Paul Feig interview: Ghostbusters, the web, Sony

Lets start with something positive.

Who are the hidden heroes?

People were excited to be on this film.

People worked so hard on this film.

Hence you defending them?

Its why I get testy at times.

You dont realise how reverent we are to what were doing.

I just did it the way that I thought was the best.

I didnt want to make something that wasnt as good as I wanted it to be.

Well, lets deal with that.

This one is quicker Spywas only last year.

But how quick was it for you, and when didGhostbusterscome to you?

I was still in production onSpy, and was in Budapest.

He called me because they had a sequel script that had been written forGhostbusters 3.

Gene Stupnitksy and Lee Eisenberg [writers onThe Office] were hired to writeGhostbusters 3.

I couldnt believe that, it was so cool.

And suddenly I was a bit more cautious.

So I read the script.

I thought it was really good, and by writers that I really like.

Etan Cohen, an amazing talent, worked on it too.

The old team had been forgotten.

Then the old team showed up, and gave them the stuff and trained the new team up.

To me, it felt like itd been so long sinceGhostbusters 2even.

It felt like a big gap.

Because they left it in a mess?

Would they be mad at Neil Armstrong for leaving a golf ball on the moon?

It all added up to me saying I cant figure my way into this.

Amy Pascal called me again [Pascal was head of Sony Pictures at the time].

I said its this giant thing.

Its like redoingThe Godfather.

And she said its this great franchise.

Its sitting there forever and its such a cool thing.

But I left, saying no.

Yet I thought she was right.

Its such a great idea.

I love the original movies so much, but theres so much more you could be doing with that.

And I thought wait, I could do it with the funny women I know.

Youve cast some of them in the past.

It clouds your head.

Was that your thing, then?

You needed to find a way to make it distinct?

How to make it distinct.

And for me, how I could have creative energy to do it.

The minute I thought of that, I thought now I get it.

That gets me excited.

But then it was like, it could be a sequel then.

They could be their daughters?

And I was like, I dont know.

I didnt like the idea of a world that had seen two ghost attacks.

The idea of heres your equipment, on you go.

I like origin stories.Iron Manis one of my favourite tentpoles of recent times.

You did some writing on one of the Spider-Man origin films once?

Yeah, I did some of the high school scenes forThe Amazing Spider-Man.

I thought, can I rebootGhostbusters?

Start again, wipe the slate clean?

Its been so long, and thats the way in.

I told my agent, and then about 15 seconds later, Amy called me.

And she said done: that was it.

That quick, yeah.

Its a very fast response for a project thats been around for a long time.

And for Bill Murray,Ghostbusters 3was listed as an upcoming film of his.

That was, what, 15 years ago?

Its been forever brewing.

But then that was the other thing in my head.

Knowing that Bill wasnt going to do it, knowing that Harold had just passed.

Such a great guy.

What I wanted to do, then, is to put those questions directly to you.

And lets get those answered.

And like know: Ive never said that all the criticism is misogyny.

Thats why I wanted to hit you with these direct.

Lets make this utterly black and white.

Lets start with the obvious one.

There is a dissatisfaction that thisGhostbustersis being made at all.

ThatGhostbustersshould live in the protected circle withBack To The Future.

Touch it at your peril.

What are your thoughts on that?

Because I do think thats a fair criticism.

I completely understand it.

If I wasnt doing this, I would be so nervous.

I would probably be like how dare they.

Its canon youre touching.

All I can say is that its been sitting there.

Theyve been trying to make itforever.

Sony was definitely going to make it.

They were going to find somebody to do it.

I kind of went, I have this idea, I have energy for it.

I thought I think I can do this.

And I love theGhostbustersworld.

Again, there were too many things that were appealing about it.

Katie Dippold, when we came up with the sequel toThe Heat, she wrote that.

We had the idea then of doing a scary comedy.

The sequel toThe Heatwould have been a funnyThe Silence Of The Lambs.

We were so bummed that we couldnt make it, because Sandra [Bullock] didnt want to.

We were looking for a scary comedy.

To be clear, is there any crossover between the ideas you had forThe Heat 2and this?

That was about a serial killer.

Hollywood is running out of ideas…

Theyre not.

I would get insulted when people say that because its like everything Ive done has been original.

Ive created shows, my films havent been sequels.

Its a very easy thing to say, and Im not going to defend Hollywood.

Hollywood has got tons of problems.

And in segments of Hollywood, there is a lack of originality.

I cant suddenly sit here and go theres not.

But to me, by rebooting this, at least Im trying to be more original than not.

But I cannot defend that I took a pre-existing giant property and rebooted it.

It was just too appealing for me.

Next, then: that thisGhostbustersfilm is just a cash grab.

Anything ever made by Hollywood is a cash grab.

Movies are not funded by the state.

They are funded by businesspeople and corporations and people with money, who are trying to make more money.

Thats always going to happen.

Were going to bring in creativity, and art, and passion.

Its why were always locked in battle with the studio, with executives.

Im not saying studios always have bad notes, but their eye is on making money.

But were doing this because we think this is good, and we want to entertain people with it.

Its not anybodys job to understand and be sympathetic to Hollywood.

But cash grab is an invalid thing.

Everythings a cash grab in Hollywood.

Thats what they do.

No, no theyre not!

More of a tribute!

Can I put that to you?

I was a babe in the woods, I have to say.

Positivity does, in fairness to you, run through your work.

I like good-natured stuff.

My mother put in my head, dont put negative things out into the world.

It always stuck with me.

Im a positive person.

So turning back to the backlash.

Did you go into the film expecting it?

I guess I knew that some people would be surprised.

We wont do a sequel to those, that possibly wouldnt be as good.

Then I got cocky about it.

I put a Tweet out, the original one that started everything.

I put a Tweet out, four hilarious women, thats who Im gonna call.

The first day was insanely positive.

Look through my old Tweets and mentions, and it was like hurray, a celebration.

I was like, this is the greatest thing.

I was on this high, thought this was great.

Because Ive always had positivity on the whole about everything Ive done.

Ive never really been attacked.

With Twitter after all, you know who people are.

It must be people with anonymous accounts?

But when the second wave came in the next day, vicious things started coming in.

When the first one hits you, its like somebody walked up and punched you in the face.

Youre like, oh, maybe its that one guy.

Then lots of this stuff starts coming in, and thats when you go uh-oh.

Not that I would back down over it.

Youre still a human being, though?

And I have such a hatred of bullies.

Its one thing I get really passionate about.

Youre written before about how you were bullied at school, and the impact it had.

Most of us in the geek community were bullied.

Thats partly why the geek community formed.

And so Im like, who are these people?

Me and my geeky friends, we have plenty of opinions, and they are strong opinions.

It was always a spirited discussion.

But it was never schoolyard bully.

I did read some of the stuff aimed at you.

And the thing is, look, were in showbiz.

If you go into the public eye, youre asking for it.

I dont say thats not true.

But: I wasnt ready for it.

Do you ever wish youwereready for it?

No, I dont.

The interview was done a week after I announced the four actresses, and Id just been getting fuckingpummelled.

Ugly shit about them, about these wonderful women, and it was personal attacks after personal attacks.

I only actually watched that trailer for the first time properly before this interview.

Ive watched the film, and liked the film.

But its not a great trailer, is it?

No, no…

Can we move onto actually making the film, then.

How does the mechanic change for you?

You paid your dues with earlier films beforeBridesmaidsthat didnt enjoy that much success.

But when youre then making aGhostbustersfilm, its a franchise.

A studio franchise film that theyve been trying to get off the ground in some form for decades.

So, for instance, how much of this isGhostbusters, and how much is you?

Were there more cooks on this one, given its such a big franchise?

How much autonomy do you get when its not yours?

In terms of marketing?

No: the film itself.

[Laughs] I cashed in all my chips with this.

To Sonys credit, they were like, you do your thing, you do your film.

Katie and I wrote the draft, and they all had notes.

Ivan Reitman was in there too.

They were barely around during production, because they were happy with the dailies.

They werent expecting to get the film as quickly as they did.

In their head, we were going to be shooting it this summer.

But I said I want this to be my next project.

That is what we are shooting for.

I said I think we can do this, I think me and Katie can pull this off.

I told Sony we could have a draft for Christmas [2014], and thats what we did.

We got it ready, they loved it, had notes and thoughts, but overall were extremely positive.

And suddenly were going, we can actually do this.

Otherwise, they were going into this summer without a giant comedy summer tentpole movie like this.

They obviously hadAngry Birdsand stuff like that.

But this was the project that dropped in for them.

Otherwise, itll lose all that energy, comedy, my style.

But Ive been told lots of times that youre in there.

Let me address all these head on.

A few things went around.

One was us trying to keep Ivan Reitman away from this project.

Let me say this.

But I had people saying how dare he try and get rid of him.

All I can say is: any filmmaker would check that they had autonomy.

George Lucas was not on the set ofStar Wars: The Force Awakens.

you should probably be able to do this stuff.

Then there was the one where they more make fun of me.

Im not necessarily asking you to give all the details here.

No, I appreciate that.

But theres so much stuff out there that I read and want to respond to.

Which is partly why I raised the question.

I want to talk honestly about it.

Amy and the meeting, then.

It was the idea I had at the time that Katie and I then morphed into something very different.

But I wrote, in a billion dollar idea.

Because Im doing studio speak, and thats what the studio understands.

That was when the hack happened, and that was the one thing I was like, oh no.

But I left it in, thinking I need to be a salesman.

But then the hack happened.

And I was like, is it going to come out?

And there it was.

Its…

[Paul Feig paused for a few seconds here.

I think its important to point that out].

You give a shot to go Im cool, I dont care.

These are the trappings of it.

So you go, Im a professional now.

But thats why you crack occasionally.

I didnt put anything ugly out, I didnt really respond too much to anything.

All through production, I was told by the studio I was handling it well.

I was putting out pictures, positive, positive, positive.

We go to my favourite restaurant….

Ive said it publicly before.

Im seeing whats out there.

Im a data collector!

I like to know what people are thinking: its why we do test screenings.

I want to know.

So Im not going to block anybody.

But there were a few people who were just fuckinghammeringme.

My feed filled with it.

At one point it was these three guys, who piled on.

There I am, trying to sort through lovely nice people who keep writing [on Twitter].

Parents are sending pictures of their daughters who have made cosplay Ghostbusters outfits.

And it was so inspiring, this is what were doing it for.

But then these guys were in there.

So were at my favourite restaurant on the side of a cliff, overlooking the Mediterranean.

Were relaxing, Im so happy, relieved to have finished the shoot.

My wife goes to the restroom, and I quickly check my Twitter feed.

And just at that moment, those guys said something that set me off.

And I thought you know what?

Im just going to do it.

Im just going to fire back.

For about a day, actually.

And my wife said to me, you shouldnt have done that.

But I said Im so happy I did this.

I just got to strike out.

In social media terms, the game is always a little rigged against you isnt it?

Because now Im an asshole.

Now I will always be the guy who attacked them.

[Laughs] Totally.

But I very much regret I did that.

Where does all that leave you now?

Would you attack such a project now with a new wariness?

If you asked me this two months ago, Id have said no way.

Im not touching this, never again, never again, never again.

But we finished it.

And I love it.

Im really proud of it.

Do you think youd write about it, maybe in another book?

Ive thought about that, and you know what, I dont think I will.

It was so painful going through it, but once its done, its water under the bridge.

Thats why now Im in such a Kum-Ba-Yah mood.

That guys, weve had our differences.

If you hate it, you hate it.

If youre going to hate-watch it, hate-watch it.

But Im proud of it.

Its going to make people have fun in the cinema this summer.

But look, no movie is perfect.

The first cut of the movie was four hours and 15 minutes long!

[Laughs] I love that.

It did get me thinking: when you didSpy, it got you directing action for the first time.

This time, its special effects for the first time in earnest.

I got a sense watchingGhostbustersthat youre a man a little frustrated by special effects in movies?

That is exactly what it is.

I am frustrated by special effects, and by the way that people shoot action.

We need to build all this stuff.

Also, I love Hong Kong movies.

Where theres a fight scene, the cameras wide and down and those guys are fighting.

Theyre doing what they do, and youre not trying to cover up someone who cant fight.

So even that [redacted details of sequence for spoiler reasons] scene, thats stuntmen in there.

Theyre doing that, wearing lightsuits that we augment with CG.

I didnt want them fighting tennis balls, I wanted them there, doing that stuff.

The ghosts were played by real people, even though we augmented them a lot with CG.

Those were real people in there.

You get aRoad Housereference in there too…

Its a classic!

Its led to no shortage of shit, granted, but you stuck it out and didnt run away.

Having come out the other end ofGhostbusters?

Think about it and check that youre passionate about it.

That youre doing it for the right reason, that makes sense to you.

Then you just have to do it.

Let it be the thing that makes sure you are committed to it, and know what youre doing.

That you have that strong an opinion and a take on it.

And anything specific based on what youve gone through?

Be sympathetic to the people who are worried for good reasons.

Their opinion has to mean nothing to you.

Its a weird, antiquated opinion.

To everybody else who has legitimate things: then hear what they have a problem with.

I get that now.

But this is the only way I knew how to do this film.

This was the way I thought was the most respectful way to do it, to the original franchise.

And they can tear me apart for that, say fuck you, and I get that, totally.

I love everything about this world.

But I also love doing original things.

One of my biggest regrets in life is I didnt inventGhostbusters!

Feel free to put it in your own words.

[Laughs] I would love toSpy 2, no doubt about that!

Maybe a Rick Ford/Jason Statham spin-off movie?

Statham is my hero!

Spyis a masterclass in potty-mouth comedy…

I only do swearing in my movies when people can do it in a way thats fun.

Melissa, for instance…

Got to stop you there: Statham.

Melissas good, but clearly were talking Statham.

[laughs] Oh my god.

He was saying to me on the set ofSpy, can I swear?

Im like, swear more!

Paul Feig, thank you very much.

Ghostbusters arrives in the UK on July 11th.