Movies

Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard in talks for new Ghostbusters movie

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Published on March 1, 2019 04:08PM EST

The new Ghostbusters movie will focus on a single mother and her family, and Carrie Coon and Finn Wolfhard are in talks to star as the mother and son, sources tell EW.

Up in the Air filmmaker Jason Reitman is directing the film, which is set three decades after the Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore saved the world from a demonic apocalypse.

Casting for the rest of the family is still underway, and Sony Pictures has not yet confirmed who among the original actors may turn up in the film, although Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson have tweeted enthusiastically about the movie. Bill Murray hasn’t reacted publicly, and Harold Ramis died in 2014.

A teaser trailer announcing the project showed a farm where an unseen figure is working on fixing a proton pack while the Ecto-1 is parked nearby under a tarp. The exact connections between this mother and her children and the original Ghostbusters is something Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan (Monster House) will reveal later.

Carrie-Coon-Finn-Wolfhard — John Lamparski/Getty Images; Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Wolfhard plays Mike Wheeler on Stranger Things and wisecracking Richie Tozier in 2017’s remake of Stephen King’s It. Early rumors that the Ghostbusters movie features a team of kids turn out to be inaccurate, since sources tell EW the movie is actually more about a family, with the mom as the lead figure. Casting is still underway for other characters in the film

Coon is best known as the unlucky Nora Durst on The Leftovers, no-nonsense cop Gloria Burgle on Season 3 of Fargo, and for playing Ben Affleck’s sister Margo in Gone Girl. The fact that the Ghostbusters film centers on a mother will be important news for fans. Many, including Leslie Jones, were concerned about whether it would include female representation.

Online trolls relentlessly attacked the all-female 2016 Ghostbusters reboot before it was even finished shooting, and continued harassing stars Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, and Kate McKinnon throughout its release and beyond.

Reitman has only praised the 2016 movie, directed by Paul Feig, and says the only reason his film wouldn’t connect to that one is because Feig’s movie was a reboot with a timeline in which there were no previous Ghostbusters. “I have so much respect for what Paul created with those brilliant actresses, and would love to see more stories from them. However, this new movie will follow the trajectory of the original film,” Reitman told EW in January. “The Ghostbusters universe is big enough to hold a lot of different stories.”

Two weeks ago, Reitman became the focus of online anger when he discussed the new film on a comedy podcast. After describing various retro-visual effects from the earlier Ghostbusters movies that he plans to use in the new film, Reitman said: “We are, in every way, trying to go back to the original technique and hand the movie back to the fans,” Reitman said on Bill Burr’s podcast.

Those who didn’t see the full context of what he said interpreted the phrase “back to the fans” to be a reference to the misogynists who attacked the 2016 movie. Reitman later clarified his comment in a tweet:

Afterward he explained, even Feig tweeted in support of Reitman and the new film.

Reitman is the son of Twins and Kindergarten Cop filmmaker Ivan Reitman, who directed the original two Ghostbusters movies and will produce the new movie.

“I love everything about it. The iconography. The music. The tone,” Jason Reitman told EW in January. “I remember being on set and seeing them try out the card catalog gag for the first time when the library ghost makes them come flying out. I remember the day they killed Stay Puft and I brought home a hardened piece of foam that just sat on a shelf for years. I was scared there was a terror dog underneath my bed before people knew what a terror dog was.”

Filming on the new movie is set to begin this summer, with plans to be in theaters on July 10, 2020.

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