Thirty-two years after the original comedy rocked Hollywood and pop culture, the remake was back for its premiere at Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre.
The reboot had been making news for months before the premiere, because Sony and director Paul Feig were bringing a female-powered cast to it. Some fans of the original grumbled that nothing could live up to the 1984 film, starring Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.
But the opening night crowd seemed more than happy with the 21st century teaming led by Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
“It’s a classic property and people guard it,” Feig said on the red carpet. “To make a new version and honor that feeling that people had for the original, I felt I had to just get the four funniest people I could. And that’s what I did.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chair Tom Rothman called the night “really special.” He had welcomed the furor about the female cast, saying he thought it would boost interest in the film. “It’s an entertaining comedy, but it’s now also an important part of the social conversation,” he said. “And you don’t get that combination too often.”
Women in the STEM fields
Stacy L. Smith, director of the Media, Diversity & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, praised the new “Ghostbusters” for depicting women in the science, technology, engineering and math fields.
“We see a dearth of women in these roles in films,” Smith said, citing a study that reviewed more than 200 films and found none with women in the STEM fields. “So I wanted to be here to support them when they got it right.”
