‘Ghostbusters’ and More Lady-Powered Remakes We Need
Remember a few years ago when Mindy Kaling was like “You know what would be amaze? A female Ghostbusters reboot. Me, Emily Blunt, Taraji Henson, Natalie Portman, let’s do it.” Well, it looks like Kaling has a psychic bone or two in her body, because the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot is happening, and it’s going to have a female-centric cast.
On Wednesday, Bridesmaids director Paul Feig tweeted confirmation of what we all hoped:
. . . And then the Internet exploded. Yes, Feig’s making the movie, and yes he’s penning the film with Parks and Recreation writer Katie Dippold. And triple yes, there will be hilarious women involved. WE ARE SO PSYCHED.
Now onto the question of which hilarious women will make the cut. Bill Murray, care to weigh in?
In an interview with the Toronto Star last month, Murray, the original Ghostbusters star, laid out the double-X-chromosome cast he’d love to see in the third installment of this comedy classic.
“Melissa [McCarthy] would be a spectacular Ghostbuster. And Kristen Wiig is so funny–God, she’s funny! I like this girl Linda Cardellini (Mad Men) a lot. And Emma Stone is funny. There are some funny girls out there.”
True dat. I’m SO into the idea of female-centric reboots of classic male-led movies. Hollywood’s gender scale has been whoa-imbalanced for a stupidly long time (like, as long as movies have existed), and as long as the industry is going to keep doing remakes they might as well keep things progressive by giving actresses a chance to play the canon classics.
Below a wish list for future female reboots:
1. Animal House
Remember National Lampoon’s fratty comedy from 1978? Of course you do, it’s THE Greek comedy. So let’s just flip everything and make it a comedy about super gross sorority sisters. Obviously Rebel Wilson, who proved her college prowess in Pitch Perfect, should have a starring role as a member of the party animal sorority crew. And why don’t we sub in ShaiWood, JLaw, and EmStone for the rest of the Deltas?
2. The Godfather
YOU GUYS, MERYL STREEP AS THE GODFATHER, I JUST DROPPED THE MIC AND NOW I’M WALKING OFF STAGE.
3. Fight Club
Okay, wouldn’t it be hilarious if Angelina Jolie subbed in for Brad Pitt in a female-led reboot of “Fight Club” and by hilarious I mean LIFE-CHANGING. Oh, but who should tap out for Edward Norton? I feel like Elizabeth Moss would be a sick Narrator. I see it.
4. Dracula
Okay, so Dracula, the novel, is basically about Victorian dudes being terrified of female sexuality (terrified and a LITTLE bit intrigued but mostly terrified) so it would make kind of amazing sense to have the instigator of all that Victorian female sexuality trouble be a female Dracula. I can see Charlize Theron kicking ass and taking names as The Countess. And if we feel like we need a Lady Van Helsing to go toe-to-toe with our Lady Drac, I’m going to throw Helen Mirren’s name in the ring, if Helen Mirren can’t smoke a vamp, I don’t know WHO can.
5. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
BECAUSE FERRIS AND SLOAN AND CAMERON ARE ALL UNISEX NAMES SO YOU COULD ABSOLUTELY HAVE A FEMALE FERRIS AND CAMERON AND A MALE SLOAN AND NOT EVEN HAVE TO CHANGE NAMES. Okay, let’s think about who can play high school. You know, I really like Sarah Hyland from Modern Family she breaks rules left and right, let’s give her a go as Ferris, then, oh man, Cameron, this is tough, oh, actually, no it’s not, Jillian Bell killed it in 22 Jump Street let’s slot her in, and I’m kind of feeling Zac Efron as Sloan, but if he’s busy, Dave Franco can jump in and be fine.
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
ScarJo, you were so good playing an emotionally complicated robot voice in Her, now’s your chance to play a scary evil robot voice in 2001. And Jessica Chastain can be Dave. And I guess we can keep all the monkey/monolith stuff in the beginning, I don’t want the film nerds to come after me with pitchforks or whatever.
