After the onslaught of news over the course of a couple weeks, a quiet has hushed across the usually bustling interweb landscape when it comes to Ghostbusters (2016) news and rumors. And thankfully, it's a calm before the storm that I'm sure is very welcome both for us fans as well as for the production crew as they prepare for principal photography.
With a June 15 production start date in the near-distant future, one would assume pre-production on Paul Feig's Ghostbusters revamp is well underway. With just about 11 weeks before cameras roll, set and prop construction should be ramping up. It also appears that Paul Feig is still out and about on his press tour for the June 5 release of Spy, with his travels taking the director to an advance Q&A screening of the film in Chicago tonight. That's got to be a tough-going schedule for Feig, as the world-tour press circuit and Spy's release date being a mere week and a half before day one on Ghostbusters affords him little breathing room.
Production Manager David Witz (Gone Girl, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible III) has joined Ghostbusters according to Production Weekly, which means that full crew hopping onto the production can't be far behind. If IMDB is to be believed the first of those crew members, Nancy St. John (and her company Prime Focus) have boarded the new Ghostbusters in some capacity, either to provide a 3D conversion to the film or as one of (what I can only assume will be) the multiple visual effects houses brought on-board the film. This brings up an interesting question, will Feig be filming Ghostbusters in native 3D? Or will the film be converted for the third-dimension in post-production?
While 3D cinema-going has grown on me, there's a big part of me that hopes the film will be shot 2D (and on film) and then gets the stereo 3D treatment after the fact. As evidenced by the recent remastered Blu-ray release of the original 1984 film, there's something about this concept that lends itself to a little bit of a gritty film-grain look.
To that point, my hope is that long-time collaborator and Oscar-nominated Cinematographer Robert Yeoman will be joining Feig on Ghostbusters, as he has on the director's three previous films, Spy, The Heat and Bridesmaids. His unique visual style will be perfect for the fantastical world of Ghostbusters that's on the horizon. Whether that will be the case or not remains to be seen as it also appears that Yeoman is attached to Peyton Reed (Ant-Man)'s upcoming film Staying Cool. The productions may overlap making Yeoman's participation in the project difficult if not impossible.
Another big part of the film's look and feel, will be its Production Designer. Jefferson Sage has been at the forefront as the Production Designer on Feig's last three films as well as Paul and Year One and also acted as Art Director on Analyze This. Legendary Production Designers John DeCuir (Ghostbusters, Cleopatra, South Pacific) and Bo Welch (Ghostbusters II, Batman Returns, Thor, Joe vs. the Volcano) are tough acts to follow but Sage most certainly has the chops to create some memorable set-pieces with a comedic edge.
Yes, all of the above is purely speculation. And I imagine it's only a matter of time before we start seeing and hearing of cast/crew commitments to the June 15th release date. But it's fun to start visualizing what might be in store once those puzzle pieces start coming together.