Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy will reunite for the all-female Ghostbusters sequel, as announced by the film’s director Paul Feig.
Feig took to Twitter to announce the line-up, revealing images of the Bridesmaids actress and Saturday Night Live comediennes Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.
— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) January 27, 2015
This isn’t the first time Feig has worked with McCarthy either, the pair worked on Bridesmaids together, which also starred Wigg, and they then went on to work on The Heat and this year also sees the release of Spy, a film about a desk-bound CIA analyst who volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate the world of a deadly arms dealer, and prevent a diabolical global disaster.
Leslie Jones, who recently appeared with Chris Rock in his film Top Five, began her Saturday Night Live career as a writer before joining its on-screen line-up last year. And Kate McKinnon has been an SNL regular since 2012 and received an Emmy nomination last year for her work on the series.
Original Ghostbusters Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray were also both cast membes on Saturday.
As well as Aykroyd and Murray, the 1984 original Ghostbusters quartet included Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson.
Directed by Ivan Reitman, the film made almost $300m (£198m) at the global box office, the sequel followed five years later.
Paul Feig will direct the reboot
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There’s been plenty of rumours for a follow-up since then, but the reluctance of Bill Murray to sign up have always put a halt in plans, and then plans were completely scrapped after the death of Harold Ramis.
Feig said he wanted to make a different film as opposed to a sequel. He doesn't want to ruin the memory of the first film, so this rebooted film will have new dynamics. The director plans to make it a little scary and it will be set in the present day.
The film is expected to start shooting in New York this summer.
Ernie Hudson, who starred in the original film, was critical of the idea, he says he doesn't understand why they're labelling it Ghostbusters if it's going to be all female and have nothing to do with the other films. He says he loves females, but he isn't completely sold on it being an all-female film.
However, his co-star Murray disagreed, he thinks it sounds great and he can't wait to watch it.
Image credit: Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com