Josh Gad was able to reunite the surviving original cast of Ghostbusters. Gad got Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, and Dan Aykroyd to join in for his Reunited Apart series. Jason Reitman has been very busy editing Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which also reunites the original cast and will hit theaters March 5th, 2021. The upcoming sequel is looked at with some skepticism among hardcore fans, though Reitman thinks everybody is going to love it.
The Ghostbusters reunion was announced last week and follows Josh Gad’s very successful string of Reunited Apart episodes. Goonies kicked off everything, and then Back to the Future, Splash, and Lord of the Rings. One has to wonder where he’s going to go next with his love of 1980s movies. But, it doesn’t really get much bigger than Ghostbusters, especially with all of the cast together, while apart. However, it might not have been that hard to pull off since nobody has a whole lot going on at the moment, especially Josh Gad.
Ghostbusters hit theaters in 1984 and was directed by Ivan Reitman. The movie was written by stars Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It also stars Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson as eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, Annie Potts, and William Atherton also star. Longtime fans were hoping to get Rick Moranis on board for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, but he was not interested in revisiting the past in this instance, even though he seems just fine with returning to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
John Candy was first offered the part of Louis Tully, but he had some ideas that Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis weren’t really into. So, Rick Moranis was approached and immediately signed on, thanking Candy for turning it down. Ernie Hudson went through about five auditions for the character of Winston Zeddemore, and had to wait a month before learning he had the part, which sounds a bit different than the rest of the cast and how they got their parts. Once they were all on the set, the dialogue was 80% adlibbed by Hudson and the rest of the cast.
Upon the original Ghostbusters theatrical release, it remained at number one for seven consecutive weeks and wasn’t knocked off until Prince’s Purple Rain opened. It became the second highest grossing movie of the year behind Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and went on to earn $576 million in North America alone, which is adjusted for inflation. The movie is a 1980s classic and is often regarded as one of the best comedies in history. As for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, we’ll just have to wait and see how the fans react to it. In the meantime, you can watch the Ghostbusters reunion above, thanks to Josh Gad’s YouTube channel.
