Now that the sequel written by Jason Reitman arrives, we take the opportunity to review the original film.
The female reboot of 'Ghostbusters' was not very well received by the general public, especially not by the devoted fans of one of the most popular films of the 80s. The fundamentalists of the original film considered it a sacrilege. At least those fans will be calmer with the one that arrives shortly, directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan, the director of the first two.
The family of Dan Aykroyd, the film's screenwriter along with Harold Ramis and its ideologue, had a huge influence on the film. His great-grandfather, Samuel, was a noted 19th-century psychic researcher who conducted séances on the family farm in eastern Ontario. His grandfather, Maurice, an engineer for the Bell Telephone Company, wanted to use the knowledge acquired by his father to build a high-frequency radio that would tune into the spirit world. And his father, Peter, had an extensive library on parapsychology and esotericism that were raw material for little Dan's nightmares.
Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Eddie Murphy were the three actors initially chosen to play Ghostbusters. The first script was a complete insanity that involved numerous groups of Ghostbusters throughout space-time battling hundreds of monsters and various specters. The Marshmallow Man, for example, appeared 20 minutes into the film and was soon dispatched, since he was just one more of the many creatures that had to appear in the film. When Ivan Reitman read that first script, he estimated that shooting that movie would have cost about $300 million at the time.
John Belushi, who greatly inspired the writing of his friend Dan Aykroyd, died in 1982, before the filming of "Ghostbusters." His role was adopted by Bill Murray, but his presence is seen in another character: the green ghost Slimer, who is supposed to be his spirit, and who is inspired by the alcoholic and gluttonous character that Belushi played in 'American Rampage' (John Landis, 1978). Slimer, by the way, was not called that in the movie.
It was the audience who ended up popularizing him with that name, which in Spanish we could translate as "sticky", but on the set, everyone knew that bug as Onion Head, due to the bad smell it gives off. In 'Ghostbusters 2' and in the subsequent animated series, the ghost is already officially named Slimer.
Eddie Murphy was supposed to play Winston Zeddmore, who in the first draft was one of the three main Ghostbusters. The actor, however, could not make the filming of the film compatible with that of 'Super Detective in Hollywood' (Martin Brest, 1984), and his character, modified, was adopted by Ernie Hudson. Another who was supposed to appear in the film was John Candy, but his role went to Rick Moranis. Finally, for the role of Egon Spengler, the names of Christopher Walken, Jeff Goldblum or John Lithgow came up, but Harold Ramis, after feeling so close to the character during the writing of the script, decided to dust off his resume as an actor (he had not shot anything since 'The crazy squad', from 1991) to interpret it.
Sigourney Weaver, who had just filmed 'Alien, the eighth passenger' (Ridley Scott, 1979) was going crazy after a role in a comedy, so she consciously prepared her casting test. She enacted a wordless scene in which he turned into...a dog! Her barking earned the admiration of Ivan Reitman, who did not hesitate to give her the role of Dana Barrett, the love interest of Peter Venkman (Bill Murray).
The first original title of the film was not the one we all know, but 'Ghost Smashers'. In fact, Columbia had to pay the production company Filmation to use the name 'Ghostbusters', since it had registered the title for a live show that was performed in 1975 entitled, precisely, 'The Ghost Busters'.
