Female-led Ghostbusters 'reboot' confirmed

A new Ghostbusters film – with an all-female crop of ‘Busters – has been confirmed by director Paul Feig.

Feig told US magazine Entertainment Weekly that the new film will not be a sequel, rather an "origin story" for a new group of female Ghostbusters.

Feig said: "I love origin stories. That’s my favorite thing. I love the first (Ghostbusters) so much I don’t want to do anything to ruin the memory of that. So it just felt like, let’s just restart it because then we can have new dynamics."

Bridesmaids director Feig confirmed the plans for a new Ghostbusters film on his Twitter account on Wednesday night, ending years of speculation over the future of the much-loved series. Feig will write the new film alongside Katie Dippold, who worked with Feig on 2013’s The Heat.

It's unclear whether any of the original trio will feature in the new film. Dan Aykroyd – aka Dr. Raymond Stanz – had been working on a script for a third Ghostbusters film in recent years, but has since been replaced by Dippold. Harold Ramis, who played Dr. Egon Spengler in the 1984 original and 1989 sequel, died earlier this year at the age of 69. Bill Murray, who portrayed Dr. Peter Venkman, has been an outspoken supporter of an all-female Ghostbusters revival.

Feig told EW: "Everything is up for grabs right now. I look at this the same way a superhero movie launches where it’s always fun to see, like, what are they going to do with the costumes this time? It’s not going to be, here is the exact same stuff. It’s also not going to go, screw you, if you like that stuff, it’s all completely different. 

"I don’t want to do a shot by shot update of a movie that existed. It’s the difficult thing about remaking a great movie. So that’s why we’re not remaking a great movie. We’re doing our take on it."

Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman will act as producer on the new film – he backed out of directing duties following Ramis' death.