“Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters 2” veteran actor Ernie Hudson has chimed in on the “Ghostbusters” reboot news, which has made the rounds on the web for the past couple of days. The controversy stems from the announcement of an all-female cast.
The 68-year-old Hudson, who portrayed Winston Zeddemore in the original films, is critical of the idea of leaving the original group of “Ghostbusters” behind like phantoms trapped in a containment unit in favor of a brand new cast. This is what he had to say.
“I heard it was going to be a total reboot, and that it would have nothing to do with the other two movies,” he said. “If it has nothing to do with the other two movies, and it’s all female, then why are you calling it Ghostbusters?”
He continued.
“I love females. I hope that if they go that way at least they’ll be funny, and if they’re not funny at least hopefully it’ll be sexy. I love the idea of including women, I think that’s great. But all-female I think would be a bad idea. I don’t think the fans want to see that. Maybe it will come out and be the most amazing thing, but in my opinion I think it would be wrong to do another movie that didn’t include the guys. And that didn’t include me!”
Sony Pictures tapped director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) to make the new film. He will be writing it with Katie Dippold (“Parks and Recreation.”) Ivan Reitman will remain as the producer, while comedic actress Kristen Wiig is poised to star.
Hudson completed the original four member “Ghostbusters” team which also included Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and the late great actor/filmmaker Harold Ramis. Currently, he still appears on the convention circuit, while he admits that acting roles for him are coming in few and far between.
“The studio puts out these announcements over the years that there’s going to be another movie and I’m kind of going, that’s interesting, nobody’s told me about it,” he said. “Maybe they just assume. ‘Oh, we know we can get Ernie’ – which is sadly true! I’m not the most difficult one to get.”
Source: The Telegraph