GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) Director Paul Feig Reflects On Intense Online Backlash: "So Many Were Trump Supporters"

GHOSTBUSTERS (2016) Director Paul Feig Reflects On Intense Online Backlash: "So Many Were Trump Supporters"

The 2016 female-led Ghostbusters reboot was not a big success, and the movie came in for intense online backlash even before it was released. Now, director Paul Feig has looked back on the reaction...

By MarkCassidy - Sep 28, 2024 08:09 AM EST
Filed Under: Movies

When the news first broke that an all-female Ghostbusters reboot was in the works that would ignore the previous movies and establish a brand-new continuity without the iconic members of the original team, there was, not too surprisingly, a lot of backlash.

While some of the responses were just flat out misogynistic rants, the biggest issue for a lot of fans was that they weren't getting a direct sequel with Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore (Egon Spengler actor Harold Ramis had passed by this stage).

Even so, a lot of others were willing to give the movie a chance... until they saw it.

Ghostbusters 2016 was far from an unmitigated disaster, but a solid first act soon gave way to tired gags, pointless cameos, and a ridiculous ending that really just served as a retread of the original. Reviews were decent all the same (74% on Rotten Tomatoes), and there is a perception that the film's box office underperformance was largely down to the intensely negative reception that greeted it before it even hit theaters.

While speaking to The Guardian, director Paul Feig reflected on the movie's release.

"Bill [Murray] had publicly said he didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters at that point," Feig responded when asked why he decided to make a movie without the original characters. "Harold Ramis had died. Dan [Aykroyd] and Ernie [Hudson] were there, but half the team felt weird. It had been 30 years and Bill and the gang were so iconic; I didn’t want to do anything that hurt the original movies."

"The political climate of the time was really weird, with Hillary Clinton running for office in 2016," he went on. "There were a lot of dudes looking for a fight. When I was getting piled on, on Twitter, I’d go back and see who they were. So many were Trump supporters. Then Trump came out against us. He was like: “They’re remaking Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford. You can’t do that. And now they’re making Ghostbusters with only women. What’s going on?” and got all upset. Everybody went [frick]ing cannibal. It turned the movie into a political statement, as if to say: “If you’re pro-women, you’re going to go see this. If you’re not, then …” I didn’t think it mattered at all that the main characters were women, but people brought a lot of baggage."

What do you make of Feig's comments? Be sure to let us know in the usual place.

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Astroman
Astroman - 9/28/2024, 9:19 AM
Blame Trump supporters if it makes you feel better about your absolute crap movie.
pestulioO7
pestulioO7 - 9/28/2024, 4:44 PM
These morons probably blame Trump when they sneeze. The movie was garbage. Move on with your life, loser.
Forthas
Forthas - 9/30/2024, 7:42 AM
While Trump is a vile orange bag of filth people should not give him any credit for the films failure. The movie took in about the same amount as the next iteration which did build on the first two films. So it attracted the same box office haul the difference is that it cost too much to make.
DevilsDreams
DevilsDreams - 9/30/2024, 8:51 AM
"Reviews were decent all the same (74% on Rotten Tomatoes)" with 394 reviews from critics... Audience score is currently 49%..

I don't support Trump, I don't even live in the USA... but this film was trash, cheap slapstick "humour", it was just badly thought out and paled in comparison to the original film.
They focused so much on it being an entirely female team that they forgot to focus on the writing itself!

Ultimately if you take an existing IP with an existing fanbase, then produce a film that not only tried to side step the composition of that fanbase, but then seeks to actively criticise them when they didn't like the film that wasn't made for them...
GeekSmarts
GeekSmarts - 9/30/2024, 11:58 AM
I don’t know which i dislike more. Donald Trump or Ghostbusters 2016
Demigods
Demigods - 10/1/2024, 9:21 AM
This dude just keeps trying to sell people that the movie was good, but we all just got conned by right wing review bombers...
OR maybe, just maybe, some Hollywood turd made a turd that smelled like shit. I get that most people in Hollywood LOVE the smell of their own farts, but sometimes, you produce some absolutely terrible shit. This is one of those times. It was a dog shit movie, plane and simple. Stop blaming other people for your failures. That's weak as [frick], but it is Hollywood, where people are used to failing upwards.
kirbyfan
kirbyfan - 10/1/2024, 2:33 PM
Just goes to show that TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME is everywhere, even in some of the above comments!

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