Ghostbusters 2016 Movie Production Notes

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

PAUL FEIG (Director / Co-Writer / Executive Producer) is a multi-talented creator, working successfully as a filmmaker, writer, producer, and author.

Feig's most recent film was the female spy comedy Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Jason Statham and Rose Byrne, which was released on June 5th, 2015, and earned over $230 million worldwide. This was Feig and McCarthy's third collaboration, and he wrote, directed and produced the film. Feig's other recent films include the buddy cop comedy The Heat starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, which grossed over $220 million globally and the hit comedy Bridesmaids starring Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Maya Rudolph, Melissa McCarthy and Jon Hamm, that grossed over $283 million worldwide. The film also garnered Academy Award® nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay.

Feig founded the production company Feigco Entertainment, which produced Spy, and which has a first-look deal with Fox. Feigco Entertainment specializes in developing edgy and commercial comedies with an emphasis on complex female lead characters. Other Feigco Entertainment projects in different stages of development include: a film with Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin based on their characters Beth and Gina from Feig's recent comedy hit The Heat; an untitled comedy written by Broad City creators Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson; and an untitled comedy for a group of ethnically diverse comic actresses that Melissa Stack will write based on an original idea by Feig. Feig is also a producer of the Golden Globe nominated film The Peanuts Movie, which was released in 2015.

Feig collaborated with YAHOO on the original series Other Space, which premiered in the spring of 2015, and marks Feig's return to television. The show is a half-hour galactic adventure comedy that chronicles a misfit group of space adventurers who stumble upon an alternate universe. Feig created the series and is serving as its Executive Producer.

A three-time EMMY nominated writer/director and DGA Award winner, Feig is also known for creating the beloved and critically acclaimed series "Freaks and Geeks" and serving as director and co-executive producer of "The Office."

He was named one of Esquire's Best Dressed Men of 2012 and as "The Best Dressed Man in Hollywood" in Esquire's Winter 2012 Black Book edition.

"Freaks and Geeks," launched the careers of Seth Rogen, James Franco, and Jason Segel and Time proclaimed it one of the 100 Greatest Shows of All Time. For his work on the show, Feig was nominated for two comedy writing Emmy Awards, one for the pilot episode and one for the series finale, which he also directed.

Feig went on to write and direct the film I Am David, based on the Danish book of the same name by Anne Holm, and is the uplifting story about an 11-year-old boy who escapes from a Bulgarian labor camp. Feig's third feature was the 2006 Warner Bros. family-comedy Unaccompanied Minors, which was based on an episode of Ira Glass' "This American Life."

Feig has directed multiple episodes of the television series "Arrested Development," "The Office," "Nurse Jackie," "Bored to Death," "Weeds," "30 Rock," and "Mad Men." He has served as a co-executive producer on both "The Office" and "Nurse Jackie." In 2008, his work on "The Office" earned him an EMMY nomination for Outstanding Direction in a Comedy Series for the hour long episode "Goodbye, Toby" and in January of 2009, he won the DGA award for Direction in a Comedy Series for the episode "Dinner Party." Feig directed the hour long episode "Goodbye, Michael," Steve Carell's last episode.

Feig's early stand-up career soon led to a successful career as a character actor, appearing as a series regular on the television series "Dirty Dancing,""Good Sports," "The Jackie Thomas Show," "The Louie Show," and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch." He also appeared in such films as Paul Maslansky's Ski Patrol, Disney's Heavyweights, and Tom Hanks' That Thing You Do. After leaving the series "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," Feig wrote, produced and directed his first independent feature film, Life Sold Separately.

In addition to his film and television work, Feig is the author of two comedic memoirs released by Random House, Kick Me - Adventures in Adolescence and Superstud, Or How I Became a 24 Year Old Virgin, the latter becoming a New York Times and Los Angeles Times best seller. He is also the author of two young-adult science fiction novels, Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut! and Ignatius MacFarland: Frequency Freak Out!, both published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers. Feig's short story, "My Parents Give My Bedroom to a Biker," is in the young adult humor collection Guys Read: Funny Business from Walden Pond Press.

A graduate of the University of Southern California Film School, Feig was a winner of the school's Jack Oakie Award for Comedy in Film. After USC, Feig worked as a script reader for Taxi Driver producer Michael Phillips until he went on "The $25,000 Pyramid" and won $29,000. "I always was an over-achiever," he jokes.


Production will soon begin on KATIE DIPPOLD's (Co-Writer) Untitled Mother-Daughter Comedy film, which will star Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn and be directed by Jonathan Levine. Dippold previously wrote on "Parks & Recreation" before she sold her spec feature The Heat (directed by Feig with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy starring). The Heat won an American Comedy Award for Best Comedy Screenplay and a People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedic Movie. Dippold started out as a writer/performer at UCB in NY before she moved to Los Angeles for her first writing job at "MadTV."


IVAN REITMAN (Producer; director of 1984 film) has been the creative force behind films beloved by audiences around the world - from raucous comedies like Animal House and Stripes, to more sophisticated delights like Dave, Six Days Seven Nights, and Twins.

2016 has been a busy year for Reitman. In addition to Ghostbusters, which Reitman produces through his newly formed company Ghost Corps, he is also producing Bastards, in conjunction with Alcon Entertainment, and Baywatch, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron for Paramount Pictures.

The career that has brought so much laughter to us began in Canada, where his family emigrated from Czechoslovakia when he was four years old. Reitman studied music at McMaster University, but soon turned his talents to film and theater.

Shortly after graduation, Reitman delved into film production - first with the extremely low-budget horror comedy Cannibal Girls, starring Canada's Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin, followed by the live television show "Greed" with Dan Aykroyd as its announcer. Reitman then headed to New York City and produced the Broadway hit "The Magic Show," starring McMaster friend Doug Henning. He continued producing for the stage with the off-Broadway hit "The National Lampoon Show," where he brought together for the first time the then-unknown John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Joe Flaherty. Reitman returned to Broadway to produce and direct the musical "Merlin," earning him Tony nominations for directing and producing. While in New York, Reitman reapplied his talents to filmmaking when he joined forces with the National Lampoon and brought us the groundbreaking sensation Animal House. Following the success of that film, Reitman returned home to Canada to direct Meatballs, still considered one the most successful films ever made in Canada.

The string of hits continued with Stripes and the Ghostbusters series, which teamed Bill Murray with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; Dave, starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver; Legal Eagles, starring Robert Redford and Debra Winger; Six Days Seven Nights, with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche; Evolution, starring David Duchovny and Julianne Moore; and a series of films that revealed an untapped comic persona for action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger: Twins and Junior (both co-starring Danny DeVito) as well as Kindergarten Cop.

Reitman's list of producing credits is equally extensive. He produced the family features Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd, as well as the HBO telefilm "The Late Shift," which received seven Emmy nominations. Other producing endeavors include Heavy Metal, Howard Stern's Private Parts, the animation/live action film Space Jam (which teamed Michael Jordan with the Looney Toons characters), and the teen comedy hits Road Trip, Eurotrip, and Old School, starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson.

In 1984, Reitman was honored as Director of the Year by the National Association of Theater Owners and the next year received a Special Achievement Award at the Canadian Genie awards. In 1979, and again in 1989, for the films Animal House and Twins, Reitman was honored with the People's Choice Award. In November of 1994, Reitman became the third director honored by Variety magazine in a special Billion Dollar Director issue. At the end of 2000, Reitman's films Animal House and Ghostbusters were honored as two of this past century's funniest movies by the American Film Institute. He currently heads The Montecito Picture Company, a film and television production company, with partner Tom Pollock.

More recently, Ivan Reitman completed the family hit Hotel For Dogs, The Uninvited, Post Grad, Chloe, and the Oscar®-nominated film Up In the Air, which was directed by his son, Jason Reitman, and starred George Clooney. In 2011, he directed the comedy hit No Strings Attached, starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. In 2012, he produced the wry Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren and in 2014, he directed the sports film Draft Day, starring Kevin Costner.

Reitman has been married to former Quebec film actress Genevieve Robert for more than 40 years. Together, they have three children and live in Santa Barbara, California.


AMY PASCAL started Pascal Pictures, which is based at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Pascal Pictures has a number of high-profile film projects in varied stages of development. In addition to Ghostbusters, other films from Pascal Pictures include: the next installment of the Spider-Man franchise, which Pascal is producing with Sony Pictures and Marvel, and is slated for a July 2017 release; a film adaptation of the thriller novel Maestra by S.L. Knight; a film adaptation of David Lagercrantz's The Girl in the Spider's Web, which is the sequel to Stieg Larsson's successful The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy; a film adaptation of Molly Bloom's underground poker memoir Molly's Game, which Aaron Sorkin will write and direct, marking his feature directorial debut; and a film adaptation of game designer Zoe Quinn's memoir Crash Override: How To Save The Internet From Itself. Pascal Pictures will also be producing for television, and its first projects include "Darktown," which they bought with Sony Pictures Television, and a series about 1960s and 1970s Los Angeles, based on Eve Babitz's memoirs, that they will produce with TriStar Television.

Pascal joined Columbia Pictures in 1988, while Dawn Steel was president. Except for a brief stint when she started Turner Pictures for Ted Turner, Sony Pictures has been Pascal's home for the past 27 years.

Pascal was Chairman of SPE's Motion Picture Group for 20 years. During Pascal's tenure, she and her team were responsible for some of the most profitable and beloved movies of recent years, including: American Hustle; Captain Phillips; the Spider-Man™ franchise; the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace and Skyfall; Moneyball; The Social Network; 21 Jump Street; Zero Dark Thirty; District 9; The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons; Hitch; The Pursuit of Happyness; Big Daddy; Superbad; Stuart Little; Click; Charlie's Angels; Something's Gotta Give; 50 First Dates; Salt; Girl, Interrupted; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Panic Room; Julie & Julia; 2012; S.W.A.T.; Ghost Rider; The Grudge; Eat Pray Love; Michael Jackson's This Is It; Big Fish; Zombieland; Easy A; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatball; A Knight's Tale; Ali; Lords of Dogtown; The Interview; Pineapple Express; Step Brothers; Single White Female; The Ides of March; Cruel Intentions; 28 days; Adaptation; Fury; the Men in Black franchise; The Karate Kid; Memoirs of a Geisha; The Equalizer; and Bad Boys II.

During Pascal's early years at Columbia, she oversaw such memorable motion pictures as Groundhog Day, Awakenings, A League of Their Own, Little Women, Sense and Sensibility and To Die For.

In 1994, Pascal joined Turner Pictures as President of Production. During her two years at Turner, the company was responsible for projects including: Michael; Wings of Desire; Any Given Sunday; You've Got Mail; and Fallen.

Pascal began her career working for legendary BBC producer Tony Garnett at Kestral Films, where they produced Earth Girls Are Easy.

In 2013, Pascal was elected to the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She also serves on the Honorary Committee of the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Los Angeles and in 2008 was awarded the Humanitarian Award from the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Pascal grew up in Los Angeles where she still lives with her husband and son.


After graduating magna cum laude from Emerson College, JESSIE HENDERSON (Executive Producer) began her career working on "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn" and "Chappelle's Show." From there, she went on to work at Universal Pictures before moving to Chernin Entertainment, where she set up and co-produced The Heat starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock. In April 2013, Henderson partnered with Paul Feig to form Feigco Entertainment, where she is producing and spearheading development for numerous projects under the Fox banner. Her most recently released project was the box office hit Spy, starring Melissa McCarthy and Jude Law. She also served as executive producer of the critically acclaimed Yahoo Screen series "Other Space." Upcoming producing projects include Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer's first feature at Fox and Amy Schumer's next movie, Untitled Mother Daughter Adventure, beginning production in May 2016.

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