A rumour has been buzzing around Hollywood that Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, may be going to direct the long-awaited new Ghostbusters film - and he's going to make it with an all-female ghost fighting team. Yes, if this story is true, in a year or two we might see some funny ladies stepping into the ghostbustin' boots of Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis.
And as someone who, back in the mid '80s, worked out an elaborate dance routine to the Ghostbusters theme (it involved raising our arms into the air for the "who you gonna call" bit before crouching down with outstretched arms for "Ghostbusters!"), I really, really hope this is true.
And this is not just because Ghostbusters is awesome (which it obviously is), and not just because we need more films with female leads (which we obviously do) but because I have absolutely loved Paul Feig since he created the beloved 'Freaks and Geeks' in the late '90s, a teen comedy-drama set in the early 1980s that's still one of the funniest, saddest telly programmes ever made. It also featured some truly amazing female characters, from the heroine Lindsay Weir, who starts hanging around with her high school's "freaks" (played by future big stars James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segal) to scary bad girl Kim Kelly, and it showed that Feig was able to write about complicated, funny female characters. And the deserved success of Bridesmaid showed that Feig (who also played Sabrina's teacher Mr Poole in early seasons of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, fact fans) knows that women can be as funny and rude and weird as men on screen.
Mindy KalingAdvertised
And Ghostbusters isn't the only film that's set to have a female makeover. It's just been reported that the next installment of Sylvester Stallone's franchise The Expendables will be called 'The Expendabelles". Though let's just say my expectations are much lower for this one, and not just because according to the Telegraph, "some of the world’s deadliest female operatives must pose as high-class call-girls shipped in by private plane to satisfy a dictator – and instead save the scientist and the day". Hmmm.
But my fingers are firmly crossed for the girl ghostbusters. I'd like to see Amy Poehler and Kaitlin Olson (Sweet Dee from Always Sunny in Philadelphia, who I think is the funniest actress in any sitcom at the moment), with maybe Mindy Kaling, Retta (aka Donna from Parks & Rec) or Kristen Schaal (from Flight of the Conchords).
So what funny women would you like to see not crossing the streams as Ghostbusters? And what other classic movies could do with a female makeover?
