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Ghostbusters

Revision as of 00:58, 21 October 2016 by Mrmichaelt (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by Demonic Mario 2000 (talk | block) to last version by Mrmichaelt)
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Ghostbusters (also known as "Ghost Busters", the original title [1][2]) was a 1984 sci-fi/comedy film. The film was released in the United States on June 8, 1984. It was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman and stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Ernie Hudson. It is the first Ghostbusters related material that fits in both the Ghostbusters Wiki: Ghostbusters Movie Canon, and the Ghostbusters Wiki: Ghostbusters Animated Canon and is the starting of the Ghostbusters Franchise.

The movie is most known for its No-Ghost Sign, the quote "Who ya gonna Call?", which is a lyric to the Ghostbusters (theme song), and the Ecto-1 vehicle.

Characters

All Characters are listed as they first appear in the film

Main Characters

Minor Characters

Ghosts

Deleted Scenes Characters

  • Jan

Equipment/Vehicle

Items

Places/Locations

  • City Jail

Plot Synopsis

Libraryghost

The Ghostbusters at the New York City Public Library.

Three misfit parapsychology research professors that specialize in ghosts, Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), find themselves looking for work after Columbia University terminates their grant.

Before they are kicked out of Columbia, they investigate a haunting at the New York City Public Library and after seeing some symmetrical book stacking they encounter a ghost librarian (the Gray Lady) that runs them out of the Library.  

Without a way to share their findings, Venkman, Stantz, and Spengler take matters into their own hands. They start an business named "Ghostbusters", a "professional paranormal investigation and elimination service", out of an old firehouse, using a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Ambulance dubbed "Ecto-1" to get about the city and hiring Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) to handle the phones and clerical work. Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) of 55 Central Park West, comes to the Ghostbusters and asks for their help after she experiences some horror in the kitchen of her own home. The Ghostbusters do a few tests to determine that she isn't crazy as she recounts a paranormal experience in her kitchen centering around the name "Zuul". Peter seizes the opportunity to get romantically closer to Dana, and goes with her to the apartment. Using the Ghost Sniffer he checks out the place, finds nothing in the main room, and bedroom. Dana then directs him toward the kitchen where he finds eggs that cooked themselves on the counter, but gets no readings on the Ghost Sniffer despite using it correctly.

First catch

The boys make their first bust

Meanwhile, their funds are nearly dried up eating a Chinese food dinner, which they ate slowly. Janine gets a call with a serious client, and she rings the alarm bell. The Ghostbusters run and get dressed, then leave in the Ecto-1. They show up at the Sedgewick Hotel and the Hotel manager tells them that they are having problems with a resident ghost. Following a successful test of the equipment, they split up to search the hotel for the ghost. Peter finds the ghost which then slimes him. Egon calls Ray to tell him that the ghost is now in a ballroom. They enter the ballroom and as they attempt to capture it, they destroy the room and make a lot of noise. They ultimately manage to capture the ghost, and they find themselves an overnight success across both New York City and the nation. As the amount of calls grows, the team is required to hire a fourth member, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). An unwanted side effect of their new found popularity produces Walter Peck (William Atherton) from the Environmental Protection Agency. He comes to the firehouse trying to inspect the Storage facility which Peter refuses to let him do.

TerrordogZuul

Zuul attacks and possesses Dana

One night, Dana enters her apartment and is talking on the phone to her mother. After she hangs up,she gets grabbed by claws that burst out of her chair. She is taken in to the kitchen where she becomes possessed by Zuul. Meanwhile, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), another resident of the apartments, is hosting a party for the fourth anniversary of him becoming an accountant, when a dog (also described as a bear and a cougar - but really a Terror Dog) attacks, and chases him out of the building and to a restaurant where it possesses him.

Zuul breaks free

Dana, possessed by Zuul, floats above her bed

Peter makes a visit to Dana's apartment. He quickly realizes that she has been possessed by Zuul, the Gatekeeper of Gozer. Changed radically by her possession, Dana aggressively tries to seduce him but ends up growling fiercely and levitating above her bed in frustration after he repeatedly rejects her advances.

Louis, similarly possessed by Vinz Clortho, Gozer's Keymaster, stumbles around Central Park. He harasses locals until finding a carriage horse and confusing it with the Gatekeeper. When the coachman questions him, Louis responds by angrily flaring his eyes red and growling at the man. Later, the cops bring Louis to the Firehouse and ask Egon if he'd take him, as he is exhibiting strange behavior. Egon recognizes that Louis is possessed. Peter later calls Egon to tell him about Dana being possessed by Zuul, aka the "Gatekeeper".

Vinz Red Eyes

Louis, possessed by The Keymaster, growls at the coachman

The next day, Walter Peck accompanied with an officer and laborer, obtains an court order to shut the containment grid down, and unable to stop him, the team flees the firehouse as the grid collapses and hundreds of freed ghosts flood the city. The explosion of supernatural energy causes Zuul to awake in her bed and allows Vinz Clortho to escape and make his way back to 55 Central Park West where they unite inside Dana's apartment with a passionate kiss. Peck orders the Ghostbusters arrested while the ghosts create panic across the city. While waiting in jail, the team recognizes that Dana's apartment building was a huge super-conductive antenna, designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. The mayor (David Margulies) orders the release of the Ghostbusters from jail. He has a conversation with the Ghostbusters about the events while Peck tries to counter-attack their story. In the end of the discussion, Peter wins over the mayor's judgment allowing them to get to work to prevent the potential catastrophe overriding Peck's demands.

ConfrontingGozer

The Ghostbusters confronting Gozer

Assisted by the police and Army, the Ghostbusters make their way to the top of 55 Central Park West. They are too late to prevent the possessed Dana and Louis from completing the ritual for the coming of Gozer. When the Ghostbusters reach the hidden part of the building, the possessed Dana and Louis open a dimensional gate at the top of the building and are transformed into the Terror Dog forms of their possessors. They then take their positions beside Gozer's Temple as the Ghostbusters stare in shock. When Gozer (Slavitza Jovan) emerges in a female humanoid form, the team tries to shoot her with their packs, but fail to harm her. Gozer disappears and tells them to select the next form it will take, and though the team tries to empty their minds, Ray is unable to. Ray thinks about the most innocent thing he could imagine: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. The team finds that a giant version of the marshmallow mascot has begun to lay waste to the city as it makes its way to the apartments and starts climbing the building. Egon realizes that the only way to end the destruction is to reverse the particle flow through the gate by crossing the streams, resulting in "total protonic reversal" which would destroy Gozer and the interdimensional gate. The plan is risky at best, but there is definitely a very slim chance of their survival. As the giant creature reaches the top of the building, the team executes Egon's plan, causing the gate to seal itself, creating an explosion and burning the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man away into large amounts of liquid marshmallow fluff. The Ghostbusters find that they have all survived, and that Dana and Louis have returned to their normal, unpossessed, human forms. The team is cheered on by the vast population of New York City as they leave the building and drive away.

GhostbustersdefeatingGozer

Ghostbusters taking out Gozer

Development

Ghost Smashers

The concept was inspired by Aykroyd's own fascination with the paranormal, and it was conceived by Aykroyd as a vehicle for himself and for his friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi. The original story as written by Aykroyd "Ghost Smashers" was very different than what would be eventually filmed. In that version a group of Ghostbusters would travel through time, space and other dimensions taking on huge ghosts.

In late 1981, Dan Aykroyd began writing his first draft. [3] Work on the script was slow and steady over the next few years due to other projects Aykroyd worked on. On March 5, 1982, while he was writing one of Venkman's lines, Aykroyd heard Belushi had passed away. [4] Aykroyd sent a half completed script to Bill Murray and spoke to him about picking up the mantle left by Belushi. Murray responded favorably to the script's concept so Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman. [5] [6] Reitman looked through the script, which only had 40-50 pages done at that point, and had no idea how he could make it into a movie- alternate dimensions, very little character work, an all black somewhat sentient car that could dematerialize and a special effects budget he estimated to cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, Reitman did like the comic attitude contrasted with a serious script. He set it aside. [7] [8] [9] [10] Undaunted, Aykroyd kept working on the script and finished it months later on January 20, 1983. The finished script was around 180 pages. He submitted the final script to Reitman along with concept drawings by artist friend John Daveikis and a videotape of himself wearing a jumpsuit based uniform and makeshift nutrona wands and a Proton Pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. At the time, several of Reitman's projects were stalled in various stages of development. Eager to get something into production, Reitman took another look. [11] [12] [13] [14]

The Meeting

Reitman honed in on the idea of a group of men operating from a firehouse and responding to emergency calls like firefighters would. Reitman got a laugh out of the concept, equipment, car and logo but had reservations about the fantasy elements. He had a lunch meeting with Aykroyd at Art's Delicatessen in May 1983. [15] Reitman made some suggestions to which Aykroyd immediately took to such as setting the movie in a modern American city, doing an origin story, and bringing in Harold Ramis. [16] [17] After their meeting, Reitman and Aykroyd went to The Burbank Studios and talked to Harold Ramis. At the time, Reitman and Ramis had offices there. Ramis happened to be reading one of Aykroyd's other scripts, one about the Canadian Mounted Police. Aykroyd told him to put it aside and take a look at his Ghostbusters script. After about 20 minutes, Ramis was in. [18] Later in the afternoon, Reitman called his agent Mike Ovitz, who also represented Aykroyd, Ramis and Murray, and asked him to set up a meeting with Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price. [19] Reitman did a 5 minute pitch to Price about the Ghostbusters concept. Price liked it and asked about the budget. Without a final script and knowledge of such a movie, Reitman pulled a number out thin air since his last movie was $10 million. Price advised him to keep the budget in the mid-$20 million range and gave Reitman 13 months to make a summer tentpole movie for 1984. [20] [21] With no script, two writers, two associate producers, most of the main cast, and no special effects house, Ghostbusters was greenlit.

  • Scripts- for more information on scripts for Ghostbusters

First Aykroyd-Ramis Draft

The first collaborative script between Aykroyd and Ramis was completed on June 6, 1983. The main thrust of the draft was to come up with a new story that made sense to Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman. [22] Ramis came up with setting up the main characters as parapsychologists working at a university. [23] More were slowly added to the crew - John DeCuir, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge, and editor Sheldon Kahn. With input from Edlund and DeCuir, the budget was adjusted from $25 million to $30 million. [24] [25] A rough story outline was acheived in the first draft. They settled on how the main characters would start out and where they would end up but the fine details still needed to be worked out. In terms of pacing, the movie didn't taking off until the hotel around page 40. [26] The Ghostbusters were fired from a small college in New England and went to New York. They investigated a coverted farmhouse where a family was being bothered with incessant knocking. [27] [28] Aykroyd and Ramis added in a love interest named Zuul, an alien fugitive from another dimension. After watching a diet cola commercal, the alien and her compatriot transforms into a beautiful female human and a heavy set male human. [29] [30] The romance proved too comedic. Peter and Zuul go to a restaurant. Zuul sees woman taking their wraps off and attempts to take her blouse off. After leaving a restaurant, Zuul takes pity on a carriage horse and kisses it with genuine emotion, leaving the driver concerned. Peter takes Zuul to the Times Square Motor Hotel. The next morning, he wakes up to find Zuul has taken on a warthog form. [31] [32] [33] Some effects were still rather elaborate. When the Containment Unit releases the ghosts, they descend upon a subway station and hover over the tracks then hitch a ride on the express train to uptown. [34] Like the beginning, the end wasn't solely set in New York. Egon concluded a small community in northern New Jersey was the likely epicenter of major psychic activity. The reason was its proximity to three nuclear power plants and chemical waste storage areas. [35] The Ghostbusters would ultimately regroup in New Jersey and battle Gozer, who took on the form of a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions [36]

Second Aykroyd-Ramis Draft

Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman relocated to Martha's Vineyward for two and a half weeks around the July 4th weekend to work on the second draft. Aykroyd was living there at the time and work took place in his basement with an old Royal electric typewriter. [37] [38] New things were added and characters evolved. Egon demonstrated his prototype equipment but after it was plugged into an AC outlet, the Firehouse and Manhattan suffers a black out. [39] The 'foul-smelling amorphous vapor' from Aykroyd's first script became a green, potato-shaped ghost that haunted the hotel. [40] Louis Tully was a visiting conventioneer. [41] The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man became the Ghostbusters' final encounter. [42] Aykroyd, Reitman, and Ramis concluded they needed a fourth Ghostbuster to explain certain things in a more down to earth sort of way. Reitman also felt the movie could use another good guy coming in and joining the Ghostbusters. [43] [44] Initially, Winston came to the firehouse for the job as security guard before Dana went to the Ghostbusters for help. [45] The ending was grander and wrapped up everything. Ghostbusters became a highly successful multinational corporation named Ghostbusters International. Peter and Dana moved in together. Egon and Janine got married. Ray returned to Fort Detmerring for another visit from its resident female ghost. [46] The July rewrite was completed on July 6. The July rewrite was constantly rewritten, re-edited and re-commented on. Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman left on July 10 with a strong script. As rewrites continued, Reitman started auditions. [47]

Preproduction Ramps Up

As preproduction went along, Reitman's team hired many freelance artists to draw out ideas for the ghosts and entities that would be in the movie. The artists were supervised by Michael Gross. Hundreds of concepts were conceived. Reitman did a simple mix-and-match to come up with the best assortment of designs. [48] [49] [50] [51] Gross was also doing preliminary research into who would work on special effects. [52] The only major special effects houses at the time was Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Apogee. ILM was too busy with its current slate of projects, which included Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones, and Star Trek III. Apogee was busy with Dune.[53] Michael Gross and Don Shay grew up in the same town and have been close friends since high school. Gross called Shay in for consultation on visual effects. Shay heard Richard Edlund was leaving ILM to set up his own effects studio. He set up a meeting with Ivan Reitman, Michael Gross, and Richard Edlund. During back surgery, Edlund received a phone call from Reitman to work on Ghostbusters. [54] Edlund's Boss Films (later Entertainment Effects Group) was hired to work on the movie. [55] [56] Columbia fronted $5 million to Richard Edlund to start his own effects house. It exclusively worked on Ghostbusters. [57] They had 10+ months to get their studio up and running, make up new techniques and styles, and design and construct everything. [58] It was discovered Filmation produced a children's live action comedy series called "The Ghost Busters" for the 1975-76 television season. Columbia entered negotiations with Filmation to secure the rights. Talks bogged down and uncertainty developed about the name of the movie. [59]

Third Aykroyd-Ramis Draft

The next rewrite was fine tuned even more. Some scenes were still elaborate from an effects standpoint. The scene where Dana's eggs start cooking was accompanied by a loaf of bread splitting up into pieces of toast and every metal appliance and utensil flew across the room and stuck to the refrigerator door. [60] [61] Characters were brought back from the original script. Shandor was now a human with a morbid past. He was reimagined as a deranged surgeon and architect who worshiped Gozer who met his end when a failed abduction led police to his penthouse apartment, which was furnished with human bones. He was executed at Sing Sing by the electric chair. [62] Other characters were fleshed out better and were close to being finalized. Slimer's design and part was basically locked in. Peter and Ray discovered Slimer in the hotel. [63] Louis Tully, still scripted for John Candy, had rather earthier interests and hosted a party. [64] The sequence of Louis being chased by a Terror Dog was present. Louis attempts to hail a taxi but the Terror Dog jumps on the hood. Honing in on the New York attitude, the taxi driver isn't scared but really ticked off at the Terror Dog. Eventually, it falls off the cab and resumes his chase. The chase then shifts to Central Park. [65] The third rewrite was finished on August 6.

Final Shooting Script and Principal Photography

The final shooting script was completed on October 7. In total, the new script took about three months. [66] Around the time of shooting, it became apparent John Candy was going to pass on the role of Louis Tully. On the same day, Reitman called up Rick Moranis. Moranis was available and was sent the script. Two hours after receiving it, Moranis called back the same day and accepted the role. Moranis helped mold Louis into the accountant character seen in the final version. [67] [68] Bill Murray was due to return to the States a week or two before shooting began in October. Murray did some costume fittings then went back to Paris for a few more days of last minute photography for his movie "Razor's Edge." [69] Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis drove to La Guardia International Airport and pick up Murray. Murray's private plan landed an hour later than scheduled. Murray then came through the terminal with a stadium horn programmed with 80 different fight songs. Reitman and Ramis 'dragged' Murray to a restaurant in Queens. [70] With about a week before principal photography, some camera and wardrobe tests were being conducted. Reitman decided to shoot a montage piece of the three Ghostbusters in uniform running down a street. Aykroyd, Murray, and Ramis suited up and Reitman filmed the montage piece on Madison Avenue around 61st Avenue. [71] In late October, a week of preliminary second unit work and three-and-a-half weeks of principal photography began in New York. [72] [73] Most of the Tavern on the Green scenes were filmed the week before principal photography. [74] [75] The scene with the Subway Ghost was also shot before principal photography. [76] New dialogue continued to be discovered, suggested and inserted during rehearsal and shooting. Scenes were rearranged, such as when Zuul and Vinz reunite. Some scenes and lines were ultimately cut. Some were improvised and looped later. [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] On the first day of principal photography, shooting took place at the Avenue of the Americas at the New York Public Library and Irving Trust Bank. [83] [84] [85] The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was also done on Madison Avenue during the first week of shooting. [86] The scene where possessed Louis walks and just before Slimer appears in the hot dog stand was shot in Broadway. It was also one of the very first things shot. [87] [88]

The montage pieces were mostly shot in one day with a small unit. There were two trucks used to transport the unit, made up of six crewmen, a cameraman, and a soundman, and equipment. Aykroyd drove the Ecto-1. No permits were obtained for shooting at places like Chinatown, the Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the United Nations. [89] The crew went to bed at around 6 am and got up at 10 am. They went and chased Ecto-1 around making up scenes. They shot the night before and the night after. They shot on Central Park West all night with the crowds. Then they went to bed for a couple hours and started shooting all the reaction shots to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on the street. [90] Edlund and his crew also filmed background plates around New York, such as on the top of RCA Building for the ghost montage. [91] While the police department was very cooperative with helping the film crew, the shoots caused a lot of major traffic jams. The locals weren't very happy with the various disruptions. In one instance, Gross hid his Ghosbusters badge while Medjuck simply lied and said they were filming "The Cotton Club." [92] Some local businesses minded as well. The most trouble the film crew got in during shooting in New York was at Radio City Music Hall. It was private property. The crew was shooting on the street and a man in a suit asked Ivan Reitman and if he had permission. Reitman pulled over the location manager and told the man they had a permit. The man then said that the city couldn’t give a permit there since it was private property. Reitman then directed the man to talk to Joe Medjuck. Medjuck kept him busy while Reitman just kept on shooting. Finally, the man called a police officer over and reiterated it was private property and the cop said, "They have a permit, I can’t stop them from shooting." The man then pointed to a plaque in the sidewalk that said that the property was owned by Radio City and the cop just replied, "Hey, anyone could have put that there." [93] Surprisingly, the film crew was allowed to shoot scenes in New York City Hall for two days. City Council president Carol Bellamy's office was used as a stand-in for the Mayor's office as both were identical. [94]

Three weeks into shooting, the crew quickly edited some footage together and did a first screening at Columbia Ranch. Footage from the library scenes were part of the first screening. The Library ghost's transformation was one of the only special effects done so far. The audience screamed and laughed. [95] Four weeks into shooting, the rights to the title Ghostbusters were still up in the air. As a precaution, three different signs were made to hang over the firehouse door. Ghoststoppers was on the only other name seriously considered. During the Central Park West shoots, when Ecto-1 makes its grand entrance, Joe Medjuck called Columbia from a phone booth to check on negotiations. He held up the receiver so the shouts of 300 extras chanting 'Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!' could be heard. [96] Luckily, a deal was finally made with Filmation. [97]

Los Angeles Filming

Around November-December, the main unit wrapped up filming in New York and went to Los Angeles for nine weeks of shooting at The Burbank Studios and various locations. [98] A standing set was used for the Fort Detmerring scene. [99] Stage 12 at The Burbank Studios was used for Fort Detmerring interiors, Dana and Louis' apartments, the apartment hallway, Sedgewick elevator, and Sedgewick corridor [100] [101] [102] John DeCuir constructed the million dollar Temple of Gozer set on Stage 16. [103] [104]

Locations used in Los Angeles included the Biltmore Hotel for some Sedgewick Hotel and 55 Central Park West scenes, a firehouse for interior Firehouse scenes, and the Los Angeles Public Library for the downstairs stacks scenes. Two days were spent at the Biltmore's banquet hall. [105] [106] [107] [108]

Postproduction

Filming wrapped in February 1984 after 15 weeks of shooting in New York and Los Angeles. Richard Edlund and his special effects team had less than four months to complete about 200 optical effects. [109] The effects cost $5.6 million total. [110] Ghostbusters grossed more than $225 million. [111]

Scenes

Scene names taken from 2005 DVD version. These Articles are image intensive.

Deleted Scenes

Main article: Ghostbusters Movie Deleted Scenes

Trivia

January Draft

  • The Particle Throwers were wand-like and attached via black flex cords to a back-mounted proton power source. The wands were strapped in place at the wrist - one in each arm - and extended out along the palm to a point 6 inches beyond the fingertips. When fired by means of an elbow toggle switch on the back pack - phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth. [112]
  • The Slimer scene was originally drafted as a call from the Greenville Guest House's kitchen about a gluttonous yellow mist of grotesquely altered form. [113] The fee was to be $500. [114]
  • The Containment Unit was in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey taken over and converted by the Ghostbusters. [115]
  • Zuul was a generic term for the other-dimensional creature that would later evolve into the Terror Dogs. [116]
  • Gozer was absolute ruler of the sixth dimension. [117]
  • The "Stays Puft, Even When Toasted" slogan for Stay Puft Marshmallows originated in the original script. [118]
  • One of the manifestations in the original script was a skeletal biker terrorizing residents of a small town. This entity became the skeletal cab driver in the final script. [119] [120]
  • Ivo Shandor was the interdimensional employer of the Ghostbusters. [121]
  • When ghosts were released from the Containment Unit in Jersey, a 25 acre sinkhole is created which disrupts a long inactive fault line which somehow transforms most of northern New Jersey into an inferno. [122]

June Draft

  • The graffiti on the Paranomal Studies Laboratory door read 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' as a reference to "The Exorcist." Ivan Reitman decided to take the high road and the message was changed. [123]
  • The Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. It was realized there was something vital to the story taking place in New York. The opening sequence was set in a nice, converted farmhouse where a family was bothered by incessant knocking they couldn't trace. The theme of mundanity in supernatural phenomena was preserved when the scene was rewritten to take place in the New York City Public Library. [124]
  • In a deleted scene in the June (and July) drafts, Zuul feels sorry for a horse in a bridle and harness and kissed it. [125]
  • Peter's love interest was an interdimensional woman posing as a beautiful woman. [126]

July Draft

  • In the July draft, Peter Venkman appeared before a university funding committee. Dean Yaeger was up for a Nobel in Stockholm the previous week but didn't win. [127]
  • In the July (and August) draft, Egon Spengler plugged the Proton Pack prototype into an AC outlet. The pack heated up to 550 degrees and the resulting surge melted the outlet then caused a downtown blackout. [128]
    • The widescale blackout idea was seemingly reused in Ghostbusters II.
  • Louis Tully was a visiting conventioneer. [129]
  • Peter's love interest was a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien. [130]
  • Ghostbusters became Ghostbusters International, a high rolling multinational corporation. Egon and Janine married in Las Vegas with Louis as their witness, Ray paid another visit to Fort Detmerring, Winston arrived at HQ in a limo, and Peter and Dana hung out at her apartment as a baby chick hatched out of an egg in the kitchen. [131]

August Draft

  • Louis' party portrayed John Candy's Louis and his earthier interests. [132]
  • While running out of the apartment, Louis jumped into a cab first. [133]
  • Ivo Shandor was electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably with stacks of human bones. [134]

Production

  • Dan Aykroyd originally wrote a 40 page treatment featuring himself and John Belushi. [135]
  • After reading the treatment, Ivan Reitman met with Dan Akykroyd at a deli about the concept of Ghostbusters and suggested bringing in Harold Ramis and Bill Murray. [136]
  • With no script and no special effects team, Ivan Reitman managed to get Ghostbusters greenlit for a $30 million budget but only had one year to make it starting on June 8th, 1983. [137]
  • Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman suggested the idea of focusing the story on how the Ghostbusters started out. [138] [139]
  • Ivan Reitman did three days of shooting in New York in October 1983 without the main cast before principal photography started in November. [140]
  • According to Ivan Reitman, the hardest aspect of developing the story was what was going on in the apartment. The Keymaster-Gatekeeper idea came very late in the process. [141]
  • During principal photography, flying books in the library scene was deemed too obvious a concept and Dan Aykroyd suggested several volumes to be made to float mysteriously across aisles. [142]
  • After the film came out in theaters, Ivan Reitman got an idea to help keep the phenomenon going. Taking a 'junk buy' cross-country on late-night TV and running the commercial just as it appeared in the film only with the superimposed phone number changed to an 800 number. People could call in and get an answering machine with message from Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. [143]
  • Ivan Reitman knew the movie was a hit when he saw knock off merchandise for sale during the second weekend of release. [144]
  • According to Ivan Reitman, there was plans to do a second commercial as an elaborate MTV music video with the Ghostbusters singing the Ghostbusters song (that could actually be played on MTV) but the song wasn't just right until too late in post-production. [145]
  • According to Michael Gross, at one point a Stay Puft Marshmallows spot was considered for either the ending or beginning of the Ghostbusters commercial. A cartoon Stay Puft Marshmallow Man would be dancing around like the Pillsbury Doughboy. It was deemed overkill and discarded. [146]
  • According to Joe Medjuck, it was only 4 weeks into shooting before the name Ghostbusters could be legally used. As a contingency, three different signs were also made up but the only other serious alternate was Ghoststoppers. [147]
  • The slime was derived from methylcellulose ether - a powdered thickening agent used in pharmaceuticals and food products. [148]
  • The P.K.E. levels analogy started out as "the universe as an expanding four dimensional balloon" but it was later changed to the Twinkie, according to Harold Ramis. [149]
  • Originally, the three arms that grab Dana were different - one human, one hook, and one green frog-like sucker arm. Ivan Reitman thought the sucker arm was too cartoonish and it was discarded. [150]
  • There was some debate over the costly $250,000 sinkhole effect. Ivan Reitman felt it should stay because it showed what the Ghostbusters were getting into. [151] The scene shifted between the actual Central Park West and the Columbia back lot, where John De Cuir recreated Central Park West and the first three floors. Half a police car was placed into the hole. [152] [153] [154]
  • The movie went a little over budget at around $31 million. [155]

Locations

  • Although permission was granted for the production unit to shoot on the Columbia University campus, it was with the understanding that the school not be identified as such in the film. [156]
  • There is no actual Weaver Hall at Columbia University. [157]
  • The Paranormal lab scenes were also filmed at Columbia. [158] [159]
  • The electric shocks were inspired by the Milgram experiment. [160] [161] Ivan Reitman commented the shocks scene spoke volumes about Peter Venkman and set him up as the skeptic of the group. [162]
  • It was discussed at length when Scott would spit out his gum. [163]
  • The scaffolding seen at the New York Public Library were part of an ongoing cleaning project at the time of filming. [164]
  • Joe Medjuck crosses the screen just before the one minute mark. [165]
  • The room Alice and later Peter, Ray, and Egon check out were filmed in the Los Angeles Public Library. [166]
  • The floating book effect cost $250,000. [167]
  • Filming at the library had to be done before 10 am. [168]
  • Footage from the library scenes were part of the first screening. The Library ghost's transformation was one of the only special effects done so far. [169]
  • Some of the library shoots were done on the first day of principal photography. [170]
  • The Irving Trust Bank on Avenue of the Americas eventually became the fictional Manhattan City Bank with the sequence being filmed directly across from the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. [171]
  • The bank scene was shot at the end of the day when the library scenes were filmed. [172]
  • Production designer John DeCuir made a foam core mockup of the Firehouse to establish a feel for the set before construction and renovation of the shooting location and for Ivan Reitman to determine blocking action and camera angles. [173]
  • The Firehouse was used, essentially as found, in the sequence where Egon, Ray, and Peter look around the hall. Once the initial scenes were shot, John DeCuir and his staff moved in and made the necessary modifications for later sequences. [174]
  • Both the Los Angeles and New York Firehouses were built in the same year, 1912. [175] [176]
  • Dan Aykroyd really wanted to use the fire pole. It wasn't just a line for Ray. [177]
  • The "We Got One!" scene was filmed in the Los Angeles Firehouse. [178]
  • When Egon and Janine interview possessed Louis, they simply had Louis duck out and used a one of the rubber heads of a Terror Dog during the parts where the screen shows Vinz Clortho. [179]
  • The first choice for the Shandor building was 1 Fifth Avenue because it was felt the Washington Square Arch would have been a suitable landmark for the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man to walk past. Plans were dropped when the co-op committee for the building voted against its use in the film, according to Michael Gross. [180]
  • At least one of the gargoyles was added in optically to the Shandor building. [181]
  • Most of Vinz' pursuit of Louis to Central Park was filmed before principal photography. [182] [183]
  • When Peter shows up at the Shandor building for his date, the exterior was filmed in a back lot of Columbia Studios. [184]
  • The filming of the Ghostbusters arrival at the Shandor building caused major traffic in Manhattan, effectively shutting down most the area. [185] Dan Aykroyd got to meet science fiction writer Isaac Asimov during this shoot, but Asimov was angry about the traffic. [186] Police had to arrest an obnoxious motorist during the shoot. [187]
  • The hotel scene was planned to be shot in New York's Waldorf Astoria but the lobby was too small and would have cost too much, according to Joe Medjuck. [188]
  • Ivan Reitman also used the Biltmore lobby for filming in "Dave" [189]
  • Slimer flying around the chandilier in the hotel ballroom is one of Reitman's least favorite effects. [190]
  • The ballroom sequence took about three to four days to film. [191]
  • The staff didn't really have any permits to shoot in places like Chinatown, Rockefeller, 42nd, Saks Fifth, and the United Nations. They made quick shots and left. The crowds on 42nd were real ones. A person is actually chasing the Ghostbusters from the Rockefeller for real. [192] [193]
  • The Lincoln center scene was the first scene shot between Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver. For long shots, the crew had to loop the dialogue because the fountain created too much noise. For close ups, it was okay for the fountain to be shut off. [194] [195]
  • While scouting locations and emulating Louis Tully's movements, he saw the Tavern on the Green and decided to use it. [196]
  • The scene in Central Park where possessed Louis talks to the horse is near 6th Avenue and was really done in the middle of the night. [197]
  • The incarceration scene was shot on location at an actual New York prison facility that was out of commission and essentially abandoned. Scratches were discovered in the film used for the shot but Sheldon Kahn was able to work around them in editing and a reshoot wasn't necessary. [198] [199] [200]
  • The prison is somewhere in Lower Manhattan somewhere in the middle of 14th Street. [201] [202]
  • Ivan Reitman fired an extra during the prison filming. [203] [204] [205]
  • Filming was done at the actual New York City Hall. [206] [207]
  • The Mayor's office scene was shot in City Council president Carol Bellamy's office. Both were identical in design. [208]
    • Joe Medjuck, in the commentary, misremembered it as Elizabeth Holtzman's office on the other side of the building where the actual Mayor's office was. [209]
  • In a variation of the Mayor's office scene, Ray called Walter Peck 'wee wienie winkie' and Bill Murray broke up completely - a rare occurrence he almost never does. [210]
  • There were only two flights of stairs at the Biltmore Hotel. The rest were added in post-production. [211] [212] [213]
  • The Temple of Gozer was in part inspired by the book "Rooftops of New York" [214]
  • The whole rooftop sequence took a few weeks to film on a stage. [215]

Props

  • Only Harold Ramis knew how to use the P.K.E. Meter. [216]
  • Dan Aykroyd primarily drove Ecto-1. [217] [218]
  • Ecto-1 died in the Chapter 20 "Keymaster" scene where Ray and Winston drove across a bridge. [219]
  • The ornamental lamps affixed to the exterior of the Shandor Building appear on the ex-Cardassian space station in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Fascination" (from Season 3). The lamps were even immortalized in the Star Trek Online video game. [220]

Characters

  • Dan Aykroyd insisted on the haircut done for Ray Stantz. [221]
  • Harold Ramis credits Peggy Semtob for Egon's hairstyle. [222]
  • Egon Spengler's name was combined from the names of Egon Donsbach and Oswald Spengler. [223]
  • Winston Zeddemore was originally named Ramsey [224]
  • Harold Ramis wrote the line about Egon trying to drill a hole in his head. It was inspired by a thwarted experiment by John Lilly, a prominent researcher in dolphin communication who proposed drilling a hole in his head to test some higher brain function. [225]
  • Until the final shooting drafts, Winston had been seen in the script as a security man for the company. [226]
  • The original concept for Winston was younger and hipper for an actor like Eddie Murphy. Dan Aykroyd wrote Winston's predecessor Ramsey in the Ghost Smashers with Murphy in mind. Gregory Hines was spoken to for the role. [227] [228] [229] [230]
  • In all drafts but the final, Stay Puft was conjured up by Winston. [231]
  • Dana Barrett was originally a model but Sigourney Weaver suggested it would be more interesting if she were a musician. According to Harold Ramis, Weaver's suggestions really grew and strengthened the character. [232]
  • John Candy was originally going to portray Louis Tully and thus, molded to match his persona. Louis first appeared in the June draft as a fellow refugee of the creature which was to become Peter Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola commercial, one creature turns into a beautiful woman while the other turns into a heavy-set man. Joe Medjuck notes Louis would have been similar to Candy's Johnny LaRue character from SCTV. Rick Moranis took on the role and added to the character, even improvising lines during the party scene. [233] [234] [235] [236] [237] [238]
  • Sigourney Weaver auditioned for the role of Dana by acting like a dog. [239]
  • Sigourney Weaver suggested the 'game show host' line, which was deemed more amusing and apropos of Peter Venkman's persona. [240]
  • Sandra Bernhard was offered the role of Janine Melnitz. [241]
  • Dan Aykroyd described Slimer as a vapor - a kind of confluence of stored up psychic energy, an accumulation of spirits that haunt the hotel who doesn't want to leave. [242]
  • Dan Aykroyd's original Ecto-1 was an all-black, rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. While going through the script, the cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs first pointed out the black design would be a problem since part of the movie would be shot at night. [243]
  • Thelma Moss, of the Parapsychology department at UCLA, told Harold Ramis Slimer was similar to a classic type of haunting known as 'hungry ghosts' - a ghost who just ears and drinks. Ramis admitted they didn't know about that when they wrote the script. [244]
  • During pre-production, Ivan Reitman remarked Slimer was sort of like Bluto in the film "Animal House" like the ghost of John Belushi. Dan Aykroyd never argued with that point. [245]
  • Several national newscasters were approached but turned down the offer cold. It appeared newscasters were very sensitive about doing anything other than "real news." [246]
  • Casey Kasem was included at the very last minute during post-production. Kasem was called up, a deal made, and he appeared the next day to rad his bit. Kasem's lines were cut into the film all in 24 hours. [247]
  • William Atherton was heckled a lot after the movie came out in theaters. [248] [249]
  • According to Dan Aykroyd, Gozer was based on several things - a Gozer Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York and was a name related to a documented haunting in England, the one "Poltergeist" was based on. During the haunting, the name Gozer appeared on walls and things. [250]
  • Gozer was originally supposed to look like Bert Parks then in later Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, a Richard Young-type. Ivan Reitman thought it might be more interesting if Gozer was rather androgynous-looking, someone like David Bowie or Grace Jones. [251] [252]
  • Anna Carlisle, a punk rock singer, was offered the role of Gozer but she declined. [253]
  • In earlier drafts, the Terror Dogs were sympathetic creatures from another dimension trying to escape from Gozer. They sought help from the Ghostbusters. [254]
  • Ivan Reitman provided all of the unearthly voices, such as Dana's demonic Zuul voice and Slimer, except for Gozer's. [255] [256]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally an intermediate form of Gozer. [257]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man originally rose up by the Statue of Liberty. [258]
  • One faction in the production unit argued for a 100 foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, another argued for 125 feet but Ivan Reitman ultimately declared 112.5 feet. [259]
  • The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man was originally a throw away character in the midway point and didn't become the final encounter until the July draft. [260]

Montage Scenes

  • In the first montage, the part where Peter, Ray, and Egon run down Madison in full gear was the first thing they shot for the movie. [261]
  • During the montage, the USA Today is dated Tuesday, October 8, 1984. The date was actually a Monday in reality. [262]
  • Ivan Reitman kept some of the magazines and newspapers from that montage. [263]
  • When the Omni Magazine cover appears, Joe Medjuck makes his second cameo. He is behind Egon. [264]
  • In the second montage, when the escaped ghosts shoot towards the Shandor building, film crews shot from the apartment next door. [265]
  • The scene with the Subway Ghost was shot in October 1983 before principal photography. [266]
  • The scene with the Zombie Taxi Driver was also done during the first week of shooting on Madison Avenue. [267]
  • The scene where possessed Louis walks and just before Slimer appears in the hot dog stand was shot in Broadway. It was also one of the very first things shot. [268] [269]

Deleted and Discarded Scenes

  • Ivan Reitman thought the bride and groom scene was one of the funniest sequences but ended up cutting it because it stopped the movie cold. It was one of the tougher decisions Reitman made. [270]
  • The bride and groom were played by Charles Levin and Wendy Goldman. [271]
  • During the Sedgewick case, Egon ran into a woman in a towel. Mary Woronov was cast but the scene was never shot. [272]
  • Ivan Reitman rejected an airbrush rendering of the Chinese ghost to be used during the montage. [273]
  • The encounter between a policeman and the Ecto-1 was the only scene in the final shooting script that suggested the vehicle had some extranormal powers carried over from Aykroyd's initial draft. It was removed because it slowed down the montage. [274]
  • Ivan Reitman came up with the idea of treating the Fort Detmerring deleted scene as dream in the montage sequence. [275]
  • The mugging scene involving the possessed Louis was cut because there was simply no time left in the production process and Richard Edlund had no time to do effects. [276] [277]
  • The tip of Roosevelt Island was to be used for a scene but it was discarded and never filmed. [278]

References in IDW Comics

  • In Ghostbusters International #3, on page 6, in panel 5, on the newspaper there is an old theater screening ad of Ghostbusters with the headlines "They're Here to Save the World" and "The Supernatural Comedy"

Theatrical Releases

Statistics without references are from The Numbers[279], which was found first on Proton Charging (Fan Site)[280].


Known USA Runs:

Run Start Date Last Known Date
First Run June 08, 1984 January 17, 1985[281]
Second Run August 23, 1985[282] October 31, 1985[283]
Third Run October 13, 2011[284] October 27, 2011[284]
Date Rank Gross Theaters Per Theater Total Gross Days
June 08, 1984 1 $13,612,564 1,339 $10,166 $13,612,564 03 (Week 1)
June 15, 1984 1 $15,287,030 1,479 $10,336 $38,302,276 10 (Week 2)
June 22, 1984 1 $13,353,583 1,506 $8,867 $61,639,056 17 (Week 3)
June 29, 1984 1 $11,200,546 1,464 $7,651 $80,459,158 24 (Week 4)
July 06, 1984 1 $11,255,224 1,469 $7,662 $99,770,335 31 (Week 5)
July 13, 1984 1 $10,021,932 1,470 $6,818 $115,684,640 38 (Week 6)
July 20, 1984 1 $8,734,278 1,468 $5,950 $130,017,036 45 (Week 7)
July 27, 1984 2 $7,687,282 1,460 $5,265 $142,693,955 52 (Week 8)
August 03, 1984 1 $6,529,305 1,439 $4,537 $152,974,574 59 (Week 9)
August 10, 1984 2 $5,929,651 1,423 $4,167 $162,725,586 66 (Week 10)
August 17, 1984 3 $5,581,794 1,400 $3,987 $171,667,224 73 (Week 11)
August 24, 1984 2 $4,875,044 1,391 $3,505 $179,403,683 80 (Week 12)
August 31, 1984 2 $6,824,562 1,368 $4,989 $188,550,041 87 (Week 13)
September 07, 1984 2 $3,862,069 1,435 $2,691 $192,977,675 94 (Week 14)
September 14, 1984 2 $3,268,876 1,437 $2,275 $196,967,948 101 (Week 15)
September 21, 1984 3 $2,872,052 1,389 $2,068 $200,931,851 108 (Week 16)
September 28, 1984 5 $2,402,131 1,263 $1,902 $204,108,761 115 (Week 17)
October 05, 1984 5 $2,282,767 1,183 $1,930 $206,935,954 122 (Week 18)
October 12, 1984 5 $1,746,135 1,107 $1,577 $208,994,111 129 (Week 19)
October 19, 1984 8 $1,513,820 890 $1,701 $211,073,728 136 (Week 20)
October 26, 1984 13 $1,026,018 753 $1,363 $212,543,273 143 (Week 21)
November 02, 1984 11 $1,189,173 780 $1,525 $214,109,334 150 (Week 22)
November 09, 1984 13 $1,075,979 375 $2,869 $215,596,868 157 (Week 23)
November 16, 1984 14 $736,591 566 $1,301 $216,643,458 164 (Week 24)
November 23, 1984 13 $884,918 609 $1,453 $217,831,940 171 (Week 25)
November 30, 1984 12 $686,433 510 $1,346 $218,872,755 178 (Week 26)
December 07, 1984 14 $336,049 431 $780 $219,339,232 185 (Week 27)
December 14, 1984 17 $223,221 329 $678 $219,638,740 192 (Week 28)
December 21, 1984 19 $285,952 229 $1,249 $220,095,070 199 (Week 29)
December 28, 1984 16 $636,153 217 $2,932 $220,855,498 206 (Week 30)
January 04, 1985 - - - - - 213 (Week 31)
January 11, 1985[285] - - - - - 220 (Week 32)
August 23, 1985[282] - - - - - 444 (Week 64)
August 30, 1985 9 $1,942,457 888 $2,187 $4,997,948 451 (Week 65)
September 06, 1985 10 $1,145,353 864 $1,326 $6,329,963 458 (Week 66)
September 13, 1985[286] - - - - - 465 (Week 67)
September 20, 1985 - - - - - 472 (Week 68)
September 27, 1985 - - - - - 479 (Week 69)
October 04, 1985 - - - - - 486 (Week 70)
October 11, 1985 - - - - - 493 (Week 71)
October 18, 1985 - - - - - 500 (Week 72)
October 25, 1985[287] - - - - - 507 (Week 73)
October 13, 2011[284] - - - - -
October 20, 2011[284] - - - - -
October 27, 2011[284] - - - - -

Versions and Releases of Ghostbusters

Home Video Releases

The VHS version of the movie was released in 1985. The DVD version of the movie was released on June 29, 1999 and became one of the fastest selling units ever on Reel.com. Sony had announced at Comic-Con 2008 that the Blu-Ray version of the film was to be released on October 21, 2008, but it was actually released on June 16, 2009 to coincide with the release of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the film's 25th anniversary..

To read more on home video releases of the film, go to Ghostbusters Home Video Releases

Edited-For-Television Version

GB1 ABC Promo 9-24-1987edit

In the United States, Ghostbusters premiered on the ABC television network on Thursday September 24, 1987 at 9:00 PM Eastern as the season premiere of the "ABC Thursday Night Movie" series. The movie ran, with commercials, until 11:07 PM. The "edited for television" version features several alternate takes to replace some of the more objectionable dialogue.

For more information to the edited for television version click here.

Foreign Markets‎‎

The Ghostbusters Movie was released all over the world. However, many aspects of the movie had to be localized.

Movie Title Language/Territory
S.O.S. Fantômes French
Ghostbusters – Die Geisterjäger German
Os Caça-Fantasmas Portuguese
Los Cazafantasmas Spanish


References

  1. ↑ Theater Poster
  2. ↑ IMDb- Ghostbusters / release info
  3. ↑ Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 05:28-05:34). Columbia Pictures. Dan says: "Uh, '81. Really was when I started to write it. In late '81."
  4. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Other films and projects interrupted the screenwriting process, and John Belushi's sudden death put a further temporary hold on the work. "I'd been working on it, on and off, for a couple of years -- always with the idea of having John involved. I was, in fact, writing one of his lines when I heard that he had died.""
  5. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Aykroyd presented his half-completed script to Bill Murray -- a fellow Saturday Night Live expatriot and alumnus of the Chicago-based Second City troupe. When Murray responded favorably to the concept, Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman, with whom he had worked briefly -- years before in Toronto -- as a comedian and announcer for a live television variety show."
  6. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 05:41-05:48). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "It languished for a bit. Then I think you sent it to me... you spoke to Bill about perhaps picking up the mantle and he sent it to me."
  7. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: ""Dan had written only forty or fifty pages at that point," Reitman recalled, "and frankly, I had no idea how I would go about making it into a film. For on thing, it was set in the future -- not far in the future, but far enough -- and it took place on a number of different planets or dimensional planes. And it was all action. There was very little character work in it. The Ghostbusters were catching ghosts on the very first page -- and doing it on every single page after that, without respite -- just one sort of supernatural phenomenon after another. By the tenth page, I was exhausted. By the fortieth or fiftieth page -- however many there were -- I was counting the budget in hundreds of millions of dollars. And there really weren't very many laughs. Although I could detect a comic attitude, the whole thing was written rather seriously. In the end I just kind of set it aside and forgot about it.""
  8. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 06:10-06:34). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "The idea of the firehall, the No Ghost symbol - this wonderful thing - it was right in the script Danny sent me. And amongst the 100 odd special effects monsters that were there, there was something called the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And it happened on page 20 or 30. It was really just one of many things."
  9. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 95. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The encounter between the policeman and the Ectomobile is the only scene in the final shooting script which suggested that the vehicle itself had some extranormal powers -- a carryover from Dan Aykroyd's initial draft in which the Ectomobile was equipped with an advanced dematerializing capability that allowed its operators, functioning somewhat outside the law, to readily elude police pursuit."
  10. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 67 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd's original Ectomobile was an all-black rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. Though kept essentially intact through all the drafts, the vehicle concept -- suggesting a hearse rather more than an ambulance -- was clearly more in keeping with the darker tone of Aykroyd's first draft than with the lighter ones that followed it. It was cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, however, who first pointed out a serious problem with it."
  11. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7-8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd, however, did not. When the script was finished some months later, he submitted it to Reitman once again -- complete with conceptual illustrations and a quickie videotape of himself in a jumpsuit-based uniform embellished with makeshift nutrona wands and a proton pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. With several projects stalled in various stages of development, Reitman -- championing at the bit to get a film into production -- decided to give Ghostbusters a closer look."
  12. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 66 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "To help sell his original screenplay, Dan Aykroyd commissioned an artist friend -- John Daveikis -- to render a few preliminary design concepts. Among them was a proposal for the Ectomobile -- which, in contrast to its written description, was depicted as being white rather than black."
  13. ↑ Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Richard Edlund quote 11/7/14
  14. ↑ Labrecque, Jeff (2014). "Ghostbusters: An Oral History". Entertainment Weekly.
  15. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "What I focused on, as I read the script again, was Dan's really brilliant initial concept -- the idea of a group of men who work out of an old firehall and respond to emergencies much the way firemen do. The only difference is that these emergencies are supernatural in nature -- and so what the Ghostbusters do is go out, trap ghosts and incarcerate them. Dan had come up with that concept, and had worked out the equipment and the car and all that sort of thing. He even thought out the basic idea for the Ghostbusters logo -- the little ghost inside a stop sign. That was one of the few things in the original draft that I had actually laughed at. But it seemed to me that the overall concept was diluted by setting the story in the future and then introducing fantasy elements and going off into other dimensions. So I called Dan and we had lunch at Art's Delicatessen and I told him what I thought ought to be done."
  16. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "I told Dan that I felt we should set the film in a modern American city and that we should tell how ghostbusting came about -- how the guys invented their equipment and the story of their first really big bust."
  17. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Without hesitation, Dan Aykroyd expressed his agreement with the direction Ivan Reitman felt the screenplay should be taken. Reitman next suggested a writing collaboration between Aykroyd and Harold Ramis -- an extremely gifted comedy writer who had worked on the scripts for all three of Reitman's previous hits."
  18. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Dan Aykroyd says: "Right after our lunch meeting, Ivan and I walked over to Harold's office -- which, like Ivan's, was on The Burbank Studios lot. At the time, Harold happened to be reading another script I'd written about the Canadian Mounted Police. I told him to put that script aside, and I replaced it with the Ghostbusters one. After looking through the script and listening to what we had to say for about twenty minutes, he said, 'Okay, I'm in.'"
  19. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Later that same afternoon, Reitman called his agent, Mike Ovitz -- who also had happened to represent Aykroyd, Ramis, and Murray -- and asked him to set up a meeting with Columbia Pictures chairman Frank Price."
  20. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8-9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "There was really nothing for him to read. I didn't want to give him Danny's script because it wasn't really relevant to where we were going, and it probably would have scared him. I just told him who was going to be involved and gave him a five-minute synopsis of the story -- the way it was going to go -- and he said, 'Well, what's it going to cost?' I said I had no idea -- there was no screenplay and no budget -- but that it was going to be expensive And he said, 'Keep it in the mid-twenties and you've got yourself a deal.'"
  21. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The $25 million commitment had only one hitch -- but a big one. Columbia needed a major release for the summer of 1984. Reitman and his team had exactly one year to come up with a script, mount the production and complete the extensive and time consuming visual effects -- and his team at that point, aside from his writers, consisted solely of associate producers Joe Medjuck and Michael Gross."
  22. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 10. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Basically we worked out a new story that made sense to the three of us. Then Dan and I divided up the responsibility of getting it down in screenplay form. Ivan, as always, was a good validator -- which is a useful function for a writer."
  23. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 10. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "It was my idea to set the guys as parapsychologists at a university."
  24. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "With studied inputs from Edlund and DeCuir, Ghostbusters' seat-of-the-pants budget estimate was refined and adjusted to just under $30 million."
  25. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the months that followed, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs joined the group, as did costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge and editor Sheldon Kahn."
  26. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "After our first draft, we has the story pretty well locked in. We knew basically how we were going to have them start out and where we were going to go with them, but what took us several more drafts to work out were the details. For the longest time, the movie never really got going until the hotel scene -- which was around page 40. Then we added the library ghost, which got us off much earlier in the film; and by the time we started shooting, the ESP scene had been written in, which was very funny and got us moving right from the beginning."
  27. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In our first draft, the Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. But we realized that there was something very vital about being in the city, so we began thinking maybe we should start the film there. That's when we came up with the idea of using the New York Public Library for our opening sequence."
  28. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Prior to that, it had been set in a nice, converted farmhouse where this family has been bothered by incessant knocking that they're unable to trace. So we're in there climbing all over the house, knocking out walls and ripping up floorboards in their nicely remodeled kitchen. And at the end of the scene, all we're able to tell them is, 'Well, you've got a knocking.' 'We know we've got a knocking! What's causing it!' 'We'll have to get back with you on that.' It was a little cruel and not very dynamic -- but it sort of touched on the mundanity of some supernatural phenomena."
  29. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dana Barrett's character changed dramatically as the script evolved. Aware that the story needed a love interest, Aykroyd and Ramis decided to write one into their initial collaborative draft. Being more attuned to comedy than romance, however, their first effort resulted in an alien fugitive from another dimension which transforms itself into human female form."
  30. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The character makes his first appearance in the June draft as a fellow refuge of the creature which was to become Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola television commercial for inspiration, one creature transforms itself into a beautiful woman, while the other transforms into a heavy-set man."
  31. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 124 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The exchange between Louis and the horse harkens back to a deleted scene from the June and July drafts in which Venkman and the alien Zuul -- masquerading as human in Dana's body -- leave the restaurant and encounter several carriage horses. Noticing the bridles and harnesses, Zuul inquires if they are prisoners. Uncertain of her reaction, Venkman responds promptly: "No, no. They're volunteers. This is considered a good job for a horse." "They look so sad," Zuul laments, and then kisses one of the beasts with enough genuine emotion to elicit a worried look from the carriage driver. In the June draft, Venkman pulls her away and segues -- ever so smoothly -- into an invitation which leads to his surprise wakeup the next morning: "You know, I was just thinking. No trip to this dimension would be complete without a visit to the Times Square Motor Hotel."
  32. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Venkman's affair with the interdimensional creature was funny, but not very romantic. He wakes up with her one morning and she is this kind of wart hog -- which we realized was rather lacking in real human connection and love."
  33. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Eventually cut from the script was a restaurant sequence which appeared in the June and July drafts. In both, Venkman takes Dana -- an interdimensional alien masquerading as a beautiful woman in the first draft, and a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien in the second -- to a fashionable restaurant. Her unfamiliarity with the finer points of human etiquette becomes apparent when, upon arrival, she observes several ladies removing their wraps and proceeds to follow their example by taking off her blouse."
  34. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 145 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The flying fish-like ghost which fits out of the subway entrance was a mere reminder of a much more elaborate introduction to the montage conceived by Ramis and Aykroyd in their first collaboration. In that draft, rather than making an aerial passage uptown, the ghosts descend into an all but deserted subway station. As a transit cop chats amiably with a female cashier, the subway turnstiles begin spinning unaccountably. Investigating, the officer discovers a huddled mass of ghosts and vapors hovering directly over the tracks. When a speeding express train passes by, the spirits hitch a collective ride uptown - taking over the cars en masse and sending everyone from motormen to muggers fleeing before them.'"
  35. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "In the first collaborative draft, even though the storage facility was now in the firehall, a similar concept was employed - with Spengler pinpointing a small community in northern New Jersey as the likely epicenter of major psychic activity, due to its central proximity in three nuclear power plants and a number of chemical waste storage areas."
  36. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied aphid's head of monstrous proportions."
  37. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 18:44-19:03). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "My favorite time working on this movie was the three of us - Dan, Harold and I went to Martha's Vineyward. We each had a house. Aykroyd was already living there. And we spent 2 and a half weeks around the July 4th weekend and basically hammered out this new draft."
  38. ↑ Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 19:04-19:09). Columbia Pictures. Dan says: "In my basement. So we wouldn't look out at the sea. With an old Royal electric typewriter."
  39. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 68 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the July and August drafts, Spengler conducts an early demonstration of the experimental ghostbusting equipment for his comrades at the firehall. Since the self-contained unit is still under development, the existing prototype is plugged into an AC outlet. An audible surge of power runs from the wall socket along the extension cord to the power pack on Spengler's back. The pack heats up to 550 degrees and kicks the electrical surge back down the wire to the wall outlet which melts. At once, all the lights in the room black out. Compounding the gag, the action then cuts to an exterior of the firehouse as all the lights in and on the building go out, as does the street lamp and the stoplight at the corner. Then the action cuts once again to a long shot of downtown office buildings as they all black out in rapid succession, leaving dark silhouettes against the night sky."
  40. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "After going through an evolutionary design process, the hotel ghost finally emerged as a green, potato-shaped creature -- and it was at this point, in July, that its description as such was incorporated into the script. Prior accounts were less specific, indicating merely that it was an incredibly foul-smelling amorphous vapor."
  41. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Later in the July draft, Louis Tully -- then a visiting conventioneer, also possessed -- enters the same restaurant..."
  42. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. "
  43. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Time Is But A Window: Ghostbusters II and Beyond" (2014) (DVD ts. 09:00-09:21). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "As we were developing the uh second or third draft, we came to the conclusion that we needed this kind of character to explain certain things and be a more elegant way of doing it and I felt the movie needed a ump up in terms of a new character coming in on the good guy's side that helped."
  44. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 54 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads says: "The inclusion of Winston was in clear response to a perceived notion on the part of the filmmakers that the team needed to embrace a fourth member who could serve as the on-screen voice of the viewing public -- a no-nonsense professional, with a major streak of skepticism when it came to the avowed objectives of his employers. On further reflection, however, it was decided to delay Winston's introduction until after the Ghostbusters' first big score when, conceivably, they could really begin to need some augmentation."
  45. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 54 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the July and August drafts, Dana's appearance at the firehall is preceded by a scene in which Winston Zeddemore -- armed with enough references to nail down a job as security chief for the White House -- presents himself in reply to a trifling 'help wanted' ad for a guard."
  46. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 203 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Alternate endings in earlier drafts included scenes within the towering glass and chrome headquarters of Ghostbusters International - now a high-rolling multinational corporation "recognized everywhere as the first line of defense against interdimensional trespassers." The July draft even attempted to wrap up the romantic loose ends. Venkman and Dana set up housekeeping, Spengler and Janine are married, and Stantz returns to Fort Detmerring for spiritual renewal."
  47. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 19:10-19:39). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "And it was being constantly rewritten and re-edited. Re-commented on. And really by the time we left which was the 10th of July, we had a pretty good script. It wasn't the script we shot but it was enough of a script to say 'we need this character, we need this character down the hall, we need a woman.' I can start auditioning people while ther rewriting continued and we were shooting the movie in October and it came out in June."
  48. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 87 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Instructed to cut loose with his imagination, Italian comic artist Liberatore produced a number of extreme, highly eccentric ghost concepts -- none of which actually ended up in the film."
  49. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 143 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "During the script-writing stage, we didn't concern ourselves too much with what forms our ghosts would take. But as the director, I had to start worrying about that during preproduction. To help with the brainstorming process, we hired a number of freelance artists to sketch out ideas - there were literally hundreds of different concepts by the time they were done - and from those, I just basically mixed and matched and tried to come up with a delectable assortment.'"
  50. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 46. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "During the film's preproduction phase, Berni Wrightson produced some fifty conceptual illustrations, exploring everything from Terror Dogs and ghosts to transdimensional portals and beyond. Working under short deadline, Wrightson would sometimes respond to the tension with a momentary lapse into whimsy -- letting his cartoonist's instincts get the better of him, as in this comic rendering of a ghostly barbershop quartet."
  51. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "Under the auspices of Michael Gross, we hired a number of artists who were put to work doing sort of free-form designs for the various kinds of ghosts I could see developing in the story."
  52. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "Michael was also doing some preliminary research into who might be available to handle the effects."
  53. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Unfortunately, most of the major effects facilities were already booked. Dune was over at Apogee at the time, and Industrial Light and Magic was finishing Return of the Jedi and beginning Indiana Jones and Star Trek III."
  54. ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 00:49-00:59). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "It was a... opportunity that came by way of a phone call from Ivan Reitman when I was having an operation on my back."
  55. ↑ Don Shay comment in blog about Cinefex #17 4/10/12
  56. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 11. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Then we learned Richard Edlund was planning to leave ILM to go into business for himself."
  57. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 18:05-18:43). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "And uh that was 13 months after that moment. There was no screenplay, there was no... we had the cast and a brilliant idea, no special effects team. There was one great special effects house, Industrial Light & Magic and it was already tied up doing the new Spielberg movie and we knew we couldn't go to them. We had to create out own. Columbia actually fronted $5 million to Richard Edlund and he started his own. Boss Films it was called. It was the start of his own special effects house that was exclusively working on Ghostbusters."
  58. ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 01:46-02:08). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "Once I got the "go," we all came together in a studio in Marina Del Ray which was kind of a pile of parts and we had, essentially, rebuilt the whole studio, came up with techniques and styles for doing the whole show, designed and storyboard everything and execute within the space of little over 10 months."
  59. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Preproduction was well underway before anyone realized that Filmation had produced a short-lived Saturday morning children's show called The Ghost Busters during the 1975-76 television season. Columbia promptly entered into negotiations with Filmation to secure rights to the title; but the talks bogged down, and through most of the New York location photography, Reitman and company were uncertain as to what their film would eventually be called."
  60. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 49 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In our previous draft, there was another effect besides the self-cooking eggs. Also on the counter was a loaf of bread in a plastic bag. We wanted to have the bag puff out and steam up to the point where it started to peel away. Then, one by one, the pieces of bread were going to heat up, turn brown, and fall over as toast. But Ivan thought the eggs really sold the scene, and he didn't want to go to the time and expense of having a loaf of bread toasting itself."
  61. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "At one point, another scene was to follow Dana's departure. As soon as she left the kitchen, every metal appliance and utensil in sight was to fly across the room and stick to the refrigerator door. After discussing numerous ways to achieve the effect -- the most likely being attaching the implements to the refrigerator and then yanking them away with invisible wires as the camera recorded the action in reverse -- the idea was discarded as unnecessarily difficult. In the final edit, the entire sequence cuts immediately after Dana slams the refrigerator door."
  62. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Shandor was dropped altogether from the first two Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, but resurfaced in the third - in name, at any rate - with an even more unsavory background than that suggested by the final shooting script. As recounted by Spengler in the August draft, Ivo Shandor was a deranged surgeon, architect and Gozer worshiper, electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably - if not tastefully - with stacks of human bones."
  63. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 70 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Onionhead's film debut, as depicted in storyboard form by Thom Enriquez. Though the ghost design and its essential action were already locked in, these early sketches show Venkman and Stantz discovering the ghost together -- a story point that was altered sometime between the August draft and the final shooting script."
  64. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 115 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "As originally scripted for John Candy, the Louis Tully character was to have had decidedly earthier interests -- best evidenced in the party sequence as it appeared in the August draft."
  65. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 121 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the August draft, Louis' attempted escape into Central Park is preceded by a sequence in which -- having just emerged from the apartment house -- he flags down a passing taxi and jumps inside. Seconds later, the Terror Dog bounds out of the building and launches itself onto the hood of the cab. In true New York form, the driver hurls a few expletives at the beast, guns his motor and speeds away, causing the creature to lose its balance and fall by the wayside. Undaunted, the Terror Dog takes off in hot pursuit, chasing the taxi through the streets of Manhattan."
  66. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "The whole script came together in about three months."
  67. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says "By the time shooting actually began, though, John was no longer available. Fortunately, Rick Moranis was and he really helped to tailor the character. He came up with the idea of Louis being an accountant, and the character really started to evolve from that point on."
  68. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 14:24-15:10). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "In terms of shifting from the original screenplay, I don't know if you remember we wrote it for John Candy. I remember sending it to Candy because I just worked with him again on Stripes and John didn't get it. He kept saying, 'Hey, well maybe I can do him with a German accent ' and I was a little hesitant right away. It was an odd thing in an American based movie and he was looking for a handle. And we got into the uncomftorable conversation. And finally it was clear he wasn't going to do it. And I literally called Rick Moranis the same day and sent him the script the same day. Candy turned it down. Rick called me like 2 hours after he got it. He said, 'Please thank Candy for turning this down This is amazing. I know what to do with it.'"
  69. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "I told him we were pushing for an October start date -- just a week or two after he was supposed to get back -- and he said, 'Okay, I'll see you then.' And that was about the extent of our preproduction discussion -- until about a week or two before shooting, when he flew in to try on some costumes and then disappeared back to Paris for a few more days of last-minute photography on Razor's Edge."
  70. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Ivan wanted me with him, so we drove out to La Guardia. Bill flew in on a private plane, an hour late, and came through the terminal with a stadium horn -- one of those bullhorns that plays eighty different fight songs -- and he was addressing everyone in sight with this thing and then playing a song. We dragged him out of there and went to a restaurant in Queens."
  71. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 03:17-03:44). Columbia Pictures. Ivan says: "It was a week before shooting began but we were doing some camera tests that day and also wardrobe tests. And for the wardrobe test I thought 'Well, let's just shoot one of those sort of montage pieces when they first become Ghostbusters and it's the three Ghostbusters running down the streets in their uniforms. It was Madison Avenue around Sixty First and I sort of just look up and I see them for the first time and I got this amazing shiver up my spine."
  72. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "With a final script at last in hand, Reitman and his production team gathered in New York in late October for a week of preliminary second unit work, followed by three-and-a-half weeks of principal photography."
  73. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 26. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Commencing in late October 1983, first and second unit crews blanketed the island of Manhattan recording all the scenes necessary to adequately ground the Hollywood production in a convincing New York environment."
  74. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:01-54:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Yeah, this was in October when... "
  75. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:02-54:06). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was when we went a week early. Shot for five days. Most of this. "
  76. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:26-1:09:30). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This is all part of that very early shooting we did back in October as I remember. "
  77. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Venkman's line was a last-minute insertion into the script."
  78. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Some things are impossible to anticipate as you're writing. When we actually got to the jail scene and saw all those brutes standing around us, I suggested to Ivan that they watch us and listen intently to all this physics and technical stuff we were talking about. Then Bill could say, 'Everybody with us so far?' It's a natural. But it's something you wouldn't think of until got to the actual set and saw the physical relationship between everything."
  79. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 156 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dialogue in the mayor's office changed considerably during rehearsals and shooting."
  80. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 160 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "As shot, the long-delayed joining of Zuul and Vinz took a somewhat different form and was cut into the film between the Ghostbusters' release from the holding cell and their arrival at City Hall. Since it was decided earlier that a definite link needed to be established between the ghostly disturbances and the apartment building on Central Park West, a scene was added at the end of the ghost montage showing the possessed Dana looking out her window as clouds of disembodied spirits stream up from lower Manhattan. As they swoop past her penthouse apartment, en route to the rooftop temple, the wall between them explodes outward."
  81. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 160 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The conversation between Venkman, Stantz and the mayor was cut from the film, as was Spengler's subsequent exchange with Janine - yet another attempt to establish an off-beat romantic tie between them."
  82. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "Missing from the script is the dialogue between the men as they trudge up the stairs - some of which was improvised on the spot and some of which was added later in looping."
  83. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:25-12:27). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "No, this was the first day of principal photography. "
  84. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 16 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Exteriors of the New York Public Library and scenes within its main reading room consumed only part of a single day's location shooting. From a logistics standpoint, the interiors were especially demanding since the expansive reading room had to be lit, the action staged and photographed, and then everything cleared away -- all within the few short hours available between the crew's 5 a.m. call and the library's 10 a.m. opening to the public."
  85. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 37 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The Irving Trust bank on Avenue of the Americas eventually became the fictional Manhattan City Bank -- with the sequence being filmed directly across from the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue, late in the afternoon of the same day the exterior and interior library footage had been shot."
  86. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:40-1:09:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Also from the first week of shooting on Madison Avenue. "
  87. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:53-1:09:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is Broadway, I think. "
  88. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "The hot dog vendor was one of the very first things we shot. It was included because it provided an opportunity for us to reintroduce the Onionhead ghost from the hotel - again eating and belching. Not only that, we thought, ' How can we shoot the streets of New York without including a hot dog cart?'"
  89. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 91 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "Most of the montage was shot in one day in New York. We had been working late the night before with the full crew, then got up early in the morning and went all over town with a small crew, shooting stuff. We went to Chinatown, Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue and the United Nations -- all in one day. We didn't really have permits to shoot in any of these places -- we just made quick stops here and there. That's pretty much the way Ivan made movies in the old days -- a small crew, moving fast. We had two small trucks with equipment, and Danny was actually driving the Ectomobile, having a great time. And the crowds on 42nd Street are real. You put Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd on a street corner, and you have no trouble drawing a crowd."
  90. ↑ Beyond the Marquee Joe Medjuck Interview 9/15/14
  91. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 143 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The ghostly multitudes streaming uptown from lower Manhattan would ultimately become the first shot in the ghost montage - a whirlwind assemblage of scenes featuring supernatural entities of various forms and demeanors running rampant through the city. Background plates for the panoramic view were shot from atop the RCA Building by Richard Edlund and his crew. Spectral imagery - as with the firehall 'ghost geyser' material - was generated and added later at Entertainment Effects Group.'"
  92. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "The city - particularly the police department - was wonderfully cooperative. But an awful lot of the local populace was less than happy with the disruption of their daily routine. Even when you're shooting at one in the morning, things are going to get congested in New York. There were times when we had traffic backed up for miles in all directions. We all wore buttons that said 'Ghostbusters Crew' so we could move around the shoot without being stopped by production assistants. One night, just after we finished, I went into a bar down the street from where we'd been shooting. A guy came in, really angry, yelling: 'What the hell's going on? Traffic's backed up for miles!' I just sat there, quietly removed my crew button, and hid it in my pocket. Joe Medjuck had his own way of dealing with the problem. Whenever somebody asked him what we were shooting, he told them The Cotton Club."
  93. ↑ Beyond the Marquee Joe Medjuck Interview 9/15/14
  94. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 154 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The production unit filmed for two days in and around New York's City Hall, during which time the office of City Council president Carol Bellamy was graciously made available as a stand-in for the actual mayor's office cited in the script."
  95. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 10:24-11:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "But he um this first moment of seeing the Librarian and the Librarian shift... I remember our first screening. Our first test screening was only three weeks after we finished shooting. We edited the movie very quickly. It came together nicely and we didn't have much of our special effects but we had this one here, not so much this one but the one that's coming up - the transformation and when we screened it for this audience for people at Columbia Studios they just freaked out... both screamed and laughed at the same time. It was a sense of how the movie was going to work, both truly scary and really funny. "
  96. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 162 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "At the time we were shooting the big arrival outside Dana's apartment building, we still didn't know for certain whether we were going to be able to use the Ghostbusters title. Negotiations were still underway, I remember going to a phone booth on the corner, calling Columbia and holding up the receiver so they could hear the three hundred screaming extras we had tying up traffic, shouting 'Ghostbusters! Ghostbusters!' as the guys arrived. And I said to them, 'You better damn well get that title!'."
  97. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "We were about four weeks into shooting before we knew for certain that we could use the name. Because of that, we had three different signs made up for the carpenter to hang over the firehouse door -- each with a different name on it, although the only other serious contender was Ghoststoppers. Finally, we struck a deal with Filmation that allowed us to stick with our original title."
  98. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The main unit then reassembled back in Los Angeles for an additional nine weeks of shooting on The Burbank Studios soundstages and at various area locations."
  99. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 130 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In a scene deleted from the final film, the Ectomobile arrives at Fort Detmerring -- a standing set at the Columbia Ranch, dressed rather simply with an identifying sign and a guard shack."
  100. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 135 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd discuss an upcoming shot in the truncated Fort Detmerring sequence, filmed on a small set adjacent to Dana's apartment on Stage 12."
  101. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 71 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The interior of the elevator and all the corridors of the hotel were actually sets constructed on Stage 12 at The Burbank Studios.""
  102. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 45 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The sprawling apartment house interiors -- two key apartment and the hallway between them -- extended over two adjoining soundstages on the Burbank studios lot."
  103. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "John DeCuir's mammoth rooftop set constructed on Stage 16 at The Burbank Studios."
  104. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 107 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Prior to construction of the million-dollar set, DeCuir prepared a small foam core study model."
  105. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 81 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though the hallway action took place on a soundstage, the sequence which follows was shot at the Biltmore Hotel. Modified with a breakaway chandelier and a set of prefabricated replacement walls, the ornate banquet facility was taken over by the film crew and occupied for two days."
  106. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "The apartment building's 'thirty-five flights of stairs' were, in reality, only two flights of stairs - filmed at the Biltmore Hotel location used earlier for the fictitious Sedgewick Hotel. The remaining flights were added in postproduction by the Entertainment Effects Group matte department."
  107. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 38 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "The firehouse in Los Angeles is a huge place -- three stories high. And all of the scenes that were supposed to take place in the firehouse were actually filmed in the firehouse. None of that was done at the studio. When the script says 'basement of the firehouse,' we are actually in the basement of that firehouse. Though John DeCuir added lots of things to dress the place, most of the essential elements were already there."
  108. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 32 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Murray, Aykroyd and Ramis were filmed on location at the Los Angeles Public Library, while the actress playing the ghost was photographed on an effects stage at Entertainment Effects Group and then inserted optically in the shots."
  109. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "When the show wrapped in early February, Richard Edlund and his crew had less than four months to complete nearly two hundred postproduction opticals."
  110. ↑ Richard Edlund (1999). Ghostbusters (1984) "SFX Team Featurette" (1999) (DVD ts. 03:15-03:26). Columbia Pictures. Richard Edlund says: "And the effects ultimately, in Ghostbusters, wound up costing $6.5 million. If we done Dan's original script, it would have been $40 million."
  111. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 13. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "When the final count was in, Ghostbusters had grossed more than $225 million -- making it the most successful motion picture comedy of all time."
  112. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 82 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though the nutrona wands employed in the film are clearly rifle-inspired firearms, the high-tech ghost-herding devices of Dan Aykroyd's original concept were indeed wand-like. Attached via thick black flex-cords to a back-mounted proton power source, the wands were strapped in place at the wrist -- one on each arm -- and extended out along the palm to a point six inches beyond the fingertips. When fired -- by means of an elbow toggle switch on the backpack -- phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth."
  113. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 84 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Overall, the Onionhead entrapment follows -- with a fair degree of faithfulness -- the opening sequence in Dan Aykroyd's solo script. As originally drafted, the Ghostbusters respond to a call from the Greenville Guest House regarding the discovery in the kitchen of gluttonous yellow mist or grotesquely altered human form -- a 'FRVP' or 'free-repeating vaporous phantasm' in ghostbusting lingo. After chasing the apparition -- described as 'onion-headed' at one point -- through the rustic guest home, the Ghostbuster corner it in the basement, encircle it with nutrona beams and maneuver it into a small collapsible trap."
  114. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 86 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the first Dan Aykroyd script, the Greenville Guest House proprietor balked at a mere $500 fee."
  115. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 102 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's first script, the spectral storage facility was not at the firehouse itself, but rather in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey, taken over by the Ghostbusters and surreptitiously converted into a holding cell for wayward spirits."
  116. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, the root of New York's widespread psychic disturbances lay in the fact that a 'Zuul' -- a generic term for the other-dimensional creature which would later evolve into the Terror Dogs -- had somehow strayed out of its rightful time and place and was being held captive by the Ghostbusters' employer, himself a transdimensional being."
  117. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it. When this concept was superseded in subsequent drafts, Zuul became a given name for the female Terror Dog, which -- along with her like companion Vinz Clortho -- is seeking refuge from the Gozer in New York."
  118. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 138 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A large billboard -- rendered in matte painting form by Matthew Yuricich -- appears on one of the buildings adjacent to the firehall. Featured on it is a representation of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man and the words "Stay-Puft Marshmallows -- Stays Puft, Even When Toasted -- an advertising slogan lifted from Dan Aykroyd's original script."
  119. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "One of the many supernatural manifestations encountered in Dan Aykroyd's first script was a skeletal biker who has been terrorizing the residents of a small upstate town.'"
  120. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Often, in early drafts of a script, you have one scene with good dialogue, another scene with a great visual impact, and yet another scene that makes a really expositional point. But what makes a really dense comedy is when you can take the good dialogue and the physical business and the raw exposition for all these different scenes and load them into one strong scene with a definite reason for being. That's what happened with the skeletal biker. It was a wonderful concept, but it was too far removed from the main story. With the skeletal cab driver, we were able to save the visual effect from that original scene and put it in a place where it made better sense.'"
  121. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, Shandor was the name of the Ghostbusters' interdimensional employer - a decided eccentric whose walls were lined with mounted trophy heads taken from such challenging big game as bats, rats and lobsters. Though Shandor was invariably to be found sequestered in his darkened office, perched on a swivel armchair and covered entirely by a near-opaque mosquito bonnet, no one seemed to suspect that there might be anything inherently out of the ordinary about him."
  122. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "A sinkhole of much grander scale was included in the original Dan Aykroyd script, when the accidental release of the Ghostbusters' incarcerated spirits triggers a twenty-five acre sinkhole around their gas station storage facility. The sinkhole, in turn, disrupts a long inactive fault line which somehow transforms most of northern New Jersey into a blazing inferno."
  123. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, the graffiti read: 'Venkman sucks cock in Hell!' -- an amusing reference to one of the shocker lines from The Exorcist. An occasional R-rated expletive -- strictly for humorous effect -- was also to be found in the early Ghostbusters drafts. In the end, however, Ivan Reitman opted to take the high road with regard to language and taste."
  124. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 36 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In our first draft, the Ghostbusters were tossed out of a small New England college and then go to New York. But we realized that there was something very vital about being in the city, so we began thinking maybe we should start the film there. That's when we came up with the idea of using the New York Public Library for our opening sequence."
  125. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 124 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The exchange between Louis and the horse harkens back to a deleted scene from the June and July drafts in which Venkman and the alien Zuul -- masquerading as human in Dana's body -- leave the restaurant and encounter several carriage horses. Noticing the bridles and harnesses, Zuul inquires if they are prisoners. Uncertain of her reaction, Venkman responds promptly: "No, no. They're volunteers. This is considered a good job for a horse." "They look so sad," Zuul laments, and then kisses one of the beasts with enough genuine emotion to elicit a worried look from the carriage driver. In the June draft, Venkman pulls her away and segues -- ever so smoothly -- into an invitation which leads to his surprise wakeup the next morning: "You know, I was just thinking. No trip to this dimension would be complete without a visit to the Times Square Motor Hotel."
  126. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Eventually cut from the script was a restaurant sequence which appeared in the June and July drafts. In both, Venkman takes Dana -- an interdimensional alien masquerading as a beautiful woman in the first draft, and a beautiful woman possessed by an interdimensional alien in the second -- to a fashionable restaurant. Her unfamiliarity with the finer points of human etiquette becomes apparent when, upon arrival, she observes several ladies removing their wraps and proceeds to follow their example by taking off her blouse."
  127. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 22. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present -- in somewhat differing form -- in all three of the early Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, Venkman's appearance before a university funding committee was ultimately scratched in favor of the ESP testing sequence. In the July and August drafts, the opening segment with the screaming librarian cut directly to her apparent point of view -- in actuality a ceremonial demon mask being used by Venkman as a visual aid..."
  128. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 68 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the July and August drafts, Spengler conducts an early demonstration of the experimental ghostbusting equipment for his comrades at the firehall. Since the self-contained unit is still under development, the existing prototype is plugged into an AC outlet. An audible surge of power runs from the wall socket along the extension cord to the power pack on Spengler's back. The pack heats up to 550 degrees and kicks the electrical surge back down the wire to the wall outlet which melts. At once, all the lights in the room black out. Compounding the gag, the action then cuts to an exterior of the firehouse as all the lights in and on the building go out, as does the street lamp and the stoplight at the corner. Then the action cuts once again to a long shot of downtown office buildings as they all black out in rapid succession, leaving dark silhouettes against the night sky."
  129. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  130. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 126 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Later in the July draft, Louis Tully -- then a visiting conventioneer, also possessed -- enters the same restaurant..."
  131. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 203 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Alternate endings in earlier drafts included scenes within the towering glass and chrome headquarters of Ghostbusters International - now a high-rolling multinational corporation "recognized everywhere as the first line of defense against interdimensional trespassers." The July draft even attempted to wrap up the romantic loose ends. Venkman and Dana set up housekeeping, Spengler and Janine are married, and Stantz returns to Fort Detmerring for spiritual renewal."
  132. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 115 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "As originally scripted for John Candy, the Louis Tully character was to have had decidedly earthier interests -- best evidenced in the party sequence as it appeared in the August draft."
  133. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 121 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the August draft, Louis' attempted escape into Central Park is preceded by a sequence in which -- having just emerged from the apartment house -- he flags down a passing taxi and jumps inside. Seconds later, the Terror Dog bounds out of the building and launches itself onto the hood of the cab. In true New York form, the driver hurls a few expletives at the beast, guns his motor and speeds away, causing the creature to lose its balance and fall by the wayside. Undaunted, the Terror Dog takes off in hot pursuit, chasing the taxi through the streets of Manhattan."
  134. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Shandor was dropped altogether from the first two Aykroyd-Ramis collaborations, but resurfaced in the third - in name, at any rate - with an even more unsavory background than that suggested by the final shooting script. As recounted by Spengler in the August draft, Ivo Shandor was a deranged surgeon, architect and Gozer worshipper, electrocuted at Sing Sing after his attempted abduction of a teenage girl led police to his penthouse apartment, furnished impeccably - if not tastefully - with stacks of human bones."
  135. ↑ Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck, Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 06:21-06:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We uh we all went up to um, where was it?"/Joe Medjuck says: "Martha's Vineyard."/Ivan Reitman says: "Martha's Vineyard! The story of the making of this movie actually uh has... it all happened very quickly. Danny Aykroyd wrote a 40 page treatment. That happened over years and years which I was fortunate to get sent to me and uh... I think he originally wrote it for he and..."/Joe Medjuck says: "John Belushi."/Ivan Reitman says: "That's right, he and Belushi and unfortunately John Belushi passed away before they could make that one. When I read it, it took place in the future with tons of..."
  136. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:43-13:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "When I read the very first sort of treatment it took place in the future. There were many groups of Ghostbusters, the Marshmallow Man came out on page 20 and was one of 50 large scale monsters. Frankly, if I was going t make that particular script, it would have cost $300 million in 1984 and...but there was this one fantastically brilliant idea which there was a group of men who much like firefighters who could catch ghosts and I remember sitting down at a deli with uh Danny and said "Look this is a great idea but we should work on it some more and why don't you get Harold Ramis involved because he outta be a Ghostbuster as well. He's great , he's got just the right sort of brilliance to him and let's bring Billy into it" and he went with it and about a month later we were making this picture. "
  137. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 13:44-14:21). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I went into Frank Price's, who was the head of Columbia Pictures, office and uh I said "Okay, we're going to do this movie, it's called Ghostbusters. This is sorta what the story is about..." because we of course didn't have a script at the time, and um he said uh "What will it cost?" and I said "$30 million." It was just a number off the top of my head because that was more money, three times as much I spent on my last movie and he uh he said "Fine, have it out by June." and that was exactly 12 months from that moment. We had no script, no special effects team but we had three willing actors. "
  138. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:27-15:43). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "I should probably point out also in Dan's original script, there was no development of the Ghostbusters as parapsychologists working in the university, starting up the company... all this stuff. Ivan and I both had the idea we wanted to see how the Ghostbusters got to be Ghostbusters. "
  139. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:43-15:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Yeah, I always thought the movie should be a going into business story. Really smart guys that go into business. Just a very unusual business. I like the idea of them going to a bank, getting a place, dealing with a realtor, fixing the place up... I thought these were all things an audience could relate to. "
  140. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:07-54:31). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember because of the amazing schedule we were under which was that we started writing in May or June of '83 then the movie the movie was going to be out in June of '84 and that I decided arbitrarily to do three days of shooting without the main cast in October when we actually did principal photography in November. "
  141. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 12. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "The whole Keymaster-Gatekeeper idea came very late, and we struggled with it all the way."
  142. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 18 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "During principal photography, it was decided that the flying books concept was too obvious an effect. At Dan Aykroyd's suggestion, several volumes were instead made to float mysteriously across the aisles, exchanging places while the librarian's back is turned."
  143. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 47 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "After the film was out and doing well -- just to keep the phenomenon going -- Ivan came up with the idea of taking a 'junk buy' cross-country on late-night TV and running the commercial just as it appeared in the film, only with the superimposed phone number changed to an 800 number. Then people would call it and get an answering machine with Danny's and Bill's voice saying: 'Hi, we're the Ghostbusters. We're not in right now -- we're out catching ghosts...' Well, they did that, and they got a thousand calls per hour, 24-hours-a-day for six weeks."
  144. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 08:15-08:30). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I knew we had a hit actually when... the second weekend of release when I was walking through Manhattan there were sort of... kiosks at every corner with guys selling illegal black market T-shirts with sayings from the movie and the logo on it. "
  145. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 47 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "At one point, we planned to do a second commercial for the film -- one that we could work into the montage after they've become famous. I was going to do it as an elaborate MTV music video, with the guys singing the 'Ghostbusters' song -- which we later could have actually played on MTV. Unfortunately, we didn't get the song we liked until late in postproduction, and by that time it was too late to go back and do it."
  146. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 49 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "The Stay-Puft marshmallow man appears several times in the film, because we wanted to build a continuity of his presence. In fact, at one point, we considered either ending or beginning the Ghostbusters commercial with a Stay-Puft spot -- complete with a little stop motion countertop like the Pillsbury doughboy. We discarded that idea, though, as being a bit of overkill."
  147. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "We were about four weeks into shooting before we knew for certain that we could use the name. Because of that, we had three different signs made up for the carpenter to hang over the firehouse door -- each with a different name on it, although the only other serious contender was Ghoststoppers. Finally, we struck a deal with Filmation that allowed us to stick with our original title."
  148. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 81 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Joe Day applies 'ectoslime' to Bill Murray. In reality, the gooey substance was derived from methylcellulose ether -- a powdered thickening agent used in pharmaceuticals and food products."
  149. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 104 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "We were delighted with the notion that this script could be so 'out there,' and yet still have a scientific and parapsychological plausibility. From a physics point of view, Dan was always talking about things like 'holes in the reality envelope.' Well, I didn't know what that would mean to an audience, so I came up with this 'Mr. Wizard' kind of analogy -- describing the universe as an expanding, four-dimensional balloon. And as I was talking, I'd be blowing up this balloon. Then I'd explain, 'If something were to penetrate the envelope of our reality...' -- and the balloon would pop. That then led to the 'Twinkie' analogy. The whole thing made sense in terms of the plot but it was just much too long, so only the Twinkie survived."
  150. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 112 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "It was always the intention to have only two, but when Thom Enriquez storyboarded the sequence, he showed the movement of one of the arms by drawing it in two positions, with cartoon-style movement lines in between. This drawing was misunderstood by the guys in the 'monster shop,' so they built three -- and since they had, we used them. When it came time to shoot the scene, Ivan decided to have the third arm come right up between Sigourney's legs. It really made the sequence much more terrifying and threatening. Originally, each arm was different. One was a human arm, one had a hook on the end of it and one was a green, frog-like sucker arm. Ivan didn't like the sucker arm -- he thought it looked too cartoonish -- so we ended up with two human arms and the one with the hook."
  151. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "There was a lot of debate over whether or not the sinkhole effect was worth doing. It was, after all, a very expensive stunt - about $250,000. The studio didn't want me to do it, and my associate producers both felt it was something we could give up. But I thought it was really important because up to then, nothing really bad had happened to these guys. They'd had their hair tousled and blown around, but there was no real sense of the threat. It seemed to me that prior to the final battle we had to demonstrate - immediately and simply - just what they were going up against. The sinkhole effect showed how though and violent things would get. I was convinced it was a great sequence, so I stuck with it."
  152. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:20-1:20:25). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Here's a great switch from the real Central Park West to the back lot. This is all the back lot now. "
  153. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:26-1:20:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "All these effects John De Cuir recreated the street and [first two floors] actually three so I could get wide enough for the shot and these are all on hydraulics underneath so we could redo it over and over and there's... "
  154. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:45-1:20:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Then in New York, the police car slid into the street. They took a police car and just literally cut the front half off the car and laid it in the hole in the street, the fake hole in the street. "
  155. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 50:31-50:39). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Amazingly enough, the budget as I said earlier was $30 million and I think we finally made the film for $31 million. We went slightly over budget. "
  156. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 35 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Although permission was granted for the production unit to shoot on the Columbia University campus, it was with the understanding that the school not be identified as such in the film. Neither Weaver Hall nor a 'Paranormal Studies Laboratory' actually exists at Columbia."
  157. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:40-02:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "There's no Weaver Hall but this is Columbia University. "
  158. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:45-02:47). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Even this was at Columbia, wasn't it? "
  159. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 03:39-03:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And t his was actually a room at Columbia University, we should have--we were planning to shoot this on the set but were moving so fast in New York that we went to our cover sets that John De Cuir aged it but otherwise it's in the basement somewhere in Columbia. "
  160. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 02:57-03:00). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And this was based on a real experiment, wasn't it, Harold? "
  161. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 03:01-03:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "We based it on the Milgram Experiment which was to psych--subjects in a psychological study were instructed to give electrical shocks to people trying to learn a list of words but what they were really testing were the peoples' willingness to give electrical shocks to other people. "
  162. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 20 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Our original concept for the scene was to have the ESP test and Venkman reinforcing the girl by telling her she's getting them all right, even when she's not. Then I came up with the added dimension of having him give shocks to the poor nerd -- an idea that was based on a real experiment, were people had to give electric shocks to test people; but the people giving the shocks didn't know that they were the test subjects. The idea was to see how far people would go in giving shocks to other people. I thought that was a very interesting psychological problem, and I loved the notion of the hero of the film giving electric shocks. It has an interesting moral edge for people, and it just seemed like a delightful setup."
  163. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 04:47-04:58). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "There was a lot of conversation I remember about when the spitting of the gum moment should occur. Should it be on the first? The second? The third? We used it as a climax moment. "
  164. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:25-00:41). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Now we actually shot this in New York at the Public Library. But unfortunately there was scaffolding everywhere because they were cleaning the building... "
  165. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:56-00:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "And this handsome young man is me 15 years ago crossing the screen. "
  166. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 00:59-01:07). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And through the magic of cinema, as she [Alice] walks down the stairs we are now shooting in the Los Angeles Public Library. "
  167. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 01:27-01:29). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "$250,000. "
  168. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 07:45-07:46). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "All before 10:00. "
  169. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 10:24-11:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "But he um this first moment of seeing the Librarian and the Librarian shift... I remember our first screening. Our first test screening was only three weeks after we finished shooting. We edited the movie very quickly. It came together nicely and we didn't have much of our special effects but we had this one here, not so much this one but the one that's coming up - the transformation and when we screened it for this audience for people at Columbia Studios they just freaked out... both screamed and laughed at the same time. It was a sense of how the movie was going to work, both truly scary and really funny. "
  170. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 12:25-12:27). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "No, this was the first day of principal photography. "
  171. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 37. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  172. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 15:17-15:27). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "I remember because we finished in the library at 10 am then we went outside, took a break, went outside of the library, and shot this same scene at the end of the day. "
  173. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 39. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Production designer John DeCuir examines a foam core mockup of the firehall -- an existing structure to which he would be adding the enclosed office area at the rear as well as other modifications and refinements. Such mockups were invariably useful in establishing a three-dimensional feel for the sets -- before costly construction or renovation was initiated -- and often proved useful to Ivan Reitman for blocking action and determining camera angles."
  174. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 39. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Once these initial scenes were shot, DeCuir and his staff moved in and made the necessary modifications for later sequences in the film."
  175. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:00-16:10). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "More creative geography. This is an actual old Firehouse in Los Angeles but the interior is an actual in-use Firehouse in New York. "
  176. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:10-16:13). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Coincidentally built in the same year, 1912. "
  177. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:17-16:24). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And it's true, as soon as we did see this pole, Danny said we gotta use it. It wasn't just a moment in the movie. "
  178. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 28:32-28:36). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "This really was fun. This was also back in LA. We got to slide down the pole. "
  179. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:01:24-1:01:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "We used that same um machinery we saw on Sigourney and as the camera moves across Rick ducked out and we put the head of one of those rubber dummies of the Terror Dog in so it would appear like that's what was inside of him. "
  180. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 41 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Plans to use the 1 Fifth Avenue building progressed to the point of designing preliminary rooftop sets for it, but were dropped when the co-op committee for the building voted against its use in the film."
  181. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 16:52-16:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was added optically, this gargoyle. "
  182. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:01-54:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Yeah, this was in October when... "
  183. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 54:02-54:06). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was when we went a week early. Shot for five days. Most of this. "
  184. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 55:05-55:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And this was the street we created in the back lot of Columbia... Columbia Studios. "
  185. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:18:44-1:19:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "So this is 65th and Central Park West so what happens there's the East-West crossing through the park on 65th and 66th. Columbus Circle is just off the street so when we were shooting this scene for three days, we stopped traffic here which shut down Columbus, 8th, Broadway, 7th, and 59th Street. Shot the East-West pass through the park, traffic started backing up to Times Square then Herald Square, Eastside, all the way to the river and they told us at one point we shut down 60% of Manhattan. "
  186. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:19:24-1:19:50). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Ah right, so we're taking a break one day, Danny and I are standing on 65th and Central Park West, Danny sees Isaac Asimov, who lives in the neighborhood. Danny was so excited, he was one of the great science fiction writers of our age, 'Mr. Asimov, Dan Aykroyd, we're shooting the Ghostbusters movie'... he says 'Are you the ones responsible for this?'... and he walks away. He couldn't get home. "
  187. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:20:05-1:20:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember there was a guy trying to get through, a really obnoxious guy in a car in the area and he started giving the policemen who were working on the film some real grief so they just pulled him out of the car and arrested him. "
  188. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 67. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  189. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 29:52-29:59). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I used this moment in "Dave" when he exits as the supposed President of the United States. "
  190. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:05-35:10). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "One of my least favorite special effects. "
  191. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:32-35:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We ended up shooting I guess in the hotel for three or four days on this sequence. "
  192. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 91 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "Most of the montage was shot in one day in New York. We had been working late the night before with the full crew, then got up early in the morning and went all over town with a small crew, shooting stuff. We went to Chinatown, Rockefeller Center, 42nd Street, Saks Fifth Avenue and the United Nations -- all in one day. We didn't really have permits to shoot in any of these places -- we just made quick stops here and there. That's pretty much the way Ivan made movies in the old days -- a small crew, moving fast. We had two small trucks with equipment, and Danny was actually driving the Ectomobile, having a great time. And the crowds on 42nd Street are real. You put Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd on a street corner, and you have no trouble drawing a crowd."
  193. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:02-40:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "The guy chasing here is not an actor, he was really chasing...The guy chasing was really someone from Rockefeller Center because it was illegal to shoot there. "
  194. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 96 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Venkman's interception of Dana outside the Metropolitan Opera House -- ostensibly to give her a progress report on her case -- was actually the first scene shot between Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver."
  195. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 96 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "For the long shots, we had to loop the dialogue because the Lincoln Center fountain in the background created so much noise. For the closeups -- when the fountain was out of frame -- we were able to have the water shut off."
  196. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 123 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "The original idea was for Louis to be trapped by the Terror Dog in a dark corner of the park. But Ivan was scouting locations one day, emulating Louis' moves from the time he runs out of the apartment building -- 'Louis runs here, then he runs here, and then he runs ... there!' And there was the Tavern on the Green -- a logical distance for Louis to have run, and a logical place to seek refuge."
  197. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 59:15-59:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is uh 6th Avenue I think. This is the middle of the night near Central Park I remember. "
  198. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 151 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The incarceration scene was shot lon location at an actual New York prison facility, now out of commission and essentially abandoned."
  199. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:01-1:11:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Yes, this was a real jail, deserted I believe. "
  200. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:13-1:11:17). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Danny claimed it was haunted and the film got scratched, we had to cut around it. "
  201. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:10:44-1:10:46). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "This is a jail in Lower Manhattan. "
  202. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:11:07-1:11:12). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "No, it was in the middle of 14th Street or something. "
  203. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:12-1:11:15). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Ivan, you fired an extra on this day, do you remember that? "
  204. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:16-1:13:19). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Some guy mouthing off... 'You, out and never come back'. "
  205. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:13:20-1:13:23). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "And he thought you were kidding and you said 'No, get out'. "
  206. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:28-1:14:32). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is actually the City Hall yes. "
  207. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:37-1:14:44). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "We were given amazing access actually by the filming group in New York. "
  208. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 154 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The production unit filmed for two days in and around New York's City Hall, during which time the office of City Council president Carol Bellamy was garciously made available as a stand-in for the actual mayor's office cited in the script."
  209. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:14:54-1:15:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This was I believe Elizabeth Holtzman's office if my memory serves me. It's a twin to it on the other side of the building. "
  210. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 156 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "There were several variations of that scene on the set. During one take, Danny called Peck 'wee wienie winkle' and Bill Murray broke up completely - which is something he almost never does on camera."
  211. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  212. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:02-1:22:07). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is one or two stairs then everything up is a matte painting. "
  213. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:22:08-1:22:16). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I think this was shot at the Biltmore. "
  214. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 24:04-24:38). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Let me say about the rooftop. We were thinking about where, what would be the center of the disturbance. And different kinds of buildings and places all over the city and we...I don't know if this this is how it occurred to everyone but I remembered a rooftop in St. Louis which was a replica of a temple and we started looking at the rooftops of New York and someone produced a coffee table book called 'Rooftops of New York' and we saw all these interesting temples on rooftops of buildings and all these strange Gothic structures and they went with that as a design concept."
  215. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:23:34-1:23:49). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "The whole rooftop sequence took us a few weeks to film. It was all on this stage. The Ghostbusters are actually in there in that shot in the hole, closer you can see the guys walking around. "
  216. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 08:31-08:40). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This piece of equipment, only Harold got to learn how to use it. He had sort of had a secret way to use the three buttons that were on it that made the little wings rise and fall. "
  217. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 39:54-40:01). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Danny Aykroyd is actually driving the car in most of these shots. We shot it all in one day after we been up late the night before. We went off with just the car... "
  218. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:50-41:03). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "Yeah and Dan, we used that as part of the pre-publicity for the movie. "
  219. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:03:21-1:03:23). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is when the car died at the end. "
  220. ↑ Spook Central Facebook Page - Image Comparison
  221. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 06:08-06:12). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Danny insisted on the spectacular haircut of his, as well. "
  222. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 07:08-07:15). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Nah. The French hair... the French-Moroccan hair dresser you found. Peggy Semtob!"
  223. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 21:46-21:56). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Egon Spengler. Egon came from Egon Donsbach. I went to school with a Hungarian refuge and Spengler was from Oswald Spengler. "
  224. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Stantz and Venkman and Ramsey -- the character we changed to Winston -- were all essentially the same. That was fairly representative of Dan's writing at the time. He was very much concerned with story and structure and effects, but he would sort of stay on the surface of his characters."
  225. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 27 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Venkman's line was inspired by a bizarre, but thwarted, experiment by John Lilly -- a prominent researcher in dolphin communication -- whi seriously proposed drilling a hole in his head to test some higher brain function. Harold Ramis, who wrote the line, piggy-backed on it during the take by responded: "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.""
  226. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 99 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Until the final shooting script, Winston had been seen in the script as a security man for the company. When it became apparent that the Ghostbusters had no real need for a security man, he became instead a full-fledged -- if not altogether convinced -- Ghostbuster."
  227. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 99 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "I think the original concept for Winston's character was younger and hipper. At one point, we were talking with Gregory Hines about playing the part. We also considered getting a young, black comedian -- somebody like Eddie Murphy. But in retrospect, it's probably just as well we didn't. It would have been just too much. As it is, there is a nice balance among the four characters. Winston is the moderate character against which the other three can play."
  228. ↑ Michael C. Gross (1999).Ghostbusters- Subtitles Production notes (1999) (DVD ts. 45:14). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Michael C. Gross says: "At one point, we were talking with Gregory Hines about playing the part. "
  229. ↑ Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Dan Aykroyd quote 11/7/14
  230. ↑ Labrecque, Jeff (2014). "Ghostbusters: An Oral History". Entertainment Weekly.
  231. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In all of the drafts but the final one, it is Winston - not Stantz - who inadvertently conjures up the Stay-Puft marshmallow man."
  232. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "And, of course, once Sigourney Weaver expressed an interest in the role, we took the character much more seriously. We had made her a model, but Sigourney suggested it would be more interesting if she were a musician."
  233. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In anticipation of getting John Candy for the role, the character Louis Tully was originally molded to suit Candy's persona."
  234. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The character makes his first appearance in the June draft as a fellow refuge of the creature which was to become Venkman's interdimensional love interest. With a diet cola television commercial for inspiration, one creature transforms itself into a beautiful woman, while the other transforms into a heavy-set man."
  235. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says "At first, Louis was a much different character than the one you see in the film. He was similar to the Johnny LaRue character that John did on SCTV."
  236. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 44 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says "By the time shooting actually began, though, John was no longer available. Fortunately, Rick Moranis was and he really helped to tailor the character. He came up with the idea of Louis being an accountant, and the character really started to evolve from that point on."
  237. ↑ Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis, Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 17:44-18:33). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Now the part was originally written for John Candy. Do you remember that? We called up John and said 'John, you got to be in this, Harold is in it... Harold and John had worked together in SCTV up in Canada and all of us worked in Stripes and only naturally he should be in this film. And John didn't understand this part. He kept coming back and saying well maybe I'll play him in German. He'll have a German accent and he'll have Rottweilers. I said you can't have dogs, we already have too much dog imagery in the movie. And he finally passed on the film. Rick Moranis, who had been sent the script by his agent, was waiting patiently in the wings and was very happy when John passed..."/Joe Medjuck says: "But we changed the character a lot. Rick really helped create this character."/Harold Ramis says: "He brought some fine speeches to this character."/Ivan Reitman says: "And I think he chose the wardrobe."
  238. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:32-35:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Now he improvised most of this party dialogue which I think is brilliant. "
  239. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 17:18-17:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "And um actually agreed to audition. She came into my office and not like I'm giving anything away saying she turned into a dog at some point in this film and uh I remember her getting up on the couch and actually auditioning like a dog and I knew at that point she had to be in the film. "
  240. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 60 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Although the finished sequence bears only a cursory resemblance to the script, certain elements were retained -- at least in part. Sigourney Weaver suggested that 'game show host' was both more amusing and more apropos of Venkman's persona than 'used car salesman.' and so her line was changed accordingly."
  241. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:27:01-1:27:04). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Remember you offered Sandra Bernhard Annie Potts' role? "
  242. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 64 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Dan Aykroyd says: "So, in reading the literature and reading about full head and torso apparitions, I found out that it is very rare that you see a full figure -- it is usually just a hint of the former being. The Onionhead is a vapor -- a kind of confluence of stored up psychic energy. He's an accumulation of spirits that haunt this hotel, and he just doesn't want to leave."
  243. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 67 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd's original Ectomobile was an all-black rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. Though kept essentially intact through all the drafts, the vehicle concept -- suggesting a hearse rather more than an ambulance -- was clearly more in keeping with the darker tone of Aykroyd's first draft than with the lighter ones that followed it. It was cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, however, who first pointed out a serious problem with it."
  244. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Thelma Moss, of the parapsychology department at UCLA, told me after seeing the movie that one of the classic types of hauntings is known as the hungry ghost -- a ghost who just eats and drinks. We didn't know that when we wrote the Onionhead into our script, but it's a nice coincidence."
  245. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 78 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "One day, during preproduction, we were all sitting around talking about the Onionhead concept, and Ivan remarked that the character was sort of like Bluto in Animal House -- like the ghost of John Belushi, in a way, Danny, who was obviously a good friend of John's, never argued with that. Even so, we never officially said that and we never mentioned it in the script. It was just one way to look at the character, because Onionhead's grossness is like Bluto's in Animal House. We certainly never expected anyone to recognize him as such, although somehow the word did get out and we received some calls from a few newspapers saying they'd heard we had the ghost of John Belushi in our movie."
  246. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 93 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "We approached several national newscasters, but most of them turned us down cold. Newscasters, it seems, are very sensitive about doing anything other than real news -- bad for their credibility."
  247. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 93 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Casey Kasem was included at the very last minute during postproduction. In fact, the idea of putting him in came to use the day before we recorded it. We called him up, made the deal, he appeared the next day, read his bit and we cut it into the film -- all in 24 hours."
  248. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 46:23-). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I ran into Atherton about a year after this film had come out and was expecting him to greet me with open arms because of the success of the film and he had become quite famous from the movie and he was genuinely pissed. He came up to me and said 'You know I can't walk into a bar without people lining up to pick a fight with me. Kids scream at me and make fun of me wherever I go'. "
  249. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. -47:05). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "The worse is... I'll tell it. Later in the movie, Danny calls him 'Dickless.' Atherton told me he was walking down the street in New York and a bus load of tourists yelled at him and he turned, smiled and waived and they all went 'Yo, Dickless!'. "
  250. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 97 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Dan Aykroyd says: "Gozer is based on several things. For one, there's a Gozer Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York. A little more to the point, though, is the fact taht Gozer was a name that related to a documented haunting in England -- the one Poltergeist was based on, in fact. During this particular haunting, the name Gozer appeared mysteriously throughout the house, written on walls and things. So we figured we might as well take something that had been reported in the public domain as an actual occurrence and use it in the film as our main demon and supernatural force."
  251. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 170 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Appearing before the Ghostbusters as a kind of New Wave demon, the character of Gozer had passed through more drastic conceptual variations than any other creature in the film. Described in Dan Aykroyd's script as looking like Bert Parks, and in later collaborations with Harold Ramis as a Robert Young-type character, Gozer - in its final form - resembled neither."
  252. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 170 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "Ivan thought it might be more interesting if Gozer was rather androgynous-looking - someone like David Bowie. That idea led logically to the consideration of androgynous-looking female rock stars - someone like Grace Jones would have been perfect. Unfortunately, by the time we came up with this concept, it was too late to sign on a big name. We did retain the basic idea, however, which is why Gozer appears in the form of a woman."
  253. ↑ Harold Ramis (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:26:20-1:26:33). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "Remember you offered it to Anna Carlisle, who was a punk rock singer at the time? Her complaint was 'No, the chicks in this movie are just to be had!' "
  254. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 114 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "The concept of the Terror Dogs changed considerably -- both in the way they fit into the story and in their design. In earlier drafts, they were sympathetic creatures from another dimension -- sort of 'strangers in a strange land' -- who were terrified of Gozer and trying to escape him. They took the form of human beings and went to the Ghostbusters seeking help. By the time the script reached its final form, however, that idea had been completely reversed. Design-wise, they began as rotting, dead dogs -- creatures that had been dug up from the grave. We began to realize, though, that we didn't have to be literal, or 'earthbound,' in the design. As with the ghosts, the Terror Dogs could be anything we wanted them to be. Ultimately, they evolved into creatures that are not particularly canine, but the name 'Terror Dog' seemed to stick."
  255. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 56:49-57:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I actually do the voice, the deep voice of...that's me. I did Slimer and the voice that comes out of her here. "
  256. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 127 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In an unusual twist on the directorial cameo, Dana's demonic voice -- reminiscent of Mercedes McCambridge's intonations in The Exorcist -- was actually that of Ivan Reitman. Reitman, in fact, provided all of the unearthly voices in the film, except that of Gozer."
  257. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 180 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Early brainstorming had the Stay-Puft marshmallow man as but an interdimensional form which the Gozer assumes on its way to becoming something truly monstrous, both in size and appearance. Berni Wrightson's exploration of this theme was both surreal and terrifying."
  258. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 184 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "Originally, we were going to have the Stay-Puft marshmallow man rise up out of the river, right by the Statue of Liberty, to give him scale. Understandably, the effects people didn't like the idea - any effects shot involving water is really hard to pull off. We finally realized that it didn't make any difference where he came from - he could just appear. The audience assumes that he just materializes."
  259. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 186. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A John Deveikis illustration for the original Dan Aykroyd script suggested a much larger marshmallow man than was ultimately decide upon. Since one faction within the production unit argued for a 100-foot tall version while another favored a somewhat larger 125-foot tall version, Ivan Reitman settled the dispute by declaring that the Stay-Puft marshmallow man would be 112.5 feet tall."
  260. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations. The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied sphid's head of monstrous proportions."
  261. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:22-41:03). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This is the first shot we shot in the movie. Bill Murray had just arrived from France on an airplane, immediately got taken to downtown Manhattan, put on one of these outfits and boom were shooting on Madison Avenue. I had an amazing shiver when I saw the guys in their outfits. I knew there's something special here.. "
  262. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 92. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685.
  263. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 39:33-39:38). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember getting permission, I still have a few of these these uh magazine and newspaper covers. "
  264. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 40:07-40:08). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "There's me again! "
  265. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:01-1:09:13). Columbia TriStar Home Video. 'Joe Medjuck says: "I love this shot. This was taken next door from 55. I remember Ivan, we went up to the apartment building next door to 55 Central Park West and shot as high as we could to photograph this view. "
  266. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:26-1:09:30). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "This is all part of that very early shooting we did back in October as I remember. "
  267. ↑ Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:40-1:09:45). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Also from the first week of shooting on Madison Avenue. "
  268. ↑ Joe Medjuck (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 1:09:53-1:09:54). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Joe Medjuck says: "This is Broadway, I think. "
  269. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "The hot dog vendor was one of the very first things we shot. It was included because it provided an opportunity for us to reintroduce the Onionhead ghost from the hotel - again eating and belching. Not only that, we thought, ' How can we shoot the streets of New York without including a hot dog cart?'"
  270. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 63 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "When I shot the bride and groom scene, I thought it was one of the funniest sequences I'd done in the film. And when I looked at the rushes, I thought, 'Yeah, this is definitely going to be one of the funniest scenes in the movie.' But when I actually cut it into the film, it just didn't work. It was like a skit out of Saturday Night Live -- funny in itself, but it stopped the movie cold every time. Cutting it was one of the tougher decisions I had to make."
  271. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 65. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A honeymooning couple - played by Charles Levin and Wendy Goldman - have less than blissful wedding night at the Hotel Sedgewick when a foul-smelling vaporous ghost pays a visit to their bridal suite.""
  272. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 72 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Deleted from the final draft was a scene in which Stantz and Venkman are followed about by an obnoxious ten-year-old boy who -- to their growing annoyance -- thinks they're nothing more than janitors. Meanwhile, Spengler has his encounter with the woman in a towel. Though Spengler's scene remained intact through all four of the collaborative drafts, it still failed to make it into the film.""
  273. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 90. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Since the montage featured a dearth of actual ghosts, it was decided that perhaps still photographs could be appropriately doctored and incorporated into the sequence. One such image -- a photo of Stantz and Venkman enhanced with an airbrush rendering of the Chinatown ghost -- was prepared for possible use on the New York Post front page, but was ultimately rejected by Ivan Reitman."
  274. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 95. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The encounter between the policeman and the Ectomobile is the only scene in the final shooting script which suggested that the vehicle itself had some extranormal powers -- a carryover from Dan Aykroyd's initial draft in which the Ectomobile was equipped with an advanced dematerializing capability that allowed its operators, functioning somewhat outside the law, to readily elude police pursuit. Though the ticketing sequence was shot and cut into the film, it was ultimately removed because it slowed down the breakneck pace of the montage"
  275. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 137 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "The plot was moving much too fast at this point to introduce anything even sightly extraneous. The idea behind the scene was to give Dan a love interest -- a woman who's been dead for a hundred years. But the scene was too long and it was in the wrong place in the film. We all loved the notion of Stantz having sex with a ghost, though, so Ivan came up with the idea of treating it as a dream and inserting it into the very end of the montage."
  276. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 148 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Joe Medjuck says: "It would have been a good scene to include a little earlier in the movie because it reveals that Louis, as the Keymaster, possesses extraordinary powers. Unfortunately, there just wasn't time for it at this point in the movie and it had to go."
  277. ↑ Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 148 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "I cut the scene between Louis and the muggers before we ever had a screening. Richard Edlund didn't really have time to do the necessary effects; and frankly, I didn't think I'd handled the actors very well in it. But I know if I'd ever screened the movie with that scene in it, I would have kept it in. There'd have been no choice. Louis is a favorite with the audience, and to see him pay back a bunch of scary guys would have been a natural cherring point."
  278. ↑ Levin, Brett (January 2013). GQ Magazine, p. 102. Condé Nast Publications, New York NY USA.
  279. ↑ The Numbers:Ghostbusters
  280. ↑ Proton Charging:Ghostbusters By the numbers
  281. ↑ Reading Eagle - Jan 17, 1985 on Google
  282. ↑ 282.0 282.1 The Spokesman-Review - Aug 23, 1985 on Google
  283. ↑ Star-News - Oct 31, 1985 on Google
  284. ↑ 284.0 284.1 284.2 284.3 284.4 Proton Charging:Ghostbusters re-release is weekly, starting October 13th! Sony makes it official!
  285. ↑ Reading Eagle - Jan 11, 1985 on Google
  286. ↑ Reading Eagle - Sep 13, 1985 on Google
  287. ↑ Star-News - Oct 25, 1985 on Google

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