Writer-director Gil Kenan talks about taking big swings with the multimillion-dollar franchise while embracing the past to build a future.
« We are doing things in this film that we’ve never done in a Ghostbusters film before, » enthused Gil Kenan as the director and co-writer discussed Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. « Some of those leaps that felt necessary dramatically are still risks because they’re sort of going outside the normal playbook of a Ghostbusters film. »
The filmmaker understood how big of a deal that was as he didn’t want to go down in cinema history as the guy who broke the beloved multimillion-dollar franchise. This latest entry is likely to be the one to tip the 40-year-old film series over the billion-dollar mark – the films have grossed $943.7 million to date.
« The stakes are much higher than we’ve had in a Ghostbusters film before, including loss of life that is irrecoverable. That suggests a peril that if it hadn’t worked, could have broken the model, » Kenan explained. « The other thing is that we are, for the first time, getting to know a ghost on the other end of the proton, the business end. We’re having a backstory and a relationship with a ghost as an audience in a way that could upend the entire paradigm of Ghostbusters. »
« The ghosts in the first stories were essentially vermin that were being exterminated, so it was a dramatic opportunity that allowed us to start to stretch the fabric of these movies and what they could be. We did that in a way that excited us when we were writing this film. While we’re focusing on the core dynamics of what makes an enjoyable, joyful experience as a Ghostbusters film for an audience, it still creates what I think is an expansion of some of the basic concepts in a way that maybe will allow more richness to the stories in the future. »
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire lands in theaters almost two and a half years after Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the franchise reviver that connected the story back to its roots. A hit with fans and most critics, it grossed $204.3 million against a $75 million budget. Kenan co-wrote that with director Jason Reitman, the son of Ivan Reitman, the filmmaker who helmed Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Ivan Reitman sadly passed away in 2022, but not before he gave Kenan his approval when he told him where they wanted to take the films.
« It was a huge validation, » the director explained. Jason Reitman moved into the role of producer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. « Ivan was really moved by certain parts of the story including Melody, one of the ghosts. I remember the joy in his eyes, as he started to understand where we were taking that particular storyline. It gave us the confidence to plow forward with that narrative, and I’m proud that we could write and then create a ghost character that takes us to a new place in these stories. »
The Ghostbusters brand is one of cinema’s most well-known and recognizable IPs. Kenan has previous experience handling such things with one film in the franchise already under his belt and having directed the 2015 Poltergeist redo. He also directed an episode of the Scream TV series. So, what is different working with the Ghostbusters IP compared to the others?
« It’s unique in so many ways, » he said. « First of all, Ghostbusters, as much as anything, is a definition of tone, and that’s important because that’s the linchpin of getting these films right.
