Tag: Ghostbusters: Afterlife

A New Generation takes on the Supernatural in Ghostbusters: Afterlife on AXN Asia, Premiering August 21

As one of the popular 80s films that dominated pop culture, the latest sequel of the evergreen Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will debut on Sunday 21 August at 9.45pm on AXN Asia (Cignal Ch 121, SKYcable HD Ch 247, SKYcable SD Ch 49, GSAT Ch 57, and various provincial cable operators nationwide), the leading English-language general entertainment channel!

From its very first movie in 1984, followed up with sequels, cartoon remakes, and an all-female cast, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a legacy sequel that passes the torch from the old guard to a new generation of young unexpecting heroes who band together to discover a series of mysterious clues to unlock and battle a growing supernatural threat in their small town. Along the way, they begin to discover their connection with the original ghostbusters.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is produced by BAFTA, Academy Awards and Emmy nominee, Ivan Reitman (Space Jam, Ghostbusters, Animal House, and Kindergarten Cop), and directed by Oscar nominee and 2010 BAFTA
“Best Screenplay” winner for Up in the Air, Jason Reitman (Up in the Air, Juno, Thank you for Smoking), with a popular and familiar lead cast featuring Paul Rudd (Ant-Man and the Wasp, I Love You, Man), Carrie Coon (Gone Girl, Avengers: Infinity Wars) and bright young stars, McKenna Grace (Captain Marvel I,Tonya) and Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, IT).

Ghostbusters: Afterlife dominated the global box office with US$700 million for its theatrical release and hit more thanUS$1B in global retail sales, with over 100 global licensing partners, and a social footprint of 3.2M reach (including 32M+ from Sony channels) with more than 14M views on YouTube Channel.
Movie fans and followers of Ghostbusters will enjoy the nostalgia, emotive music, and familiar action settings as they meet the original characters, such as the iconic 1959 white Cadillac car aka Ecto-1, and get introduced to the new ghostbusting team, and the character reveal of the mini-version of the original Marshmallow Man (older fans who will know this).

Fans are invited to tune in to AXN Asia (Cignal Ch 121, SKYcable HD Ch 247, SKYcable SD Ch 49, GSAT Ch 57, and various provincial cable operators nationwide), on 21 August at 9.45pm to catch Ghostbusters: Afterlife and relive their favourite ghost-busting moments!

For more information of AXN Asia, you may visit http://axn-asia.com/

August 17, 2022
‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ breathes fresh new life into a classic

Hollywood always returns to tried and tested formulas with the hopes of bringing the audience to the theaters and scoring a hit in this very unpredictable landscape of movies. With comic book adaptations cornering the theaters – pushing comedies and non-Oscar bait dramas straight to streaming – the old checklists of ensuring a hit in the theaters is completely gone. This has led to some unappealing remakes and reboots of some “classic” IPs. There was Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Men in Black: International,’ who had a great cast but a hollow script, ‘Terminator Genisys,’ and a few others. Appealing to nostalgia is a difficult juggling act as you have to introduce new audiences to the material while trying to satisfy the fans of the original but still delivering something new and refreshing.

It’s why I was wary of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ because what if this is just another appeal to nostalgia? Another cash grab of a famous IP, especially since ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ was met with some mixed reviews and was not the big hit it was expected to be.

I shouldn’t have worried. From the very start, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ felt refreshing and new. Sure, there were rampant Easter Eggs left and right at the beginning but the focus of the film is on the new characters that they bring in. We are introduced to Callie (played by the very versatile Carrie Coon), who is struggling to make ends meet and she has to uproot herself and her whole family – Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) – to Oklahoma to a farm her estranged father had left her. The house is a wreck and they don’t know anyone in town but having no choice, the dysfunctional family has to try and start a new life here.

Director Jason Reitman and screenwriters Reitman and Gil Kenan take their time to really establish the family dynamics. Trevor is rebelling (as all teenagers do) and Phoebe, who displays antisocial tendencies but is truly gifted with science and machines, and both have a tenuous relationship with their mother. Callie is at her wit’s end and she now has to face her unresolved feelings with her father as she deals with the legacy he has left behind.

And this is where the story begins to tether into Ghostbuster lore. Because, as hinted by the opening scene, Callie’s estranged father was a Ghostbuster. Slowly and organically, as Trevor and Phoebe discover who and what the Ghostbusters are (showing clips from the old movies as news footage) the worlds of the original film and this sequel start to collide.

As the trailer shows us, the little town of Sommerville in Oklahoma is about to be run over by ghosts, and Phoebe and new friend Podcast (the hilarious Logan Kim) must take the mantle that was left behind at the old house and stop the ghosts with the help of Trevor, his love interest Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor) and Phoebe’s science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd).

The film really takes its time to develop characters, relationships, and then the discovery of who and what the Ghostbusters are, and while all these elements are being brought up, Reitman weaves them into each other so that the film never feels scattered and all over the place. There is heavy use of elements from the first two movies but it’s never self-referential. It’s the story that was chosen to be told and it connects it directly with the first two installments of the franchise and this makes it feel like it’s doing something new with the IP.

The story is fast-paced and there’s quite a great number of funny moments and tense scenes, and at the very heart of it is a sensitive and touching story about a family that needs to embrace – not just their history and legacy – but their weirdness.

‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by people who loved the first films or who’ve never seen it. There’s space in the filmmaking for both audiences. McKenna Grace manages to carry the film with the strength of her performance (and with a lot of help from Logan Kim, whose comic timing is impeccable) and I will always watch any movie with Carrie Coon in it. I shouldn’t have worried. This is how you make a new installment out of a thirty-year-old franchise.

My Rating:

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures and now showing in cinemas nationwide. Find a cinema near you.

ALSO READ:
Paul Rudd’s Mr. Grooberson Gets the Call in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’
Finn Wolfhard Shares Love for ‘Ghostbusters’ Before Being Cast in ‘Afterlife’
WATCH: ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ Reveals Cute but Chaotic Mini-Pufts

February 17, 2022
Mckenna Grace is the Adorable Girl Genius Phoebe in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’

She recently starred in New Line’s Annabelle Comes Home and in the hugely successful Captain Marvel opposite Brie Larson. Now, Mckenna Grace stars budding scientist, Phoebe in Columbia Pictures’ new action-adventure Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Philippine cinemas on February 16.

At the center of Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a small family: single mom Callie (Carrie Coon), her 15-year-old son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and her 12-year-old daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace). After they are evicted from their Chicago apartment, the family moves into a ramshackle Oklahoma homestead where they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

“Phoebe is brilliant and could only be played by an actress who is as intelligent as she is,” director Jason Reitman says. “Mckenna is exceptionally smart – she’s probably read more books than I have – very thoughtful, and very funny. She’s perfect for Phoebe –a young, misunderstood woman who finds herself in ghostbusting.”

“In Phoebe, I wanted the audience to meet a young girl who is a genius and who feels like an outsider,” says Jason, “someone who is looking for friends in the moment that she discovers she’s just like her grandfather. She is a scientist. She is someone who can make things, who wants to fix things. She is the kid who wants to break open the toaster and see how it works, but instead of a toaster, she gets a proton pack.”

Grace says she feels blessed to play this role. “I get to be the character that unravels her grandfather’s life and discovers their family tree. She’s not at all like other kids her age. She’s incredibly smart. She’s very into science experiments. When we are first introduced to her, she is pulling cords through a giant hole in the wall and causes a power outage in the whole house. She’s very inventive and resourceful,” Grace concludes.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #Ghostbusters

February 15, 2022
Paul Rudd’s Mr. Grooberson Gets the Call in ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’

Marvel’s Ant-Man himself Paul Rudd now plays Mr. Grooberson, the endearing slacker summer school teacher in Columbia Pictures’ new action-adventure Ghostbusters: Afterlife, in Philippine cinemas this February 16.

“He’s one of the great comedians of our time,” director Jason Reitman says. “I remember one of my first short films opening for Wet Hot American Summer at Sundance back in 2000 and seeing Paul Rudd in a whole new light, thinking I’d be lucky if I got to work with this guy one day.”

Rudd says he instantly fell in love with his character. “One of the things that I liked about Grooberson is that he has no problem talking about how he doesn’t want to be teaching, doesn’t care about it, and doesn’t really care about what the kids do,” he says. “I thought he was a fun character to play.”

“Paul makes everything look good, I don’t know how he does it,” adds Reitman. “He makes dialogue funnier. He’s a great classically physical comedian.”

In the film, Grooberson, who happens to be a seismologist, is a cool breeze in dreaded summer school, playing vintage horror movies in class. “I can’t imagine how much I would have liked having a teacher that walked into class on the first day and said: ‘You don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be here.’ And then showed Cujo,” Rudd says. His Grooberson still manages to connect with fellow science nerds like Phoebe (McKenna Grace), the new kid in town and granddaughter of late Ghostbuster Egon Spengler.

Rudd was swept up with the original 1984 Ghostbusters mania as a teenager. “I saw it a few times. It was such a big thing, everyone was talking about it at school. Ghostbusters had that magical component that just struck a chord with people.”

On the proton-pack-filled Ghostbusters: Afterlife set, Rudd didn’t need to fake the wonder. “I was actually holding a ghost trap in that scene. These are things I have known my whole life.”

From director Jason Reitman and producer Ivan Reitman, comes Columbia Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe.

In Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Jason Reitman & Gil Kenan. Based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters, an Ivan Reitman film written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.

Starring Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace and Paul Rudd, Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s executive producers are Dan Aykroyd, Gil Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld, Michael Beugg.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #Ghostbusters

February 8, 2022
Finn Wolfhard Shares Love for ‘Ghostbusters’ Before Being Cast in ‘Afterlife’

Finn Wolfhard who is best known for his starring role as Mike Wheeler in the critically acclaimed Netflix Original Series Stranger Things and as Richie Tozier in the blockbuster horror feature IT, now stars in Columbia Pictures’ Ghostbusters: Afterlife, opening exclusively in Philippine cinemas on February 16.

Watch the film’s latest trailer below:

Directed by Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and produced by Ivan Reitman, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the next chapter in the original Ghostbusters universe. In the film, when a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind. The film is written by Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman.

Wolfhard joins Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace and Paul Rudd in the lead cast.

Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Podcast (Logan Kim) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE.

“My daughter was thrilled when we cast Finn,” Jason says. “He captures a generation in the way he talks, the way he looks. He has an incredible vulnerability for being a teenage boy, and that is a very unusual characteristic. He also happens to be as obsessed with the nuts and bolts of filmmaking as any young man his age.”

Wolfhard says he’s been a Ghostbusters fan since a very young age. “I think they’re timeless movies, because they are characters that everyone can relate to, and they’re such iconic performances so they’re hard to forget,” he explains. “My parents showed me those movies at a really young age, so I was lucky. But, then again, I don’t know a kid that’s my age that doesn’t know what Ghostbusters is. It’s iconic.”

The Ecto-1 and RV-1 in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE.

Wolfhard says that his character, Trevor, is “a normal, awkward teenager. He’s a city kid from Chicago who gets evicted and ends up in the middle of nowhere – Summerville, Oklahoma. He’s shell-shocked, there’s no cell service, he’s annoyed about everything – until he finds a girl he falls for, and it all becomes worth it to him.”

Trevor, who is still too young to drive but is obsessed with cars, is the one to discover the iconic but long-abandoned Ecto-1 covered under a sheet in the barn. At first, he is the only one who knows it exists and begins to tinker with it to bring it back to life.

Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Podcat (Logan Kim) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) in Columbia Pictures’ GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE.

Though he didn’t get to physically drive the car, Wolfhard says it was an honor to interact with the iconic machine. “In one sequence, Trevor is in the Ecto-1 ripping through this giant wheat field,” he says. “He loses control and flies off and hits the road.”

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International. Use the hashtag #Ghostbusters

February 2, 2022