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Sony Pictures Is Expanding the “Ghostbusters” Universe with All-Male Action Comedy

Channing Tatum will produce and hopefully star

Mar 10, 2015 11:29 GMT  ·  By
Sony has huge plans for “Ghostbusters” franchise, going beyond the release of an all-female film in 2016
   Sony has huge plans for “Ghostbusters” franchise, going beyond the release of an all-female film in 2016

Now that it handed the “Spider-Man” franchise over to Marvel, Sony Pictures is focusing all attention on another one, showing great promise in terms of box office gross: the “Ghostbusters” reboot.

In January this year, the studio confirmed long-rumored plans for an all-female reboot, which would blend comedy with darker elements and would boast a cast made of the funniest women in showbiz right now.

Apparently, that’s just a stepping stone for something even bigger.

Sony expands the “Ghostbusters” universe

While the all-female film will hopefully do well enough at the box office to get at least a couple of sequels, Sony is thinking that taking the story into another direction wouldn’t be such a bad idea either.

So, it’s also working out the details for an all-male movie, that would be more focused on action than the female counterpart. Deadline has confirmation of this straight from the studio, with the mention that Channing Tatum has been booked to produce the film.

Movie bosses hope that he will also agree to star in it, which would pretty much guarantee a box office hit. Tatum’s most recent releases (“Jupiter Ascending” not included, because it worked on an overinflated budget and against negative reviews and word of mouth) have all been major hits.

Just think “Magic Mike” and the two “Jump Street” action comedies to get an approximation of the kind of attention he can command at the box office.

If Sony gets him on board this film, which will supposedly come out after the 2016 all-female version, they could “settle” for smaller names for the rest of the cast.

Joe and Anthony Russo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier”) will direct off a script by Drew Pearce (“Iron Man 3” and “Mission: Impossible 5”).

Ghostcorps is happening

And that’s not all Sony is doing with the “Ghostbusters” universe: a new production company has been started, called Ghostcorps, which will handle everything else pertaining to this classic film franchise, from merchandising, to possibilities to bring the story to TV or other media.

Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd, “original Ghostbusters architects,” will oversee all activities with this production company. Reitman confirms for the trade publication that the 2016 film is just the first step towards “build[ing] the Ghostbusters into the universe it always promised it might become.”