Post by jessebaker on Sept 16, 2009 17:11:59 GMT -8
If Jesse could bring back/reboot Ghostbusters.....
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OK; Ghostbusters has been a major league 80s property: two successful movies and a even more successful cartoon show, which in a lot of ways pretty much USURPED the movies as the definative incarnation of the property.
Much has been said about reviving the movie version of the property, with current rumors being that the third Ghostbusters film may or may not be a CGI animated movie to provide a sort of "Best of Both Worlds" scenerio of reuniting the "name" actors of the movie with animation, which allows for pretty much anything the writers can come up with being doable without worrying about special effects.
Which leads me to the following idea: why doesn't someone just fucking REMAKE Ghostbusters as a live action tv show?
Bare with me on this: the notion of someone say, FX or HBO or Showtime basically creating a new reboot of Ghostbusters, with a respectful sort of mature audience slant and a decent amount of budget to do the special effects. IT COULD WORK!!!!
Premise:
Basically set in modern day 2009, the "Ghostbusters" are three college professors/parapsychologists (Peter, Egon, and Ray) who are granted funding to research the existence of ghosts by a wealthy businessman, after a series of murders at his business (the ghost claim comes about when one victim is savagely murdered in a locked room, which no one could enter and security camera showing a phantom shape appearing with the victim as the murder is caught on tape).
They find the murderous ghost, but not before said ghost kills the businessman. The ensuing scandal costs the three their jobs at the university, but they are then approached by the businessman's son: Winston Zeddmore. Winston offers to finance the group to continue their research and find the ghost that has murdered his father. They are joined by Winston's father's secretary Janine and the family's lawyer Louis Tully, as well as Slimer, re-envisioned as a suprisingly harmless Lovecraftian creature from Peter's childhood, who has manifested itself after many years absence much to Peter's embarrasment.
Elsewhere, we have Dana Barrett, a college professor at the same school where the three main Ghostbusters used to teach at. Childhood friends with Egon and Peter's former fiance, who's wealthy father forced her to break off their engagement when Peter was fired from the university after the scandal involving the death of Mr. Zeddemore. Unfortunately, she's pregnant with Peter's child, a factor that has created a nightmare as far as her father basically wanting to force her into a shotgun marriage to his weasily lawyer in order to avoid a scandal of his daughter giving birth to a child out of wedlock.
Most of the first season would deal with the quest to find the ghost that murdered Winston's father. The ghost is that of his former business partner, who killed himself when his scheme to embezzle several million dollars from the Zeddmore family business was found out right before it could be carried out. The victims were those who found out about the scheme and alerted Winston's father of the plot. They catch the ghost and imprison it inside the Ghost Bank: A Ghost "Prison" they construct for vile spirts that can't be banished to hell.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the lawyer for Dana's father is an occultist who is secretly part of a Lovecraftian cult that worships Chthulhu (crappy spelling). It turns out the lawyer is brainwashing Dana's dad to force their wedding and is responsible for Peter being fired from the university (where he is also retained as the college's lawyer), so that he wouldn't find out that his cult was recruiting college students as cult members and sacrifices, as well as using the college's library of occult books for their own personal uses.
The Ghostbusters end up having to save Dana from a ritual being performed to transplant Cthulhu's essence into her unborn child. Peter saves his ex but the victory comes at a harsh cost as the sleazy lawyer/cult leader shoots Dana, killing the unborn child as a sacrifice to Cthulhu in order to save his life from being destroyed by the cultists. The death of the child allows for the Elder Gods to begin to manifest themselves onto Earth, leading to season two's plotline where the gang will have to track down and imprison the Ancient demons that have been unleashed.
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Casting Picks/Reboot History:
Peter Venkman- Walt Goggins
Reboot Peter would be similar to the cartoon version: vane, ego-driven, and bascially a jerk-ass with a heart of gold. The face of the team, largely because he's the only member with actual people skills. Has on/off relationship with Dana, largely because of the fact that Dana's parents hate him. Backstory has his interests in ghost largely be the result of him having grown up on an old Southern Plantation where he met Slimer, who's existence propelled him to dedicate his life in the field of paranormal studies.
Egon Spengler- Michael Emerson
Reboot Egon is basically regular Egon, filtered through the lenses of a mad scientist. Son of wealthy athiests, Egon's interest in ghosts comes largely due to the fact that he wants to prove the existence of an afterlife/God just so he can be the one who gets the glory that proves without a doubt that God exists. He uses his family's wealth to finance the creation of all of the major Ghostbusters equipment, which he came up with. Is childhood friends with Dana, even dating her for a time before the two broke up/Dana met Peter.
Raymond Stantz- Rob Riggle
Reboot Raymond represents the TAPS/Ghost Hunter element of ghost investigations; he's the guy who goes off to haunted houses and spends countless nights wandering the hallways, recording on his notepad every strange noise or moved object he comes across. Also is the gang's researcher and HP Lovecraft nut; has the Necronomicron and Book of Eibon memorized within his head and basically knows all about the Elder Gods and their kin.
Winston Zeddmore- Jesse Martin
Iraq war vet and financial backer of the Ghostbusters. Doesn't much believe in ghosts, but after his father is murdered by one, agrees to finance the team in order to avenge his father's death. The only one of the Ghostbusters with any fighting skills, making him a valuable field agent against the bad guy ghosts.
Dana Barrett- Angie Harmon
Peter's ex-fiance and on-again, off-again love interest. A hard-nose professor who is nicknamed "Lady Death" by her students, she is pregnant with Peter's child and is being pressured by her father to marry his lawyer in order prevent the scandal of her giving birth to an out of wedlock child. She loves Peter but can't stand his emotional immaturity; she is more tolerable of Egon who is her childhood best friend; a major plot point of the first season is the reveal that they once dated, until their relationship became a distraction to Egon and led to him secretly arranging for Dana to meet Peter, under the logic that both would be better off if she was dating Peter and not him, since Peter would give her the attention she needs and he wouldn't have to take time out of his schedule to take her out.
Loses her child at the end of the first season, creating much tension between the couple afterwords in season two.
Janine- Rachel Dratch
Reboot Winston's on-again, off-again girlfriend. Wants to be a field agent for the team, though she keeps getting turned down.
Louis Tully- Sam Brown (from Whitest Kids You Know)
Nerdy lawyer for the Zeddmore family. In love with Janine, who doesn't notice him or his crush on her. However, unlike Janine, Louis does get to go into the field, often along with Ray, who sees the nerdy lawyer as perfect "ghost bait" for catching ghosts.
Slimer:
Slimer is reimagined as the Embodiment of Sloth, created by a bunch of rich, southern plantation owners who sought to summon the literal embodiments of the seven deadly sins to Earth to destroy the Union Army. Sadly their plan failed when Slimer (the first of the seven sins summoned) turned against them due to the fact that Slimer didn't want to harm anyone as far as Slimer wrecking the ceremony and keeping them from summoning the remaining six sins. It's later revealed that Slimer/Sloth is the youngest of the seven deadly sins and as such, constantly has to go back and forth between both worlds to keep up the appearance to his siblings that he isn't on Earth, to keep them from going to Earth to drag him back to his home dimension.
Is the childhood friend of Peter, who is now an adult and has mixed feelings about Slimer's return to his life since Slimer has a hard time accepting that Peter is now an adult with responsibilities and can't play with Slimer all the time, like he did as a kid.
-----------------------
OK; Ghostbusters has been a major league 80s property: two successful movies and a even more successful cartoon show, which in a lot of ways pretty much USURPED the movies as the definative incarnation of the property.
Much has been said about reviving the movie version of the property, with current rumors being that the third Ghostbusters film may or may not be a CGI animated movie to provide a sort of "Best of Both Worlds" scenerio of reuniting the "name" actors of the movie with animation, which allows for pretty much anything the writers can come up with being doable without worrying about special effects.
Which leads me to the following idea: why doesn't someone just fucking REMAKE Ghostbusters as a live action tv show?
Bare with me on this: the notion of someone say, FX or HBO or Showtime basically creating a new reboot of Ghostbusters, with a respectful sort of mature audience slant and a decent amount of budget to do the special effects. IT COULD WORK!!!!
Premise:
Basically set in modern day 2009, the "Ghostbusters" are three college professors/parapsychologists (Peter, Egon, and Ray) who are granted funding to research the existence of ghosts by a wealthy businessman, after a series of murders at his business (the ghost claim comes about when one victim is savagely murdered in a locked room, which no one could enter and security camera showing a phantom shape appearing with the victim as the murder is caught on tape).
They find the murderous ghost, but not before said ghost kills the businessman. The ensuing scandal costs the three their jobs at the university, but they are then approached by the businessman's son: Winston Zeddmore. Winston offers to finance the group to continue their research and find the ghost that has murdered his father. They are joined by Winston's father's secretary Janine and the family's lawyer Louis Tully, as well as Slimer, re-envisioned as a suprisingly harmless Lovecraftian creature from Peter's childhood, who has manifested itself after many years absence much to Peter's embarrasment.
Elsewhere, we have Dana Barrett, a college professor at the same school where the three main Ghostbusters used to teach at. Childhood friends with Egon and Peter's former fiance, who's wealthy father forced her to break off their engagement when Peter was fired from the university after the scandal involving the death of Mr. Zeddemore. Unfortunately, she's pregnant with Peter's child, a factor that has created a nightmare as far as her father basically wanting to force her into a shotgun marriage to his weasily lawyer in order to avoid a scandal of his daughter giving birth to a child out of wedlock.
Most of the first season would deal with the quest to find the ghost that murdered Winston's father. The ghost is that of his former business partner, who killed himself when his scheme to embezzle several million dollars from the Zeddmore family business was found out right before it could be carried out. The victims were those who found out about the scheme and alerted Winston's father of the plot. They catch the ghost and imprison it inside the Ghost Bank: A Ghost "Prison" they construct for vile spirts that can't be banished to hell.
Meanwhile, it turns out that the lawyer for Dana's father is an occultist who is secretly part of a Lovecraftian cult that worships Chthulhu (crappy spelling). It turns out the lawyer is brainwashing Dana's dad to force their wedding and is responsible for Peter being fired from the university (where he is also retained as the college's lawyer), so that he wouldn't find out that his cult was recruiting college students as cult members and sacrifices, as well as using the college's library of occult books for their own personal uses.
The Ghostbusters end up having to save Dana from a ritual being performed to transplant Cthulhu's essence into her unborn child. Peter saves his ex but the victory comes at a harsh cost as the sleazy lawyer/cult leader shoots Dana, killing the unborn child as a sacrifice to Cthulhu in order to save his life from being destroyed by the cultists. The death of the child allows for the Elder Gods to begin to manifest themselves onto Earth, leading to season two's plotline where the gang will have to track down and imprison the Ancient demons that have been unleashed.
-------------------------
Casting Picks/Reboot History:
Peter Venkman- Walt Goggins
Reboot Peter would be similar to the cartoon version: vane, ego-driven, and bascially a jerk-ass with a heart of gold. The face of the team, largely because he's the only member with actual people skills. Has on/off relationship with Dana, largely because of the fact that Dana's parents hate him. Backstory has his interests in ghost largely be the result of him having grown up on an old Southern Plantation where he met Slimer, who's existence propelled him to dedicate his life in the field of paranormal studies.
Egon Spengler- Michael Emerson
Reboot Egon is basically regular Egon, filtered through the lenses of a mad scientist. Son of wealthy athiests, Egon's interest in ghosts comes largely due to the fact that he wants to prove the existence of an afterlife/God just so he can be the one who gets the glory that proves without a doubt that God exists. He uses his family's wealth to finance the creation of all of the major Ghostbusters equipment, which he came up with. Is childhood friends with Dana, even dating her for a time before the two broke up/Dana met Peter.
Raymond Stantz- Rob Riggle
Reboot Raymond represents the TAPS/Ghost Hunter element of ghost investigations; he's the guy who goes off to haunted houses and spends countless nights wandering the hallways, recording on his notepad every strange noise or moved object he comes across. Also is the gang's researcher and HP Lovecraft nut; has the Necronomicron and Book of Eibon memorized within his head and basically knows all about the Elder Gods and their kin.
Winston Zeddmore- Jesse Martin
Iraq war vet and financial backer of the Ghostbusters. Doesn't much believe in ghosts, but after his father is murdered by one, agrees to finance the team in order to avenge his father's death. The only one of the Ghostbusters with any fighting skills, making him a valuable field agent against the bad guy ghosts.
Dana Barrett- Angie Harmon
Peter's ex-fiance and on-again, off-again love interest. A hard-nose professor who is nicknamed "Lady Death" by her students, she is pregnant with Peter's child and is being pressured by her father to marry his lawyer in order prevent the scandal of her giving birth to an out of wedlock child. She loves Peter but can't stand his emotional immaturity; she is more tolerable of Egon who is her childhood best friend; a major plot point of the first season is the reveal that they once dated, until their relationship became a distraction to Egon and led to him secretly arranging for Dana to meet Peter, under the logic that both would be better off if she was dating Peter and not him, since Peter would give her the attention she needs and he wouldn't have to take time out of his schedule to take her out.
Loses her child at the end of the first season, creating much tension between the couple afterwords in season two.
Janine- Rachel Dratch
Reboot Winston's on-again, off-again girlfriend. Wants to be a field agent for the team, though she keeps getting turned down.
Louis Tully- Sam Brown (from Whitest Kids You Know)
Nerdy lawyer for the Zeddmore family. In love with Janine, who doesn't notice him or his crush on her. However, unlike Janine, Louis does get to go into the field, often along with Ray, who sees the nerdy lawyer as perfect "ghost bait" for catching ghosts.
Slimer:
Slimer is reimagined as the Embodiment of Sloth, created by a bunch of rich, southern plantation owners who sought to summon the literal embodiments of the seven deadly sins to Earth to destroy the Union Army. Sadly their plan failed when Slimer (the first of the seven sins summoned) turned against them due to the fact that Slimer didn't want to harm anyone as far as Slimer wrecking the ceremony and keeping them from summoning the remaining six sins. It's later revealed that Slimer/Sloth is the youngest of the seven deadly sins and as such, constantly has to go back and forth between both worlds to keep up the appearance to his siblings that he isn't on Earth, to keep them from going to Earth to drag him back to his home dimension.
Is the childhood friend of Peter, who is now an adult and has mixed feelings about Slimer's return to his life since Slimer has a hard time accepting that Peter is now an adult with responsibilities and can't play with Slimer all the time, like he did as a kid.
