Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Retrospective | GHOSTBUSTERS

Hi, we're here at Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, California to celebrate Ghostbusters, one of my favorite movies, probably one of yours too, today we're here with director Ivan Reitman, we're here with co-writer and star Dan Aykroyd to talk about a movie that made us laugh scared us a little and keeps us coming back because it's something more Ghostbusters is a movie that seems as alive and well today as it did when they made it es Ivan Reitman dan aykroyd let's talk a little about Ghostbusters today , when you look back at this movie, what do you see?

How does it resonate with you? I'll let the boss go first. Well, this is the real boss. Yes, he feels great. Look, he was one of my. favorite type of professional experiences it was really one of my favorite personal experiences the writing process with harold and dan and the filming in new york was an extraordinary moment the city was very generous with us we all felt good and we had Really from the first day I felt that we were doing something unique. I'm sure you know you mentioned New York and there's that classic image in my mind of the Ghostbusters running through the streets of New York.

That is what I think. It was really about the city and that time, right? Well, the city is a character in the movie that we managed to convey that, and it was the Reagan years, of course, and a political analyst said it was the perfect movie for the Reagan years because our opposition was the EPA, here we are, we were new entrepreneurs, a new company, if you will, and we were contravening environmental laws, so there was nothing politi

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y correct about Ghostbusters and it was very much in keeping with the times in terms of what was going on in the city in the '70s. , the dinkins applaud, I'm sure you know that and looking around here we are obviously surrounded by the iconography of this franchise, Ivan, you also said that it seems different to you, it looks different than when you did it for the first time.

I got a good look at it, I was just looking at the ectomobile and I remember how complex it looked when we first had it on the street and saw it all decked out, probably in live environments here because we're on a stage on a Hollywood set. you know, its artificiality or its kind of uniqueness doesn't stand out in the same way as 30 years ago when I was driving downtown, where it was extraordinary, people would stop and start looking at it right away because of course no one had heard of it of the. movie, so there was none of the familiarity that exists today and speaking of the way you know it's lightning in a bottle, I mean, there was so many things, I mean, there was the visuals, the logo, the cast, the script, everything and he places the music, there was so much stuff, were you prepared for how big it became?

I had just arrived from JFK to pick it up, believe it or not, Bill Murray, who was arriving, was a week away from filming, but we were also doing some camera tests. that day and also the costume fittings and for the costume fitting I thought, well, let's film one of those types of montages when they first become

ghostbusters

and first it said that the three

ghostbusters

were running through the streets in their uniforms, it was around of Madison Avenue. 61 and I just looked up and saw them for the first time and I felt this incredible chill down my spine and I said wow, that's a fabulous picture.

I didn't even know why it was special, but I just had the feeling. at that time we were doing something that was going to work damn for you, what was that day like or using the equipment and you know, I knew the look of the thing was going to be great, um, I guess you know Billy and I used to go home for lunch because I lived right above Columbia, down in the valley? And I could be in the studio in eight minutes, so we used to go home for lunch sometimes and uh and I guess we were having lunch and Billy was, you know, looking over my pool and we were sitting there and, you know, we felt very fortunate to be doing what we were doing and said, "You know," they said, "You know what we've done." We all have something really very special here.

I remember driving back to the studio and thinking, "wow, if he's admitting this, if he's admitting this, you know, because his detector is so high, yeah, then we probably have something." that's going to work in a big way we are on the threshold of establishing the indispensable defense science of the next decade professional paranormal investigations and eliminations the franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams look around us today I want say Not only do we have the movies because they're alive and well in the public's mind, but also the comics, the video games, the teams, and the blow-up inflatable man I'm going to take home, I think, Thomas. he's going to fight you so tell us a little about Stay Puft Man, how did we find him?

You know, Dan Dan is the real genius behind all this. He wrote a script

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ed Ghostbusters for himself and John Belushi. How long was that? Yeah, late '81 was really when I really started writing it late '81, yeah, and of course John left our universe and um and just languished for a moment and I think you sent it to me, I think at some point you talked with Bill. about maybe taking over and he sent it to me and there were a lot of effects, it would have cost about $300 million in 1984, I think, to make this movie, but there were brilliant things, at the bottom of it was this wonderful central idea that Here's a group of guys who operate as firefighters, but instead of putting out fires, they were catching supernatural things and I think the idea that the fire hall was there, the no ghost symbol, this wonderful thing, you know, was right in the script . that Danny sent me and among the 100 special effects monsters that were there was something called Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and uh, I mean, it happened on page 20 or 30 and it was actually one of a lot of things, yeah, definitely. it was focusing more towards you know the underworld, um, that kind of franchise and I think we did well to lighten it up and well, what happened at art steli in our first meeting was that you said how about we bring ramus on board to write and Of course, you know.

I would, of course, uh, that why was very welcome to that concept and then the first time that uh, that, that rhema sat down to talk about it, I was completely familiar with all the source material that was. going through my mind when I wrote the first script, which is, you know, the story of mediumship, he knew who Madame Blavatsky was, the psychics, he knew the fox sisters, where he was aware of all these names from Sweden, from all spiritualism, the spiritualist movement. at the beginning of the century also Zechariah Sitchin and the ancient biblical myths, so his frame of reference was enormous and he got all the references that he knew in the original script.

He knew what I was trying to do there by bringing in the vernacular and real science of the paranormal in a comedy, so even though he didn't believe in the afterlife, he had a great idea of ​​who the operators in the afterlife were. spiritualism at the beginning of the century, from Conan Doyle to uh thieves. and lodge and all the scientists who were researching consciousness after death harold knew everything about him this is big peter this is very big there is definitely something here stick this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole in your head remember that there would be worked if you hadn't stopped me, what else can you tell us about Harold and this project and the spirit he brought to it?

I saw him not only as a writer but as an actor, I produced the show. off broadway called the national satirist show with bill murray gilda radner brian doyle murray and harold ramis and who am I leaving out someone very famous john belushi and um this is before Saturday Night Live and what I remember about that show is that Harold Ramos was as capable as all these did wonderfully to become famous people and is the reason I put him in stripes. You know, he helped Bright Stripes, so it was natural that we were talking about Ghostbusters right after Stripes and I thought he would be extraordinary. he helps with the writing and would also be kind of the wonderful odd duck in this trio of guys that later becomes a quartet.

It wouldn't have been the movie it became without Harold, certainly, you know again his intelligence and the breadth of him. from the knowledge he had about quantum physics and spiritualism and myth throughout all the material of his knowledge he came to such a great character, that egon character was so perfect for him, yeah, you know, and I remember tried that. More or less I think it's a jacket from the '40s that our costume designer found and that was it, he never took it off with the best of them and then we added that great haircut and he, you know, he brought himself because actually he's not like that, but there's a part of him that's like that and he was really able to create this very original character again.

I'm going to take back some of the things I said about you, the steadicam at that time was cutting edge, that was your first work with it on a film like This I thought was very important to film effective masterpieces where you see many of the characters in the scene work together. One of the notable things about watching these guys is how good they are together and it's wonderful to see them in a performance where Not only do you have to edit each one, there is a real power in watching one of them do it and seeing the reaction on scene, still in the frame, and the other two guys doing something too and I felt like the movie should have done that. a really fluid look and laszlo kovacs was our cameron, one of the great cameramen of all time, unfortunately he's no longer with us and he just did this wonderful job and was able to blend, you know, we did it in front of the lens of the mats through glass that people really haven't used much in a long time and we had puppets included in live action stuff and it all worked pretty well for 1984. and it looks good now, I mean in the same way as Star Wars looks good and the Wizard of Oz movies that have a full, inner statement about their universe feel full and complete, I mean the movie feels true to itself, so it ages very well, yeah, and John He cured whoever was the production designer.

I think we worked with him when I worked with John Decuar's father, he was 80 years old. I think he was nominated 18 times for the Academy Awards. I think the last one was Hello Dolly or one of those great musicals that he built. Cleopatra about eight times this whole idea of ​​how that roof would work with the doors that open really came from his extraordinary imagination and we started writing around things that came from him, where he would introduce, you know, Harold and Dan . This is kind of a rooftop, we added eight stories to the building that's actually there at 65th and Park uh Central Park West and even the use of the dogs, those dog statues and all the gargoyles that are kind of micronic visualizations in the movie.

It developed quickly as we were building pre-production on the film and it's a sense of scale too, yeah, not the scale because he was the guy who did Cleopatra, so he was bringing some of that in there and it was that transitional moment where analog special effects were changing to digital special effects most of our effects virtually all of the effects were analog many of them were done live on set which was very helpful for the artists and I think we also got a lot of additional humor because The actors had something really real to play with, yeah, and I bombarded them with wind and humidity and silt, and you know, they're constantly in a kind of physical situation beyond just acting out the scene where we arrived, we saw, we kicked . ass did you see it what is it we have it what is there will be more of them sir what you had there was what we call a focused non terminal repeating ghost or a really nasty class v full roaming vapor there is also the script , there's the actor and then there's the performance, you know, the triangle and where they connect, what's the character that looks more different on the screen than on the page, who was it, maybe the performer who took the character in one direction very surprising well, I guess you have to say murray, you know, I mean, we had the script that was there, but you guys knew murray's voice, we all knew murray's voice, we had all worked with him and I Let's say he brought it , yeah, oh, he brings extraordinary topspin and adds his own things.

I guess so does Lewis too. You know, Moranis did a beautiful job. The words are just words there and then with what he did with them. You know it's so vital. For the success and appeal of the film, like any of the Ghostbusters, Moranis is there as a major pillar of the story and the way it turned out in terms of changing the original script, although the original script doesn't remember what it was. we write for John Candy. I remember sending him to Canada because I had just worked with him again on Stripes and John didn't understand it and kept saying, "Hey, well, maybe I can do it with a German accent and I was a little hesitant right away, I said that's kind of weird." , is a very American film based onNew York and he was looking, he was looking for a handle, and we got into a very awkward conversation and it finally became clear that he wasn't going to do it. do it and I literally called Rick Moranis the same day and sent him the script the same day Candy rejected it and Rick called me like two hours after he got it and said please, thank you Candy for rejecting this.

This is incredible. I know what to do with this. I was just exercising. I recorded a 20 minute workout on my machine and played it back at high speed, so it only took 10 minutes. I did a great workout. I want to come drink mineral water. Oh, I'd really like to, um Lewis, but I have to go to rehearsal now. Sorry, don't worry, a big part of the movie is Rick, he holds a whole part of it, he is the strength and his power. as a performer it's absolutely vital, it would be like you know the ecto without streaming if it wasn't, yeah, if it wasn't, uh, if he wasn't there, it's interesting that he would be so irresponsible but so nice, you know? like you, really you, the public loves him, yes, even though he is the character that appears, that is what great comic artists have, that they take us with them wherever they go, even when they go somewhere Relatively dark black place, sure, I think it's special. about these guys, they are the smartest in the room, even when they act dumb or make mistakes, are you alice menstruating right now?

What does that have to do with it? Back off, man, I'm a scientist. Great, it's Come on, there's something about high intelligence working in a very physical way in a physical comedy that's very endearing to our audience, yeah, it also helps keep the center, I mean, to the extent that it's feel like there's something to learn or have fun as you go, we thank Harold for the elevated tone of much of this, uh and also for the tradition in Second City of always trying to be at the top of your intelligence and then maybe you get to the top.

Deep down someone else, everything was fine with our system until the power grid here went out, causing an explosion. Is this true? Yes it's correct. This man doesn't have a penis. What were some of the things that you would circle looking back now as the challenge and opportunity of this film, you know, really the first challenge was how it was made and how quickly it was made and how everyone involved, from the side creative to the studio and the special effects team, they really took this big gamble and ran with it. I actually did a 10-line presentation of the movie.

There was an earlier draft, but it wasn't really faithful to what the movie we were going to make was going to be at the time, so I pitched it. That movie wasn't on paper yet and I remember Frank Price asking how much do you think it was going to cost and of course he had no idea how much it was going to cost. The stripes had cost 10 million so I multiplied it by 3 and I said well 30 actually I just pulled the number out of thin air and they said okay we'll do that and suddenly I realized they were going to make this movie and They just said yes and he said we're going to do it with the cast that you just mentioned and uh but you have to have it ready uh I think it was June 9 or 10, 1984. and um so that was 13 months after that moment no. there was a script there was no we didn't have the cast and We had a brilliant idea, but there was no special effects team.

You know, there was a big special effects, lighting and industrial magic house, and they were already busy making the new Spielberg movie, so we knew we didn't have, we couldn't go to them and we had to create our own Columbia. In fact, we advanced Richard Edlund five million dollars and he started his own boss movies. I think they were called and it was the beginning of his own special effects house that worked exclusively on Ghostbusters. My favorite time in this whole thing. The movie, frankly, was when the three of us, Dan Harold and I, went to Martha's Vineyard, we each had a house, Aykroyd already lived there and we spent, I think, two and a half weeks around the fourth weekend in July and basically worked out this new draft in my basement so we weren't staring at the sea with a real old electric typewriter and, uh, it was constantly being rewritten, re-edited, re-commented on and really, uh, when we got out of there, which was around July 10, We already had a pretty good script, it wasn't the script we shot, but it was enough of a script for us to say, well, we need this character, we need that character down the hall, we need a woman and you know, I could start auditioning people and um as the rewrite was going on and we were shooting the movie in October and it came out in June and then as far as music uh just like the special effects uh the music is also a character like New York as a character the music in this movie I mean that There's the big pop hit that everyone knows and then there's also Elmer, yeah people, which is interesting again in hindsight when you look back 30 years in 1984, Ray Parker's hit was the number one hit in the country that year. and that's what people remembered, but actually when you watch the movie again, what really resonates for viewers is elmer bernstein's extraordinary score.

I remember when he played me the first title track using the on martino, which is a 19th century keyboard instrument that sounds a lot like a moog synthesizer and is played with vibrato. of that high kind of very spiritual, ghostly sound and there's also a lot of weight in the score, I mean, he was a composer who really knew how to use a brass section and orchestrate it and all that weight comes together to make these scenes really serious and when we get to the top of that building in the last act, it's really working. I remember seeing it in those first screenings with the audience who were really captivated in a way that frankly surprised me because I was always thinking about the comedy and how it was going to work and really what made me feel really good as a director is how emotionally involved and how downright scared the audience was at a certain point, yes, there was a very good old fashioned one. classic hollywood music with uh with a full orchestra doing it who are you we're the ghostbusters who does your taxes something like this because it means so much to so many people it should come back to you in different ways than fans imagine You've both had some interesting conversations or have been approached by people.

Well, I have a liquor business. I sell the vodka in the skull. The crystal had vodka in the skull, just like how Britney would go sign CDs or have John Grisham sign books. I sign bottles. and I go to liquor stores all over North America, all over the world, really, and I've signed bottles. Everywhere I go an ecto will show up with between five and 25 ghostbusters in full gear, they are usually men, between the ages of 25 and 45 they bring their girlfriends or wives who are not in uniform but they photograph them with me and then you'll see some of them bringing their kids and now you're starting to see even little ones like baby Grant in Ghostbusters onesies.

The tiny little baby onesies fit the onesies, so now you have the grandchildren of the original Ghostbusters viewers, who are invested in, you know, in the story and the fantasy of it, it's both humiliating and rewarding in a way. you