Dan Aykroyd Says Paul Feig Spent Too Much on ‘Ghostbusters’: ‘He Will Not Be Back on the Sony Lot Anytime Soon’

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According to Dan Aykroyd, a sequel to 2016’s Ghostbusters reboot is not in the cards, and Aykroyd isn’t shying away from putting all the blame on director Paul Feig. Speaking on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch yesterday, Aykroyd took issue not with the content of Feig’s take on Ghostbusters – which underperformed at the box office and was the target of a months-long, sexist online backlash – but of Feig’s allegedly costly reshoots, which he says ultimately ruined any chances of filming sequels. The news that a Ghostbusters sequel is highly unlikely is something we’ve known since last summer, but Aykroyd apparently wanted to clarify why. Here’s what he said on Sunday Brunch:

The girls are great in it. Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig – what a wonderful, wonderful players they are – and Leslie Jones. I was really happy with the movie, but it cost too much, and Sony does not like to lose money. It made a lot of money around the world, but it just cost too much, making it economically not feasible to do another one. So it’s too bad. The director, he spent too much on it, and he didn’t shoot scenes we suggested to him, and several scenes that were going to be needed and he said “Nah, we don’t need them.” And then we tested the movie and they needed them, and he had to go back – about $30 to $40 million in reshoots. So he will not be back on the Sony lot any time soon.

Entertainment Weekly reached out to Sony to confirm Aykroyd’s claims, and while the studio did confirm that Ghostbusters had several reshoots, Aykroyd’s claim that they cost $30 to $40 million is, well, a little bit off:

After Aykroyd’s statements, Sony confirmed the movie’s reshoots — but said the price was between $3 and $4 million, not $30-40 million as Aykroyd stated. “The budget and additional visual effects shoots were previously reported, and the studio had an incredible relationship with the director who was first rate,” a source close to the production told EW on Sunday.

Watch the Sunday Brunch clip below:

No word yet on what this all means for Aykroyd’s “conventional” Ghostbusters sequel or his dreams of a Marvel-style Ghostbusters cinematic universe, but considering this update, it doesn’t look very good.

UPDATE: Aykroyd posted an update to the news headlines yesterday, where he shifts his argument from blaming Feig’s supposed $30-40 million reshoots to blaming Feig for not being “inclusive to the originators” with the film:

Paul Feig made a good movie and had a superb cast and plenty of money to do it. We just wish he had been more inclusive to the originators. It cost everyone as it is unlikely Kristen, Leslie, Melissa and Kate will ever reprise their roles as Ghostbusters which is sad.

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Dan Aykroyd Says Paul Feig Spent Too Much on […]