isn’t a single genuine surprise in the movie. Instead, the movie leans heavily into the previous installments in an effort to create the kind of self-generating franchise mythology that can support further sequels (and so on). It trots out the familiar gadgets, ghosts and goo as well as beloved faces and Ray Parker Jr.’s indestructible earworm of a theme song. Like the younger Reitman, Phoebe and her Scooby Gang battle ghosts on every front.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Rated PG-13 for ghostly peril. Running time: 2 hours 4 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis has been the co-chief film critic since 2004. She started writing about movies professionally in 1987 while earning her M.A. in cinema studies at New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

Explore More in TV and Movies

Not sure what to watch next we can help..

The Apple TV+ period drama “Lessons in Chemistry,” Brie Larson plays the fictional host of a 1950s cooking show. But the story is inspired by the real TV homemakers who flourished back then .

The 10-episode series “Goosebumps,” streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, adapts the children’s novels of R.L. Stine with a modern twist. Here are some differences from the source material .

In the Netflix film “Fair Play,” the writer-director Chloe Domont tackles power dynamics within relationships. It might end up facilitating some breakups .

Eric Martin, the head writer of the television series “Loki,” talked about crafting the plot and characters of the second season .

If you are overwhelmed by the endless options, don’t despair — we put together the best offerings   on Netflix , HBO Max , Disney+ , Amazon Prime  and Hulu  to make choosing your next binge a little easier.

Sign up for our Watching newsletter  to get recommendations on the best films and TV shows to stream and watch, delivered to your inbox.

• Documentary/Reality
• Children's/Family
• Amazon Prime Video

Ghostbusters (1984)

Latest on ghostbusters (1984), 11 coziest movies to watch this halloween, stream it or skip it: 'rose red' on hulu, the 2002 stephen king miniseries that's the sleeper hit of 2023's spooky season, 'barbie' marks the return of edgy, barely kid-friendly blockbusters like 'ghostbusters', stream it or skip it: ‘we have a ghost’ on netflix, a patience-taxing genre mash starring david harbour as a mute ghost, new movies & shows to watch this weekend: netflix's 'white noise' + more, kymberly herrin, playboy model known for 'ghostbusters' and zz top's "legs" video, dead at 65, let's go bump in the dark: the hottest ghosts in tv and movies, kids halloween movies on streaming that the whole family will love in 2023, freeform's 31 nights of halloween: full schedule for 2022, stream it or skip it: ‘rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles: the movie’ on netflix, a hyperactive feature-length continuation of the canceled nickelodeon series, 'ghostbusters' animated series in the works at netflix, oscars in memoriam 2022: who is most "important" celebrity that died in the last year, ivan reitman, 'ghostbusters' director, dead at 75, bill murray spills about 'ghostbusters,' 'groundhog day,' and 'tootsie' productions in first appearance on 'the view', stream it or skip it: 'ghostbusters: afterlife' on vod, a lukewarm nostalgia bath that forgets to do anything new, how to stream freeform's '31 nights of halloween' for free, freeform's 31 nights of halloween 2021 schedule, mini stay-puft is the baby yoda toy to buy of 'ghostbusters: afterlife', stream it or skip it: 'belushi' on showtime, a documentary portrait of a comedy superhero and a complex man, stream it or skip it: 'truth seekers' on amazon, a supernatural horror comedy that reunites simon pegg & nick frost, trending now.

This story has been shared 54,452 times. 54,452

This story has been shared 21,807 times. 21,807

This story has been shared 11,223 times. 11,223

This story has been shared 9,438 times. 9,438

This story has been shared 3,656 times. 3,656

This story has been shared 3,548 times. 3,548

This story has been shared 2,479 times. 2,479

This story has been shared 2,219 times. 2,219

Stream and Scream

Does ‘five nights at freddy’s’ have an end credits scene ‘fnaf’ includes a mid-credits treat for youtube fans, 7 best 'yellowstone' halloween costumes to dress like a dutton in 2023, stream it or skip it: ‘30 coins’ season 2 on max, the return of this ambitious religious horror series from spain (now with more paul giamatti), these tees are the easiest costumes you can still get by halloween, 'the nightmare before christmas' turns 30: tim burton and henry selick's vision has become a definitive halloween classic, stream it or skip it, stream it or skip it: 'ms. christmas comes to town' on hallmark movies & mysteries, where barbara niven will make you cry holiday tears, stream it or skip it: ‘burning betrayal’ on netflix, a hornier-than-thou brazilian erotic thriller, stream it or skip it: ‘72 seconds in rittenhouse square’ on paramount+, a true-crime documentary series detailing a racial 'tinderbox' in philadelphia, stream it or skip it: 'zainab johnson: hijabs off' on prime video, 'upload' this comedian's debut hour, more from decider, does 'yellowstone' return tonight how to watch, season 5, part 2 return date info, joy behar was totally lost on 'the view' as whoopi goldberg tried to make an argument about men and abortion: "what is the point", r.i.p. haydn gwynne: 'the crown' actress dead at 66, jada pinkett smith admits she "created that false narrative" of her "being the adulterous wife" on 'red table talk': "it didn't help", football fan kelly clarkson slams nfl's coverage of taylor swift and travis kelce: "it's like you're watching 'housewives'", britney spears fans slam "disgusting" sherri shepherd for calling the singer "crazy" on 'wwhl': "shut down her show".

Ghostbusters (1984)

Full cast & crew.

Directed by 

Writing credits  , cast (in credits order) verified as complete  , produced by , music by , cinematography by , editing by , casting by , production design by , art direction by , set decoration by , costume design by , makeup department , production management , second unit director or assistant director , art department , sound department , special effects by , visual effects by , stunts , camera and electrical department , animation department , casting department , costume and wardrobe department , editorial department , location management , music department , script and continuity department , transportation department , additional crew , thanks .

Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Filming & Production | Technical Specs

Contribute to This Page

• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos
• User Reviews
• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

The 10 Most Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Sequels, Ranked

From '2010' to 'Beyond Thunderdome,' these sci-fi sequels don't deserve the hate.

Science fiction franchises have the benefit of developing their themes, characters, and world over-time. Many of the best science fiction sequels are essential to their respective franchises' success; it's impossible to think about the Star Wars saga without mentioning The Empire Strikes Back , and the Mad Max franchise is most closely associated with the success of Mad Max: Fury Road .

A bad sequel can ruin a franchise’s reputation, but not every sequel has earned the same praise as Aliens or Terminator 2: Judgment Day . Here are ten of the most underrated science fiction movie sequels, ranked.

10 ‘Ghostbusters II’ (1989)

If making a great science fiction movie is challenging, making a great comedy sequel is even harder. That challenge is exponentially more difficult if the first film is an all-time classic. Although Ghostbusters II is a pale imitator of Ivan Reitman ’s 1984 original, it still features terrific performances from Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Huson as their character Venkman, Ray, Egon, and Winston, respectively.

RELATED: This 70s Sci-Fi Masterpiece Is the Best Movie You'll Never Get To See

Ironically, Ghostbusters II served a somewhat meta commentary on the first films’ popularity; the characters are unexpectedly considered heroes, and most prove that their initial success wasn’t a fluke.

9 ‘Riddick’ (2013)

Pitch Black was one of the more original science fiction horror films since the original Alien from 1979, so it made sense that Vin Diesel ’s character Riddick would star in his own spinoff. While 2008’s The Chronicles of Riddick got lost within its own mythology, the 2013 continuation Riddick was a return to form for the series.

Diesel is oddly charismatic as the near-silent assassin, but it's Katee Sackhoff that steals the film as Riddick’s new ally Dahl. Riddick hopefully won’t be the last film in the unusual sci-fi horror saga.

8 ‘Star Trek: Generations’ (1994)

Star Trek: Generations was the first live-action feature film that starred the cast of the beloved Star Trek: The Next Generations television series. While The Next Generation had found a natural way to conclude the characters’ story arcs, Generations found a way to make Patrick Stewart ’s Captain Picard more vulnerable. After learning of the death of his family on Earth, Picard considers if he is mistaken in his long-held prejudice against children and families.

RELATED: Before Her Iconic John Hughes Movie Roles, Molly Ringwald Did This Bonkers Space Western

The film also featured the first interaction between Picard and William Shatner ’s Captain James T. Kirk on the big screen.

7 ‘Predator 2’ (1990)

Predator 2 swapped the jungle setting of the 1990 original film for an urban setting, and replaced Arnold Schwarzeneggar with Danny Glover . While Predator 2 is quite as relentless as its predecessor, director Stephen Hopkins has fun letting the ruthless alien assassin loose in a completely different environment, opening up the possibilities for what the Predator franchise could do in the future.

Placing the Predator within a drug war between Colombian crime families and the Los Angeles Police Department was a fun way to capitalize on the success of 1990s police procedural thrillers.

6 ‘Alien 3’ (1992)

It’s interesting that every successive Alien sequel essentially contradicts its predecessor’s ending. Ellen Ripley’s ( Sigourney Weaver ) safety at the end of Alien is disrupted early on in Aliens , and the new “family” she finds at the end of the 1986 sequel is killed off within the first few moments of Alien 3 .

While Alien 3 may not be the best film within David Fincher ’s filmography, the future Fight Club director made a bold choice in returning the Alien saga to its controversial roots. The controversial ending that Fincher used for Alien 3 serves as a much better wrapup for the series than the disastrous final act of 1997’s Alien: Resurrection .

5 ‘The Matrix Resurrections’ (2021)

The Matrix Resurrections isn’t just a sequel to The Matrix trilogy, but a film that considers how the first three films affected popular culture. Lana Wachowski used the sequel to commentate on how easily misunderstood the message of the original trilogy was, and breaks the fourth wall to analyze studio politics, toxic masculinity, and consumerism.

Although The Matrix Resurrection isn’t as action-packed as its predecessors, it features the most compelling romantic relationship in the series between Neo ( Keanu Reeves ) and Trinity ( Carrie Anne-Moss ). Hugo Weaving ’s absence was unfortunate, but The Matrix Resurrections found another great villain with Jonathan Groff ’s character.

4 ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park’ (1997)

The Lost World: Jurassic Park has two major advantages over every other Jurassic Park sequel ; it was based on one of Michael Crichton ’s original novels, and was directed by Steven Spielberg . This made all the difference, as The Lost World: Jurassic Park still feels like a logical conclusion to the series and not a complete cash grab.

RELATED: The 15 Best Sci-Fi Horror Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked

Although Jeff Goldblum’ s Dr. Ian Malcolm had been more of a comedic character in the original film, he was bumped up to main character status in The Lost World: Jurassic Park . Goldblum does a great job at playing a more mature version of the character.

3 ‘Max Max Beyond Thunderdome’ (1985)

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome may be the weakest of George Miller ’s Mad Max films , but considering its competition, that's no small statement. The opening “Thunderdome” action sequences featuring Tina Turner ’s Auntie Entity showed just how inventive Miller could get with his vision of a post apocalyptic future.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome takes the series in a more heartfelt direction in its finale, as Mel Gibson ’s Max Rockatansky is tasked with rescuing a group of innocent children. This felt like a rewarding conclusion to Max’s character arc, and stayed true to the franchise's western themes.

2 ‘Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning’ (2012)

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning changed the course of the Universal Soldier franchise forever. While Roland Emmerich ’s 1992 original had been nothing more than a dull shoot ‘em up action film, director John Hyams transformed the saga into a psychological horror series.

The film examined how the cult of violence begins within the age of the Internet. The film follows the ex-soldier John ( Scott Adkins ), whose family is murdered by the deranged cult leader Luc Deveraux ( Jean-Claude Van Damme ). Turning the protagonist of the first film into a villain was a bold choice that paid off.

1 ‘2010: The Year We Made Contact’ (1984)

2010: The Year We Made Contact had the seemingly insurmountable task of serving as a sequel to Stanley Kubrick ’s 1968 masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey . If Kubrick approached the future with trepidation, then 2010 ’s director Peter Hyams looked to the stars with optimism.

The film’s new characters Heywood Floyd ( Roy Scheider ), Walter Curnow ( John Lithgow ) and Dr. Chandra ( Bob Balaban ) search for the first film’s main character Dave Bowman ( Keir Dullea ), only to discover a life-affirming message from HAL. Using the world that Bubrick had beautifully established, 2010 stands on its own as an entertaining, joyous space adventure.

KEEP READING: The 30 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed - Official 'Ecto Edition' Launch Trailer

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is a 4v1 hunt-or-haunt asymmetric multiplayer game developed by Illfonic. Players will either play as one of the Ghostbusters or a singular Ghost attempting to evade the Ghostbusters. The Ecto Edition comes with an expansion to the story and includes all 4 previous DLC, 10 unique maps, and 28 unlockable ghost variants, including the new Overlord Type. The Ecto Edition for Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed is available now for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Did you enjoy this video?

In this video.