The helmer of the 2016 'Ghostbuster' remake claims the movie failure had something to do with the anti-Hillary supporters following her bid for presidency.
- May 28, 2020
AceShowbiz - Paul Feig has opened up on the criticism his 2016 all-female "Ghostbusters" reboot attracted, insisting Hillary Clinton's bid for U.S. presidency harmed the movie.
The 57-year-old director's announcement in 2015 that he would reboot the comedy franchise with an all-female cast, led by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones, drew a slew of criticism from fans of the original movies.
Despite high hopes, the film ultimately underperformed at the box office, and Feig told Jess Cagle's SiriusXM show the "anti-Hillary movement" played a big role in the movie's negative perception.
"I think that some really brilliant author or researcher or sociologist needs to write a book about 2016 and how intertwined we were with Hillary and the anti-Hillary movement, it was just this year where, I don't know, just everyone went to a boiling point," he explained.
"I don't know if it was having an African American president for eight years teed them up or something, but they were ready to explode."
The filmmaker went on to reference a 2015 video Donald Trump shared on his Instagram page, in which he appeared baffled by the idea of remaking "Ghostbusters" with an all-female cast.
"By the time I announced in… 2015, when I announced I was going to do it, it started. There's tape of Donald Trump being like, 'Now the Ghostbusters are women, what's going on?' " Feig continued.
"Like, it's crazy how people got nuts about women trying to be in power or be in positions that they weren't normally in. It was an ugly, ugly year."
Meanwhile, a new "Ghostbusters" movie is in the works. "Ghostbusters: Afterlife", which sees the return of original cast members Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts, is set to hit theatres on March 5, 2021 - after being delayed from a July 10, 2020 release date, due to the Covid-19 crisis.
