So, this morning I found myself contemplating what would go into making a better remake of the Ghostbusters franchise than the one we got. Before I go on, let me emphasize: this isn't really a suggestion or a list of demands or anything like that. I have exactly zero expectation that anyone relevant to making decisions about the franchise will ever lay eyes on this let alone give so much as half a dry fart about my ideas.
I don't even really intend this as a criticism of the new film (I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing myself, but I hear it's living up to my expectations of it). It's just a fun thought experiment and I thought I'd toss it out there and see if anyone else had their own thoughts to share.
Starting with the basic concept: group of friends starting up a business together. This is a somewhat different process now than it was in the 80's, and there's a lot of tools and processes out there that didn't really exist back then.
Consider bringing in things like Kickstarter and Patreon to establish their funding. Can work in some commentary about the ups and downs of crowdfunding ambitious, out-there projects like paranormal investigation. This is also a good starting point for the inevitable skepticism of their project to flow from, as well as expanding on the original's undelivered idea of franchising ("backers above the umpteen dollar level get a PKE Meter phone attachment kit once we've got production on working units" et cetera, look into pumping AR stuff for marketing...think Pokemon Go but with ghosts?).
Who are they? A three-person starting team works for a lot of reasons...you have room for a decent set of personality dynamics like Spengler, Venkman and Stantz (The Vulcan, the Sleaze and the Enthusiastic Puppy in the case of the original), and room for new characters to slot in as the story unfolds (Melnitz, Tully, Barret and Zeddemore) at relevant points without getting too cluttered.
Let's assume a final cast layout similar to the original, with three-and-a-half leads and a few support characters. Who should they be? The original three each played a key role in making the Ghostbusters business plausible: Spengler brought the hard* science and technical know-how, Stantz brought enthusiasm, soul and, with assistance from Venkman's exploitative cleverness, the funding. If we're doing the Kickstarting route, this dynamic changes a bit since nobody needs to talk Stantz into taking out a horrible mortgage on the family farm.
Spengler and Stantz honestly need the fewest changes here in concept. I would probably reframe Stantz as much more clearly the 'true believer' character, someone who is completely into and certain of the paranormal even before Spengler proves anything. If Stantz has a fault, it's a willingness to believe /prior/ to evidence, contrasted against Spengler's relative cynicism and skepticism.
Venkman can still function well as their interface with normal people, and I think I'd dial that up a bit. Bring Venkman in as a 'science communicator' type, an enthusiastic and affable yet somewhat sketchy YouTuber decent at pulling in clicks but known for being a bit of a regurgitation artist if not an outright content thief (gives the character some growth-room as they start dealing with things first-hand).
Between the three of them, they form the idea for the Ghostbuster project/business, Venkman throws together a crowdfunding page and, the internet being what it is, money and drama flow like water from a broken hydrant.
The initial success gets them the resources they need to assemble their prototype gear and get to started. Around here we can bring in the Melnitz and Tulley characters. I'm fond of the idea of slotting Melnitz in as their sysadmin, someone they bring on to handle the nuts-and-bolts of their internet presence, social media, et cetera (somebody has to keep an eye on the containment grid while the team is out on a job, right?). Venkman makes a good 'face', but somebody has to actually run things.
They'll need Tulley in as their legal representation, especially once the opposition starts cropping up (Melnitz and Tully also form a decent place for the inevitable shipping/romance side-story if they both spend most of their time in the office, and that could give some social play for the main cast as they encourage the two...emphasize that these are /relatively/ normal people doing relatively normal jobs in the presence of paranormal craziness), and at some point Zeddemore slots in as the 'everyman' new-hire. I don't think these characters need to change much in their dynamics. Whoever else Zeddemore is, they are for our purposes the grounded, unexaggerated everyday random-person-on-the-street looking for a job. Zeddemore is there to play off the more extreme personalities of the first three leads, with grounding dialog and perspective.
For opposition, in the original we had the EPA. They could still be relevant here, but environmental issues are somewhat less at the forefront. Skeptics of the paranormal are an obvious grab, but I think it would be more interesting to talk about the implications of someone actually finding out ghosts are real. What's the civil right's position for the dead, you know? If a ghost is still capable of thinking, speaking and so forth, do they have the right to vote? Stand trial? Witness? Do #DeadLivesMatter?
How does this affect people who fake the paranormal to exploit people? What about people are /actually are/ psychic and have been struggling under the preponderance of frauds and the difficulty of validating their techniques (Barret might fit in well here in some format, as a latent psychic being accosted by the big-bad-evil-ghost?).
I'd like to re-imagine the Peck character as one of the fakes, someone who has made a tidy living bullshitting people about the wellbeing of their dearly departed Aunt Annie. At first, they might see the Ghostbusters in a friendly light, assuming them to be every bit as fake as Peck is and hoping to weasel in on the act. There's a lot of room for play here, especially as the Ghostbusters' legitimacy threatens their business and steals or agitates their audience ("You lied to us!" style of thing).
Alternatively, there's also room for antagonism from the government/military. Setting aside the paranormal angle, proton packs as compact directed energy weapons could definitely draw their attention, though I think this would ultimately be a minor thread with everything else going on.
What about Gozer/Zuul/Clortho? A paranormal film should culminate in a confrontation with a paranormal antagonist, and Gozer is a solid entry for this role. Something above and beyond all the petty human bullshit, that reduces all the squabbles of people like Peck to dust on the wind, and can be boiling away quietly in the background while no-one is paying enough attention. Ultimately, as a trio, they can target Barret, Melnitz and Tully as a way of highlighting the direct confrontation between the Team and the less savory elements of the metaphysical world...depriving the protagonists of critical support and undermining them as would-be heroes. If we wanted to we could drag Peck in as their Zeddemore analog for a sort of 4v4 face-off of Mortal Heroes against Lovecraftian Gods and Minions.
While I would like to see more paranormal exploration rooted in real-world mythology, I don't think Gozer really needs to change at all for the purposes of the film. This character's motivations should be fairly alien and implacable, less a villain anyone could relate to and more a natural disaster that can look down on you.
Anyway, I think this text wall is just about high enough on my account.
tl:dr, What would /you/ do if you were handed the IP rights to Ghostbusters and tasked with laying out the framework of a reboot for current audiences? What changes would you make, and why? What elements of the original would you keep, if any?
I don't even really intend this as a criticism of the new film (I haven't had a chance to watch the whole thing myself, but I hear it's living up to my expectations of it). It's just a fun thought experiment and I thought I'd toss it out there and see if anyone else had their own thoughts to share.
Starting with the basic concept: group of friends starting up a business together. This is a somewhat different process now than it was in the 80's, and there's a lot of tools and processes out there that didn't really exist back then.
Consider bringing in things like Kickstarter and Patreon to establish their funding. Can work in some commentary about the ups and downs of crowdfunding ambitious, out-there projects like paranormal investigation. This is also a good starting point for the inevitable skepticism of their project to flow from, as well as expanding on the original's undelivered idea of franchising ("backers above the umpteen dollar level get a PKE Meter phone attachment kit once we've got production on working units" et cetera, look into pumping AR stuff for marketing...think Pokemon Go but with ghosts?).
Who are they? A three-person starting team works for a lot of reasons...you have room for a decent set of personality dynamics like Spengler, Venkman and Stantz (The Vulcan, the Sleaze and the Enthusiastic Puppy in the case of the original), and room for new characters to slot in as the story unfolds (Melnitz, Tully, Barret and Zeddemore) at relevant points without getting too cluttered.
Let's assume a final cast layout similar to the original, with three-and-a-half leads and a few support characters. Who should they be? The original three each played a key role in making the Ghostbusters business plausible: Spengler brought the hard* science and technical know-how, Stantz brought enthusiasm, soul and, with assistance from Venkman's exploitative cleverness, the funding. If we're doing the Kickstarting route, this dynamic changes a bit since nobody needs to talk Stantz into taking out a horrible mortgage on the family farm.
Spengler and Stantz honestly need the fewest changes here in concept. I would probably reframe Stantz as much more clearly the 'true believer' character, someone who is completely into and certain of the paranormal even before Spengler proves anything. If Stantz has a fault, it's a willingness to believe /prior/ to evidence, contrasted against Spengler's relative cynicism and skepticism.
Venkman can still function well as their interface with normal people, and I think I'd dial that up a bit. Bring Venkman in as a 'science communicator' type, an enthusiastic and affable yet somewhat sketchy YouTuber decent at pulling in clicks but known for being a bit of a regurgitation artist if not an outright content thief (gives the character some growth-room as they start dealing with things first-hand).
Between the three of them, they form the idea for the Ghostbuster project/business, Venkman throws together a crowdfunding page and, the internet being what it is, money and drama flow like water from a broken hydrant.
The initial success gets them the resources they need to assemble their prototype gear and get to started. Around here we can bring in the Melnitz and Tulley characters. I'm fond of the idea of slotting Melnitz in as their sysadmin, someone they bring on to handle the nuts-and-bolts of their internet presence, social media, et cetera (somebody has to keep an eye on the containment grid while the team is out on a job, right?). Venkman makes a good 'face', but somebody has to actually run things.
They'll need Tulley in as their legal representation, especially once the opposition starts cropping up (Melnitz and Tully also form a decent place for the inevitable shipping/romance side-story if they both spend most of their time in the office, and that could give some social play for the main cast as they encourage the two...emphasize that these are /relatively/ normal people doing relatively normal jobs in the presence of paranormal craziness), and at some point Zeddemore slots in as the 'everyman' new-hire. I don't think these characters need to change much in their dynamics. Whoever else Zeddemore is, they are for our purposes the grounded, unexaggerated everyday random-person-on-the-street looking for a job. Zeddemore is there to play off the more extreme personalities of the first three leads, with grounding dialog and perspective.
For opposition, in the original we had the EPA. They could still be relevant here, but environmental issues are somewhat less at the forefront. Skeptics of the paranormal are an obvious grab, but I think it would be more interesting to talk about the implications of someone actually finding out ghosts are real. What's the civil right's position for the dead, you know? If a ghost is still capable of thinking, speaking and so forth, do they have the right to vote? Stand trial? Witness? Do #DeadLivesMatter?
How does this affect people who fake the paranormal to exploit people? What about people are /actually are/ psychic and have been struggling under the preponderance of frauds and the difficulty of validating their techniques (Barret might fit in well here in some format, as a latent psychic being accosted by the big-bad-evil-ghost?).
I'd like to re-imagine the Peck character as one of the fakes, someone who has made a tidy living bullshitting people about the wellbeing of their dearly departed Aunt Annie. At first, they might see the Ghostbusters in a friendly light, assuming them to be every bit as fake as Peck is and hoping to weasel in on the act. There's a lot of room for play here, especially as the Ghostbusters' legitimacy threatens their business and steals or agitates their audience ("You lied to us!" style of thing).
Alternatively, there's also room for antagonism from the government/military. Setting aside the paranormal angle, proton packs as compact directed energy weapons could definitely draw their attention, though I think this would ultimately be a minor thread with everything else going on.
What about Gozer/Zuul/Clortho? A paranormal film should culminate in a confrontation with a paranormal antagonist, and Gozer is a solid entry for this role. Something above and beyond all the petty human bullshit, that reduces all the squabbles of people like Peck to dust on the wind, and can be boiling away quietly in the background while no-one is paying enough attention. Ultimately, as a trio, they can target Barret, Melnitz and Tully as a way of highlighting the direct confrontation between the Team and the less savory elements of the metaphysical world...depriving the protagonists of critical support and undermining them as would-be heroes. If we wanted to we could drag Peck in as their Zeddemore analog for a sort of 4v4 face-off of Mortal Heroes against Lovecraftian Gods and Minions.
While I would like to see more paranormal exploration rooted in real-world mythology, I don't think Gozer really needs to change at all for the purposes of the film. This character's motivations should be fairly alien and implacable, less a villain anyone could relate to and more a natural disaster that can look down on you.
Anyway, I think this text wall is just about high enough on my account.
tl:dr, What would /you/ do if you were handed the IP rights to Ghostbusters and tasked with laying out the framework of a reboot for current audiences? What changes would you make, and why? What elements of the original would you keep, if any?
