Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan recalls his pitch meeting with the original movie’s director, Ivan Reitman, before his untimely passing.
Kenan spoke to ComicBook about what the Ghostbusters franchise meant to him since childhood and how his life changed when Reitman and his son Jason brought him on to co-write 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. “As an outsider, as a fan, I was so incredibly honored to be able to have a seat at the table creatively for telling the next chapter of these stories with Afterlife,” Kenan said.
“And as that film was coming together, Jason and I started on our own to have a conversation about what the next step of this journey was gonna be where the story was gonna go,” Kenan added. “And we just started to have these ideas that began to feel exciting and those ideas started to kind of take shape to the point that a few weeks before Afterlife opened, we went up to Montecito to Ivan’s house and sat and told him the story of Frozen Empire.”
Much like Afterlife’s dedication to original Ghostbusters star and co-creator Harold Ramis, the latest installment will be dedicated to the memory of Ivan Reitman, who passed away in 2022 at age 75, just three months following the release of Afterlife. Kenan recalls the original director’s warm reception to the Frozen Empire premise.
“We pitched the entire three-act structure of this film and got the warmest reception, his blessing, his validation for the direction we wanted to take these characters in and this franchise in,” Kenan said. “And so that was wind in our sails for making this film, and Ivan’s voice, his presence, his brilliance was always there with us making this film. So, it’s only fitting that this film should end with his name. And that he gets the producer credit that he deserves.”
What happens in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire?
The official synopsis for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire reads: “In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started — the iconic NYC firehouse — to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.”
Directed by Gil Kenan, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire stars Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, and Paul Rudd reprising their roles from 2021’s Afterlife. Original Ghostbusters stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and William Atherton reprise their roles from the 1984 classic. Newcomers to the franchise include Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, and James Acaster.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now playing in theaters.
