Ghostbusters II
Short description
Five years after the Ghostbusters saved New York, the city has moved on and the team has scattered. Peter Venkman now hosts a television show about psychic phenomena, Ray Stantz and Winston Zeddemore entertain children at parties, and Egon Spengler continues his research into human emotion and psychic energy. Dana Barrett has married, had a son named Oscar, and now works as a restorer at a Manhattan art museum. When a wave of supernatural activity returns to the city, the former colleagues must decide whether to take up their equipment again.
Ivan Reitman directed the film, his sixth in a directing career that ran from the late 1970s into the 2010s. It followed Twins and preceded Kindergarten Cop. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote the screenplay, and Reitman produced. Bill Murray, Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Ramis, Ernie Hudson and Rick Moranis reprise their roles, among a credited cast of 69 and crew of 161.
Columbia Pictures backed the production with a budget of 37 million US dollars, and the film went on to earn around 215 million US dollars worldwide. Its ratings sit in modest territory: 6.6 out of 10 on IMDb from about 239,000 votes and the same score on TMDB from roughly 5,000 votes, while a critics' rating of 5.7 out of 10 from 44 reviews places professional assessments slightly below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Viggo played Wilhelm von Homburg (1940-2004), and Max von Sydow (1929-2020) provided the voiceover. Von Homburg was unaware of this and only found out at the film's premiere, which caused him to leave the screening in anger.
- The pneumatic subway line that Ray encounters after descending underground is based on an 1870 invention by Alfred Beach (1826-1896). Beach's transportation system operated on compressed air, and he dreamed of demonstrating the advantages of a pneumatic transit system to everyone. A tunnel a block long was dug even before the subway system was built – and without the official permission of the city administration. The single subway station featured frescoes, comfortable armchairs, statues, and a goldfish pond. The line was closed in 1873 due to a lack of administrative and financial support. The tunnel entrance was sealed, and the station was put to other uses. In 1912, during the construction of the modern subway system, builders came across the old tunnel (which was still in excellent condition) and the remains of a car. The tunnel was excavated, and what happened to the remains of the car is unknown.
- The scene in which a woman's mink coat comes to life was originally conceived for the 1984 original film, but it was not used.
- According to Peter MacNicol, who played Janosz in the film, the first script he read gave him the role of a rather boring villain named Jason. MacNicol suggested that the restorer be from the Carpathian Mountains. During filming, MacNicol spent a lot of time in his trailer practicing Janosz’s accent and inventing a backstory for him, as well as the mythology of the Carpathian region. He even designed a Carpathian flag.
- The animated series "The Real Ghostbusters" (1986-1991) was so popular with children that Ivan Reitman, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis specifically removed all the humor unsuitable for a young audience, typical of the original 1984 film. All the Ghostbusters quit smoking (although Ray is seen with a cigar or pipe in his mouth in a few scenes), and the ghosts were made less frightening.
- To finish work on this film, Ivan Reitman had to postpone filming the 1990 comedy "Kindergarten Cop".
- Towards the end of the film, as viewers flee the movie theater haunted by ghosts, the marquee displays the film's title: “Cannibal Girls.” This is “Cannibal Girls” (1973), also directed by Ivan Reitman.
- A five-year gap separates the original film and the sequel for several reasons. Bill Murray took an extended break, deeply offended by Columbia Pictures executive David Puttnam calling him an actor “who makes millions but gives nothing back to art.” Moreover, Puttnam disliked blockbusters like Ivan Reitman’s original “Ghostbusters” (1984) that his studio produced in the 1980s. When Puttnam stepped down as studio head in September 1987, his replacement, Dawn Steel, made releasing a “Ghostbusters” sequel a priority. Michael Ovitz, representing Bill Murray, Harold Ramis (1944-2014), and Ivan Reitman, met in early 1988 to resolve disagreements stemming from the original film’s release. The meeting was successful, and work on the sequel began shortly after the Writers Guild of America strike ended.
- Initially, the filmmakers planned to feature the ghostly airship Hindenburg (which caught fire and crashed in New Jersey, USA, on May 6, 1937), but this idea was abandoned in favor of the ghostly Titanic (the disaster occurred on the night of April 14-15, 1912, in the North Atlantic Ocean), from which ghosts disembark.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
