Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters Casts Melissa McCarthy And Three Others In These Roles
This is who he called.
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Well, we expected the Paul Feig-directed, female-fronted Ghostbusters reboot to eventually cast a quartet of funny women, and low and behold, that’s precisely what they just did. Donning those iconic beige jumpsuits are Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon. We’ve also got some descriptions of the characters, and the possibility of one of the old guard making an appearance.
The Bridesmaids and The Heat director took to Twitter earlier to day to reveal his four choices, and though at this stage they’re still in negotiations to join the party, it sounds like a deal is pretty close. And if it is moving along at this clip, a spring shoot is not out of the question, which was a possible point of contention, as McCarthy has an increasingly busy schedule in recent days.
McCarthy and Wiig are not unexpected choices for these roles. Both have worked with Feig before, McCarthy multiple times, including the upcoming Spy, and they have been two of the names kicked around since the very moment we heard that this was happening. Bill Murray even suggested both of them when he offered his two cents about who should strap on the proton packs.
Jones and McKinnon are more outliers. Both are current members of the Saturday Night Live cast, as was Wiig, which is nice little connection to the original film, which, of course, also featured members of the “Not Ready For Primetime Players.” You’ve also probably come across both of them elsewhere in your travels, as both have extensive resumes outside of their day job.
Jones recently turned up in Chris Rock’s critically lauded comedy Top Five, and is known for using her physicality in her comedy. Upright Citizens Brigade alum McKinnon recently appeared in things like flag football comedy Intramural and lent her voice to Toy Story of Terror.
We still don’t know much about what the plot, from Feig and Katie Dippod, will look like, though we did get some new intel about the characters, as HitFix has been digging around in the script. There’s Erin Gabler, a tenure track academic at Columbia; Abby Bergman, who hunts ghosts for a living and falls on the pop, parapsychology side of things; Jillian, Abby’s hunting partner; and Patty, an MTA employee who first encounters the main ghost. We don’t know who is playing what character at this juncture, but that’s the breakdown.
And while that’s big news, that’s not all. There are reports that Bill Murray is being sought for a non-Peter Venkman role. He would play a guy who goes around debunking supernatural occurrences, making it his mission to prove the Ghostbusters are frauds, and sounds similar to William Atherton’s Walter Peck in the original. That could be fun, and maybe different enough to entice him back to the franchise he’s repeatedly said he wants no part of, though having him show up could also be a huge distraction.
In addition to that, they’re reportedly after Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage to play the big bad guy, described as a “creepy mechanical genius.”
That’s a lot to chew on, what do you think?
