Ghostbusters Director Calls Out "Assholes in Geek Culture"

[lacktheknack]

Well, he's certainly not wrong.

"Look at that nest of angry hornets, what would happen if I started bugging the hornets? Why are the hornets stinging me now? It must just be the asshole hornets."

Maybe don't sell your movie as a heartless cash grab then you won't feel the sting.

It says a lot that geek culture can be accurately described as "a nest of angry hornets".

 

[Zenja]

Well, he isn't right either...

That trailer wasn't funny. I would think if the movie was funny, the trailer would at least have me chuckle once. Or if they play off of the ghostbusting angle, make me want to see it for that. But it failed on both fronts for me. I agree with the others in this thread about the bit with all female cast being coincidence. Yea right.

Does geek culture have assholes, yeah. So does every other hobbyist culture. Sports, gearhead, and biker culture must be made of saints according to Fieg and some in this thread. Even classical music culture has assholes but are probably more often referred to as pompous asses in those circles. If you have ever had an opinion someone else found annoying, congratulations, you are probably considered an asshole to them.

The trailer sucked bad. Many people agree. They must all be assholes. /s

 

[ivarsa15]

Pundit campaign for downvotes? Have they seen the trailer? It sucks! Recut it and people will probably like it! I liked the fan recut featured by the author of this article two months ago.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/166715-Ghostbusters-Fan-Recut-Trailer

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

I dont post much anymore, but my only problem is with Melissa Mccarthy. Dont get me wrong, if this movie ends up being good, I'll be the first to say it, its just that every McCarthy movie I've seen so far has been un-watchable garbage...the best lessons we can learn come from history.

 

[Vern]

I don't know. If you work in a toy store, and people are looking for Ghostbusters toys, and all you have are the new ones, they get very disappointed. Part of that may be because the movies not even out yet, who knows.

I'm not looking forward to it myself. Ghostbusters was a big part of my childhood, loved them to death. But the time to make a sequel was 15-20 years ago. Even then I'm not sure it would've worked. The first one was fantastic, and it stands the test of time. But re-watching the second one a few years ago... I'm not sure even that one should've been made. It was extremely cheesy, overly late 80's, and it seemed more like marketing for the soundtrack and the toys. Which I can't fault them for, it was popular. Just not sure it needed to be made.

But really, the Ghostbusters game from 2009 was the Ghostbusters 3 I needed. Hit all the right spots. I need to play that again. Sure it had flaws, but it was still pretty damn fun.

 

[Covarr]

"(Melissa McCarthy) is just this hilarious woman who is so funny," he said. "I don't care WHAT she looks like. As long as she's funny and is a professional. She's hilarious."

There's a fair bit of irony here, because do you know who does care what she looks like? She does. She puts her weight at the center of her comedy so often that it frequently feels like that's all she's got.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Adultratedhydra]

Sure. It has nothing to do with the fact the trailer looks humorless, flat, dry and overall paints the movie as looking boring as sin.

 

[MeatMachine]

My thoughts on Fieg's statement? One of two things:

1) This, as well as the abysmal "girl power" pandering trailer, are all elaborate marketing techniques to advertise the movie and get people talking about it. Even if the responses are overwhelmingly negative, there's no denying that Ghostbusters is on lots of peoples' minds now, many of which are due entirely to the word-of-mouth vitriol. This negative publicity WILL translate into more ticket sales than without. Analysts will capitalize on anything if they smell blood in the water; throwing in a little bait can attract quite the horde.

2) He's a narcissist; a tortured poet with no sense of humor who happens to have all the powerful connections to get his hands on a popular franchise, which he thinks he will improve by overhauling it into an inferior slapstick neo-liberal clownshow with a transparent coat of propaganda varnish.

I wonder which one it is - either way, the movie will probably be successful enough to encourage this kind of continued practice.

 

[vallorn]

He claims that the all-female cast is a mere co-incidence: the funniest people he knows just happen to be women, which is why he has cast them in the movie.

In that case he either has a terrible sense of humor or he doesn't know very many people, because nothing in that trailer was funny and having done a quick bit of googling on the comedy styles of the actresses I can see why.

It doesn't help that the CGI shown in the trailer looks like something from a late 2000s B movie, the dialogue is cringe worthy at best, the visual direction seems to be all over the place and the entire marketing campaign up until this point has done nothing to sell me on the movie.

But of course, none of this matters, because the Youtube dislike button is now possessed by the ghost of Misogyny Past and clicking on it will transform a person into a being who can only express their distaste or approval of a product in whether it indulges their new, festering hatred of anything that lacks a Y chromosome. Quick, someone send a proton gun to Youtube HQ to exorcise the servers!

TL.DR. There's a lot wrong with this trailer and blaming it on the minority of western, internet users who harbor bigoted feelings towards women is distraction from the flaws of the trailer, and worse, distraction from actual acts of bigotry and hatred.

 

[happyninja42]

"Look at that nest of angry hornets, what would happen if I started bugging the hornets? Why are the hornets stinging me now? It must just be the asshole hornets."

Thanks for the laugh

OT:

He claims that the all-female cast is a mere co-incidence: the funniest people he knows just happen to be women, which is why he has cast them in the movie.

Please don't insult our intelligence, Mr. Director Man. Bad enough you're making a shitty movie.

To be fair we don't know its a shitty movie, we just know it has a shitty trailer.

Well, I just looked at his imdb page for the other stuff he's done, and yeah...it's mostly shit. So I think, based on his track record alone, this will be shit too.

 

[Something Amyss]

I like milissa mccarthy probably a little bit too much compared to the next guy, but when the hell did she become so popular? I mean before the string of McCarthy comedies, all i knew her from was gilmore girls.

Gilmore Girls was also the last time I found her funny. My question is how she became so popular. Nobody seems to really like these movies she's done.

"Look at that nest of angry hornets, what would happen if I started bugging the hornets?

The way you framed this, it sounds less like the problem is assholes and more than nerd culture is, by default, angry. If nerd culture is such that it can be provoked like a bunch of angry animals, then there's a problem. Especially since all the hornets needed to be angered was to announce a movie starring women.

Do you really want to go there? Because if that's what nerd culture is, then I think Objectionable might be on the mark here.

And you know what the scary part is?

He's right. Geek culture is terrible and needs to be ended,

I don't even know what geek culture is supposed to mean. What shared culture do we actually have?

Ohhh dear.

I mean, he's not wrong. "Geek culture" does indeed house some of the most bitter and petty bastards on the planet.

However, he really should have qualified that a bit. Because it comes across as "If you dislike my movie you're an arsehole" which is never a good look.

Worse. He's just invited the fury of #notallgeeks.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Yeah Paul, there sure are a boat load of assholes in the geek community... What exactly does that have to do with your Ghostbusters remake/reboot looking like right garbage? It's not simply the assholes hating this piece of shit, Feig, even the majority of the popular "nice guy" critics are shitting on it (under the disclaimer ofcourse that they have nothing against women). But maybe try not to take it too personal -- it's mostly Sony Pictures we're blaming for this one.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

So it's the geek culture? Yeah, it totally doesn't have a thing to do with the fact that you can see from the trailer what a giant piece of shit this movie's going to be. I'm not even a hardcore Ghostbusters fan and it's that obvious.

 

[Zhukov]

Gilmore Girls was also the last time I found her funny. My question is how she became so popular. Nobody seems to really like these movies she's done.

Never forget that we inhabit a world upon which Paul Blart: Mall Cop made serious bank.

Although personally I thought The Heat was okay, so maybe I'm part of the problem.

 

[Bedinsis]

Well, he's sick of it, and he has called out all of the "assholes in geek culture" for attacking his movie.

Incorrect. He's sick of people attacking him. As he says in the linked article:

Especially after being attacked by them for months because of this 'Ghostbusters' project.

 

[Vern]

Well, the idea for a new Ghostbusters movie has been circulating for at least a decade now: Bill Murray (doesn't like the idea), Dan Aykroyd (does like the idea), Harold Ramis (dead), and Ernie Hudson (doesn't like the idea). So you have two living cast-members who don't like the idea, one living cast-member/writer who does, and one cast-member/writer who can't comment unless you get a Necromancer.

With neither of the original writers attached, and 2/3rds of the original remaining Ghostbusters saying they don't want it made, and Rick Moranis has retired from acting, why make it? Cash moniez? Yeah, I guess so.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I'd be more ready to believe this if I didn't see some sassy black woman straddling another, slapping her face, screaming "the power of Christ compels you!" in a freakin Ghostbusters movie. Never mind the rest. This isn't a matter of it being against women or anything, it's that the trailer didn't give us a good expectation. And if we're all assholes for not liking what we see, then I'd love to see your views on anything else in the real world. Cause simply put, that doesn't sound like a proper real-world mindset

 

[Scarim Coral]

"I live or die on what things are funny and whether or not people will be entertained by them."

So how is it he hasn't died already? Also I take it he hasn't met Bill Murray either?

Ok maybe I may get ahead myself but I wonder what will come first, the film is suprisingly good OR he end up aplogising to the fans?

 

[MatthewTheDark]

So let me get this straight...

You decide to make a Ghostbusters reboot, a reboot of a beloved franchise, decide to make the humor about the genderswap and nothing else, you're making it seem like as soulless of a cash grab as possible, and you blame it on "assholes"? No, John. You ARE the demons.