So says Paul Feig, the director of the all-female Ghostbusters reboot. In an interview with AlloCine while promoting Spy, Feig said the only way he can see to remake Ghostbusters is to reimagine it with women. I love that he says this, that the only way it makes sense to him is as a female-driven project. Feig has also directed Bridesmaids and The Heat, so this is not just empty buzzwords meant to court the Internet's electrical favor. Feig genuinely believes in the funniness of women and that audiences want to see women be funny.
But there's also a creative imperative in play. Feig isn't saying that women are better than men or whatever other bullsh*t assumptions plague the nightmares of MRAs. What he's saying is that a Ghostbusters reboot didn't interest him until he was allowed to approach the source material in a completely new way. Literal remakes are dumb because we've already seen that movie--shooting it with better camera equipment doesn't change anything about how we already feel about the characters and story. But a truly fresh take on the source material can be worthwhile (see also: The Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven), it's just a matter of whether or not a filmmaker has a distinctive spin they want to put on the story.
Feig's spin is to make NuGhostbusters look completely different from OG Ghostbusters. I wish more remakes were about reimagining popular cinema with more diverse characters. How would Thelma and Louise be different if it starred a transgender woman? Personally I'd love to see Tango and Cash remade with openly gay characters. Let's be honest, most 1980s action movies can be reimagined with the latent homoeroticism made into the context. The only way I will ever see a Road House remake is if it's about the love story between Dalton and Wade Garrett.
Attached – Melissa McCarthy and Paul Feig at the NY premiere of Spy.
