Paul Feig Responds to the Overwhelming Hatred for his ‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot

It’s no secret that fans have opted to judge Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot before giving it a proper chance. The trailer set a record for the most dis-liked movie trailer in Youtube history, fans have relentlessly bashed the film, and, well… things just aren’t looking up for Paul Feig and his Ghostbusters reboot.

Feig isn’t oblivious to the unending flow of negativity, and he’s finally spoken up a bit about the whole situation.

“It was a bummer,” Feig tells IGN, “but if you want to look glass half-full, we’re also the most liked if you look at the number of likes compared to other trailers, so okay, we’ll take that one little victory. But I get it. Here’s the thing. Being on camera, it’s nice I can say this because I do these print interviews, and they always pull one part of my quote out. I’ve said from day one – I get that there is a bunch of people who just are trepidatious, nervous, mad that we’re doing a reboot. Or touching this at all. And I completely get that – those people, I get that, I hear you, I would be nervous too if I didn’t know what I was doing with it. And then there was the wave who just hated that it was women. And that to me is the non-starter. But that was a part of the group – it wasn’t everybody. Everybody on the internet is painting it like I have been sayin,g ‘If you don’t like it, you’re against women.’ I’ve never said that, ever. They take the quotes, and they pull one part of the quote. So I understand – I completely get why people are nervous, so you just go… all I can ask is please, just judge the movie on its own merits. Don’t judge it off a trailer.”

Well, Mr. Feig, you’re treading on sacred ground, and you’ve changed the entire landscape of that ground by insisting on an all-female cast of Ghostbusters.

Fans aren’t angry about the movie because the Ghostbusters are women, though, they’re angry because some icons should not be tampered with. Imagine someone released a remake of Taxi Driver, and then turned Travis Bickle into Tricia Bickle, played by Hayden Panettiere. Imagine someone shot a remake of The Wizard of Oz and cast Taylor Lautner as not Dorothy, but Darrel. What if Forrest Gump got the remake treatment and Vera Farmiga played Florence Gump?

Those scenarios don’t work, and they don’t work for obvious reasons. Those obvious reasons are the same issues plaguing Feig’s film.

Feig didn’t just trample on sacred ground, he unzipped his fly to piss on it, too.

You see Paul, people aren’t prejudging your film based on a trailer, they’re prejudging your film because no one, male or female, can replace Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz, Egon Spengler and Winston Zeddmore. One day, that may click for you.

The Ghostbusters reboot opens on July 15^th and stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.

Source: IGN