I'm sure everyone here is already well aware of the new "Ghostbusters" film starring female 1, female 2, female 3, and--of course--female 4. What's more, I'm sure everyone is well aware that every single preview on Youtube has been downvoted into absolute fucking oblivion.
A Ghostbusters reboot directed by Paul Feig sucks. Big surprise.
What's particularly interesting however is the behind-the-scenes fallout we can't see but know is occurring. Bill Murray's reaction to a clip from the film sums it up on the Jimmy Kunt show at the 00:39 point:
What people might not be aware of is that Sony blackmailed and threatened Murray into participating in both the movie and the marketing.
Midnight's Edge does a really good job of covering the entire train wreck:
I recommend binge watching all of them since they're pretty engaging. But the salient points are as follows:
Paul Feig and the script are shit, and their deaths will be rejoiced.
Throughout production, Wiig and McCarthy complain nonstop about the shitty script and direction. Sony forces them to sign more NDAs as a result.
A combination of studio leaks and the North Korean email hack reveals that Sony was/is using litigation and other strong arm tactics against Murray since he wants nothing to do with the flick.
The trailers hit. All hell breaks loose.
Sony tries to lessen the blow by not only downplaying further previews and marketing, but also by deleting legitimate critiques of the trailers from the comment section while leaving the overtly racist/sexist posts intact, thus allowing Sony more legroom to blame the bad press on a narrative of misogyny and patriarchy (as they attempted to do with Fant4stic).
McKinnon, McCarthy, and Wiig are all too scared shitless to comment on the bad press after the trailer-release because they, themselves know it's shit.
Paul Feig belligerently insults the fans as a response to the blowback.
Jimmy Kunt features the Bitchbusters on his show with a depressed Murray.
It's really funny, but also really sad. Murray doesn't deserve this kind of treatment--at least not as far as I know.
Actually, McCarthy is out there toeing the "anyone who doesn't think this looks hilarious is a woman hater" line pretty hard right now. But she's Feig's golden girl so of course she's going to defend him.
The movie's shit. He obviously knows it. But he needs to say it makes him laugh to maintain what's left of his shitty network in Hollywood.
And, of course, instead of explaining what made him laugh or what makes the film genuinely good, he obfuscates by talking about little girls dancing in the theater.
Subtext: "It doesn't matter if the movie's shit as long as it panders to chicks. Yes, I have no penis, and my balls were already chopped off and eaten by Geneane Garofalo years ago, but you can trust me on this."
There's only one true way to know if this movie is good or not. Pariah, did you read a copy of the script online?
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
whomod said: I generally don't like it when people decide to play by the rules against people who don't play by the rules. It tends to put you immediately at a disadvantage and IMO is a sign of true weakness. This is true both in politics and on the internet."
So, the movie opened in second place, with only about a $45m take.
Sony is in spin mode, calling that "respectable." However, for a big budget, effects laden, tentpole movie, that's pretty bad. It's less, for example, than Green Lantern made in its opening weekend.
Next weekend sees the new "Trek" and "Ice Age" movies, so this thing isn't going to have legs. To make matters worse for Sony, China won't show the film and, therefore, the studio can't count on foreign box office to save the overall take.
They can spin this all they want, but this is a failure.
The film is a steaming pile of shit. Only lines in it that are relatively humourous belong to Hemsworth. I cant stand McCarthy, but I do like Wiig, and McKinnon seems ok, but even they struggled to be funny.
I will say though that the character of Patty was not as bad as the trailers made her look, and was thankfully not as much of a clichéd black New Yorker as expected.
Pure and simply, this was not the fault of any of the actors/actresses (not even McCarthy), and all lies at the feet of that useless turd, Feig. He can fuck off back to doing shitty chick flicks. The cunt.
No longer even in the top five, having fallen to seventh place and sputtering out at about $107 million (with a $150 million production budget). Add this to the fact that, after week three, the percentage of the box office going to the theater owner (as opposed to distributor) increases, the studio has an expensive bomb on its hands.
They've green-lit a sequel anyhow. The powers that be cannot allow this movie to be seen as a failure since it represents 'great epic social justice'. So they'll obfuscate objective reality with constant and ceaseless investment, attempting to rewire people's perceptions--and the public consciousness as a whole--until the fact that this movie is shit is no longer a matter of fact, but rather an interpretation that's more controversial than common sense.
I have a feeling that, at this stage, Sony's losses have been insured by third party interests who are more concerned with the delivery than with the product.
Nope. I have a monthly cinema pass, and can go see as many films as I want. Means once I have seen two films, everything else is free. Already seen plenty of films this month.
They've green-lit a sequel anyhow. The powers that be cannot allow this movie to be seen as a failure since it represents 'great epic social justice'. So they'll obfuscate objective reality with constant and ceaseless investment, attempting to rewire people's perceptions--and the public consciousness as a whole--until the fact that this movie is shit is no longer a matter of fact, but rather an interpretation that's more controversial than common sense.
I have a feeling that, at this stage, Sony's losses have been insured by third party interests who are more concerned with the delivery than with the product.
They said it will be a whole franchise of spin offs etc. After all the backlash of the trailers, the talk of the spin offs etc seemed to indicate that Sony had changed their minds.
Now the film has come out, and has seriously underperformed, the only way I see them actually continuing is the tried and tested modern day technique of rebooting.
You only have to look at the fact that Sony shit themselves with Amazing Spiderman 2, and tied up the deal with Marvel to see that Sony is no longer willing to continue on with a big name, big budget franchise if they are willing to lose money.
I doubt its the end of Ghostbusters, but I have a feeling that if there is a next one, it wont be this cast and director.
In my mind, there only hope of having a next film succeed--reboot or not (but probably not)--is if they give control back to Ivan Riteman. Now that Pascal is gone, it should be a simple decision....even if Tom Rothman is in charge.
Originally Posted By: Nöwheremän
Originally Posted By: Pariah
Sooooo.......you paid to see it?
Nope. I have a monthly cinema pass, and can go see as many films as I want. Means once I have seen two films, everything else is free. Already seen plenty of films this month.
They'll put off a sequel for a few years, pretending its a work in progress.
Then, rather than reboot per se, they'll announce that they're going to do one set on the original GB universe, with Ray as the CEO (supervising a new crew), Egon dead and Venkman retired.
They'll spin it as "this franchise is so great we can do stories in both the original universe and the wonderful reimagining that Paul Feig gave us that we really, really, plan to revisit someday, just as soon as all the players can clear their schedules and we have the right script."
Meanwhile, McCarthy, Wiig and McKinnon will have moved on, and Jones will still be (along with Keenan) the SNL token, because nobody dares fire her even though no one finds her that funny.
Throughout production, Wiig and McCarthy complain nonstop about the shitty script and direction. Sony forces them to sign more NDAs as a result.
A combination of studio leaks and the North Korean email hack reveals that Sony was/is using litigation and other strong arm tactics against Murray since he wants nothing to do with the flick.
The trailers hit. All hell breaks loose.
McKinnon, McCarthy, and Wiig are all too scared shitless to comment on the bad press after the trailer-release because they, themselves know it's shit.
It's really funny, but also really sad. Murray doesn't deserve this kind of treatment--at least not as far as I know.
McCarthy has a lot of start power now. She can go and work with someone else.
I wouldn't put up with NDAs in the course of a fixed-term contract which would already have non-disparagement clauses.
