Bill Murray has put his stamp of approval on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, saying it has the same feel as the first original movie.
“The two of them wrote a Ghostbusters movie that really brings it back to life,” he told Collider (opens in new tab), referencing writers Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman. “It really has the feel of the first one, more than the second one or the girls’ one. It has a different feel than two out of four.”
He also explained how Reitman sold him on the idea of another movie: “I remember him calling me and saying, ‘I’ve got an idea for another Ghostbusters. I’ve had this idea for years.’ I thought, ‘What the heck could that possibly be?’ I remember him when he was a kid. I remember his Bar Mitzvah. I was like, ‘What the heck? What does this kid know?’ But he had a really, really wonderful idea.”
Murray also spoke at a roundtable (opens in new tab) about the new Ghostbusters movie, confirming his return to the series and revealing how “physically painful” wearing the proton packs was. “It was hard. It was really hard,” he said. “That’s why I think it’s gonna be good. We were just in it for a little while, but it was physically painful. Wearing those packs is extremely uncomfortable. We had batteries the size of batteries. They now have batteries the size of earrings. It’s still a really heavy thing to wear, all the time.
“The special effects in this one are a lot of wind and dirt in your face, and there was a lot of going down and getting back up. I was like, ‘What is this? What am I doing? These are like Bulgarian deadlifts, or a Russian kettlebell, getting up and down with this thing on my back.’ It was very uncomfortable.”
Ghostbusters: Afterlife tells the story of two children who find they are connected to Ghostbuster history, and spooky shenanigans ensue. Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace, and Paul Rudd star, and the action takes place takes place thirty years after 1989’s Ghostbusters 2. The original Ghostbusters cast is set to return, and according to Dan Akroyd on a recent podcast (opens in new tab), will “recognize” the now passed Harold Ramis “in some way”.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is scheduled to be released on November 11. Need some Ghostbusters content to hold you over while you wait? Check out how the film would look without special effects.