As if it weren’t clear by now, Sony isn’t half-assing it with this Ghostbusters Universe business. In a recent Hollywood Reporter article about how Sony will be different with Tom Rothman taking over for Amy Pascal, they revealed that the budget for Paul Feig’s lady Ghostbusters movie† will be a handsome $154 million. Which is actually lower than when originally greenlit:
The Ghostbusters price tag when greenlit by Pascal was a hefty $169 million, with rich deals for talent, including $14 million for Melissa McCarthy and north of $10 million for Feig. Rothman couldn’t do anything about those fees, but sources say Feig made tweaks to the script to reduce the cost to $154 million — just a few million above Rothman’s target of $150 million.
Keep in mind, Jupiter Ascending‘s budget was only slightly higher at $176 million, and that was after paying for all those CGI bees and the sidekick with the head of an elephant. By the way, are they bringing back that character for Ghostbusters? Because that would be great. By contrast, 22 Jump Street reportedly cost $50 million.
The release date is currently set for July 22nd, 2016, with a cast that includes Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones.
Another fun fact about Tom Rothman, he’s apparently really stoked on the idea of Men in Black sharing a universe with 21 Jump Street:
Rothman has a special incentive to make it work [with producer Neil Moritz and directors Lord and Miller] given that he is said to have a particular interest in melding the Jump Street franchise with the studio’s Men in Black property. [THR]
Clean. Rad. Powerful. Also, a telling detail. We now know that Tom Rothman is either a brilliant visionary or a child-like simpleton who has just been handed a nine-figure bath tub toy.
“Gentlemen, I’ve brought you all here to ask: what if we could get the BLUES BROTHERS to team up with THE BRADY BUNCH? I mean, wouldn’t that be kind of cool?”
“Uh… sir? I’m not sure those properties would work w–”
“Also, tell the chef I want chocolate on my spaghetti! I WANT IT I WANT IT I WANT IT!” (*pounds fists on desks, starts holding breath*)
†I know Leslie Jones doesn’t want us to call it that, but so far all we know about it is that it’s a Ghostbusters movie and that it stars ladies. What the hell are we supposed to call it? Give it a name and/or a description and we’ll call it that.