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The Scoleri Brothers is the eleventh chapter on the DVD of Ghostbusters II. This chapter has the Scoleri Brothers appear and start wrecking the court room.

Cast[]

Equipment[]

Environmental[]

Locations[]

Plot[]

The ghosts of the Scoleri Brothers manifested in front of the judge's bench seated atop electric chairs. The stenographer and the bailiff ran to the juror's door. The clerk jumped out of his seat. Ray exclaimed in amazement. The Prosecutor looked up in shock at the ghosts. Judge Wexler recognized them right away. They dive bombed the Judge's bench. Wexler hopped off just in time and scooted over to Peter, Ray, Egon, and Louis under their table. Wexler identified the ghosts. Ray asked rhetorically if they were friends of his. Wexler explained he tried them for murder and sentenced them to death by the electric chair. Tony Scoleri, the skinnier ghost, surveyed the room and cackled. Wexler implored the guys to do something. Egon suggested he tell them he did not believe in ghosts. The Scoleri Brothers picked up their table and threw it at the judge's bench. Wexler, Peter, Ray, Egon, and Louis ran behind the glass partition to the judge's door. Wexler pounded on the locked door in vain. He turned to Ray and grabbed him by his suit jacket. Wexler was visibly scared and shouted at him to do something. Ray calmly deferred Wexler to his attorney. Louis stepped him and pointed out his clients were still under a judicial restraining order, the "blue thing" he got from The Prosecutor, and if they busted the ghosts, they would be exposing themselves. Peter quipped he did not want them exposing themselves. The Prosecutor screamed. They peeked around the partition. Nunzio Scoleri carried the Prosecutor by her ankle across the courtroom. A lone woman peeked out from behind a column. Nunzio and the Prosecutor exited the courtroom. The people outside shrieked. The doors closed and electricity traveled throughout it. Judge Wexler was at the end of his rope. Peter told him he was next. Wexler caved, rescinded the order and dismissed the case. Louis was elated they won. Wexler implored them to do something.

Trivia[]

Ghostbusters II Trivia[]

  • At one point, it was considered that the static electricity generated by the Scoleri Brothers would cause everyone's hair to stand on end throughout the rest of the sequence.[1]
  • In the August 5, 1988 Draft:
    • On page 37, the Scoleri Brothers blast the defense table with high-voltage finger lightning.
  • In the September 29, 1988 draft:
    • On page 39, the Judge tells them he had the Scoleri Brothers electrocuted at Ossining in 1948. Peter speculates they want to appeal. The ghosts pound the bench then blast it with finger lightning. They hide in the jury box. Ray points them doing something will expose themselves.
      • In the movie, Louis points out the legalities of their restraining order.
    • On page 40, the Ghostbusters jump over the rail and dash across to the exhibit table.
      • In the movie, the Scoleri Brothers toss the defense table. The Judge, Ghostbusters, and Louis run to the judge's door near the bench.
  • In the November 27, 1988 and February 27, 1989 drafts:
    • On page 45, the Judge tells them he had the Scoleri Brothers electrocuted at Ossining in 1948. Peter speculates they want to appeal.
    • In the movie, Wexler only tells them he gave the Scoleri Brothers the chair. Egon suggests he tell them he doesn't believe in ghosts.
    • On page 46, the Scoleri Brothers blast the defense table with finger lightning then punch through the jury box in search of the Judge. He rescinds the restraining order and dismisses the case. The Ghostbusters jump over the rail and dash across to the exhibit table.
    • In the movie, the Scoleri Brothers toss the defense table. The Judge, Ghostbusters, and Louis run to the door to the judge's chamber.
  • The courtroom was filmed at the Burbank Studios in Los Angeles.
  • Tim Lawrence and Jim Fye, the actors portraying the Scoleri Brothers were filmed separately at the Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) special effects studio.
  • The ghosts are loosely based on the real-life Scoleri Brothers, who once robbed Harold Ramis's father Nate Ramis' store. "The ghosts themselves were very loosely based on the fact that my father was a storekeeper who was once robbed and assaulted by the Scoleri Brothers."[2]
  • In a first draft script, the Scoleri Brothers were simply described as 'Big in life, even bigger in death, the Scoleri Brothers sweep into the courtroom.'[3]
  • Tim Lawrence was inspired by the Blues Brothers and designed the Scoleris based on them. Visual Development Artist Henry Mayo helped refine the designs with extensive input from producer Michael Gross. Lawrence's original concept played more into the electricity motif. As they took steps, the floor would explode and their feet would become less distinct in the air without an electrical ground. The Scoleris were also to have spoken in Italian epithets.[4] The Scoleri Brothers were the first ghost designs to be green-lit for the movie.[5] Ivan Reitman became concerned the designs might have been over the top but Gross believed it would lighten the moment. Storyboard artist Thom Enriquez was tasked with boarding the scene while Reitman was finishing his work on another movie "Twins" and the courtroom set was still being built.[6][7][8]
  • When the Scoleri Brothers first manifest, they are seated in electrical chairs. For filming, Fye and Lawrence had to pretend to be sitting in midair. Others in the crew stayed underneath and pushed their feet up so their legs bent properly. Despite the scene of them bursting from the chairs being difficult in theory, it was filmed rather quickly. One brother was filmed in the morning and the other in the afternoon. About 5-6 shots of each were achieved each day of shooting. By the time they finished filming, the Scoleri Brothers concept had changed to much that third-scale marionettes on wires could have been used.[9]
  • The defense table was on a flying track and pulled on a compound cable when the Scoleri Brothers slammed it on a wall.[10]
  • Jim Fye and Tim Lawrence filmed separately as the Scoleri Brothers in wire rigged suits in front of blue screen. The footage would later be projected onto flexible mirrorplex then rephotographed. Meanwhile, in place of the actors, full-scale cutouts were used to aid the cast and crew during filming.[11]
  • While under the defense table, Egon quotes Judge Wexler saying he didn't believe in ghosts in the previous chapter.
  • Louis refers to receiving a copy of the judicial restraining order during the trial in the previous chapter.
  • Everyone looking to see what The Prosecutor was screaming about is a Marx Brothers reference.[12]
  • The stuntwoman who was in place of the Prosecutor when she is carried off by the Scoleri Brothers wore a pair of flying pants and vest with a cable running up her leg to the ceiling track above. Reitman wanted one leg dangling, something very easy if she weren't upside down. As the stuntwoman went along the track, her head barely missed the chairs still standing in the room.[13]
  • When Nunzio Scoleri carries out the Prosecutor, there is a woman hiding behind a pillar and she peeks her head out.

IDW Comics Trivia[]

  • In Ghostbusters Volume 1 #9:
    • On Page 6, the Prosecutor appears as one of the Mayor's aides.
  • In Ghostbusters Volume 2 #17:
    • On Page 12, Peter alludes to when Judge Wexler told them the ghosts were the Scoleri Brothers.
  • In Ghostbusters Annual 2017:
    • On Page 8, in panel 3, Erik notes the fans have asked where Winston was during the trial - a nod to a long standing mystery of where Winston went after he appeared at the beginning of the court case.
    • On Page 10, it is revealed in the IDW canon, Winston was taking on the ghost of Mama Scoleri elsewhere in the courthouse, while the other Ghostbusters took on her sons, the Scoleri Brothers.
    • On Page 12, Winston mentions the doors to the courtroom being jammed. This was likely the point when the Ghostbusters and Louis convinced Judge Wexler to drop the charges against them.

Tertiary Canon Trivia[]

See Also[]

References[]

  1. Ghost Corps Facebook 6/16/17
  2. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 11. Cinefex, USA. Harold Ramis says: "The Scoleri brothers sequence was one of those nice discoveries. At one point we committed ourselves to having the Ghostbusters fight their way back to being Ghostbusters rather than starting out with them as successes. With this in mind, we were working toward a courtroom scene, but we did not know exactly what should happen there. Meanwhile, the ghosts themselves were very loosely based on the fact that my father was a storekeeper who was once robbed and assaulted by the Scoleri brothers. The whole point of our trial was that the legal system of New York was completely skeptical of the supernatural. At some point, the idea of the courtroom and the Scoleri brothers came together. We thought, what better way to reinstate the Ghostbusters than at the moment of their sentencing to have two ghosts appear in the courtroom? It was one of those nice discoveries that brings ideas together and says what you want to say. It also connected with the notion that negative human emotions have an impact. The judge is angry--a tyrant in his own courtroom--and he pays the price."
  3. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 14. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "In the first draft of the script that I saw, the description of the characters was quite vague--as is often the case with fantasy characters that have not yet been fully designed. I believe the script read something like, 'Big in life, even bigger in death, the Scoleri brothers sweep into the courtroom.' Knowing that Dan Aykroyd had written this bit, one of the first images that came to me was the Blues Brothers--and it was this idea of a tall thin guy and a short fat guy that colored my thinking as I developed the characters."
  4. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 14. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Knowing that Dan Aykroyd had written this bit, one of the first images that came to me was the Blues Brothers--and it was this idea of a tall thin guy and a short fat guy that colored my thinking as I developed the characters. I began by generating some rough drawings in my very cartoony style, and then I involved a longtime friend and collaborator, Henry Mayo, to help me firm the concepts into something that was more realistic, yet still broad in intent. It seemed to me that the original draft of the script was 'monster shy' and the ghostly apparitions that did appear were very much of the see-through person variety. There was no marshmallow man, no terror dogs--just a variety of vaporous people.. I could not imagine a Ghostbusters movie without any creature-type ghosts, so I very consciously began pushing the concepts for the Scoleris into a broad caricature direction. I took my cues from the script and extrapolated my own interpretation along lines that I felt would represent the brothers' internal evilness rather than merely suggest what they looked like in life--hence the very exaggerated ghosts that appear in the movie. Both Ivan and Michael were enthusiastic about this approach, and so I hoped to generate further characters of this type of work progressed."
  5. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 14. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Ultimately, the Scoleri brothers would be the first ghost designs in the show to be green-lighted."
  6. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 13. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "To bring the Scoleris to life, Reitman and Gross turned to storyboard artist Thom Enriquez--another Ghostbusters veteran--to first lay out the basic action in the scene."
  7. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 13. Cinefex, USA. Thom Enriquez says: "On the first film I boarded the capture scene in the banquet room, and that was the toughest scene I had to do. I had the same problem with this--how do you make the action interesting in a room that has four walls and a ceiling? Also, Ivan was really busy finishing Twins, so he was not around a lot when I was boarding the scene. It became even more difficult when I was told that, because of time, the courtroom set was being built at the same time I was boarding the action and they needed the boards to match what the expense account could afford for special effects. For instance, there were only a certain number of chairs that could be thrown about in the scene because the rest were rented and they did not want to touch those. So I had to board the scene keeping in mind that I could use only fourteen chairs. I could also only blow up four pillars and break one wall of glass ."
  8. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 11 and 13. Cinefex, USA. Michael Gross says: "The Scoleri brothers we deliberately made slightly cartoonish in their design and actions. At one point Ivan got a little worried about this and asked me, 'Do you think we've gone over the top!' I said: 'We need it in the picture at this point. Given how scary some of the other sequences are, it would be good to go over the top with these characters.' I thought it would lighten the moment. It was the first time we saw full-scale ghosts in the film, and I thought we really needed them to be as wild as they were."
  9. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 17. Cinefex, USA. Michael Gross says: "When the brothers first appear, they are sitting in the electric chairs that ended their lives. In reality, the chairs were miniatures that were shot separately from the ghosts. To make the two elements merge, Lawrence and Fye had to hang in midair and pretend to be sitting. "In the Nunzio suit," Lawrence admitted, "it was very hard to pretend like I was sitting in midair. Fortunately, one of the crew members was underneath and helped me push my feet up so my legs were bent properly at the knees. Then on a certain count, he would duck away and I would pretend like I was bursting out of the chair and falling forward in a dive. To get the best negative, we needed the biggest image we could get--so we had to stay in the center of the frame. Therefore, if Nunzio was sitting and he had to burst out of his chair in an upward arch and then dive back down, I had to move my arms and feet accordingly, but I could actually swing through the frame. Sometimes if it was a particularly difficult shot, we would do a black-and-white test and make a quick composite to check our moves. Despite the complications, we actually shot the sequence really fast. We filmed on one brother in the morning and one in the afternoon, and we could usually get five or six shots a day of both." Though the results were impressive, the essential concept for the Scoleri brothers sequence was ultimately altered and simplified to such an extent that the characters could have been achieved much more simply in other ways. "By the time much of the work had been done," Lawrence reflected, "the concept had changed to the point that the brothers were now always in flight, never really spoke, were very transparent and also heavily augmented with roto effects. The facial animation--while excellent--was now all but superfluous. The characters could easily have been done with third-scale marionettes on wires. You just never know how the stuff is going to be used until it is. With the script changing daily, all you can do is adapt and hope you are prepared for anything." The movements of the Scoleri brothers through the composite frame were created later on a track camera by effects cameraman Peter Daulton."
  10. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 13. Cinefex, USA. Chuck Gaspar says: "We had to pick the defense table up and fly it across the room for a scene where the brothers uncover the cowards hiding underneath. They pick it up and slam it into the back wall of the room. We had that table on a flying track and just pulled it on a compound cable to slam it into the wall as hard as we as we could."
  11. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 13 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "Photographed in front of an ILM bluescreen, Nunzio reacts as electricity passes through his body. The footage thus recorded would later be altered by projecting it into flexible mirrorplex and then rephotographing the distorted imagery."
  12. Ivan Reitman (2019). Ghostbusters II- Commentary (2019) (Blu-ray ts. 33:41-33:43). Sony Home Entertainment. Ivan Reitman says: "That was a Marx Brothers reference."
  13. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 14. Cinefex, USA. Chuck Gaspar says: "The stuntwoman in the scene wore a pair of flying pants and a vest, and the cable ran up from her leg to the ceiling track above. Ivan wanted her to have one leg free so it could dangle--which made things more difficult. All the weight was on her shoulders when she was upside down, so that was not a problem--but she had to try to hold her leg out and kick and flip it around. There were also all these chairs underneath, and her head was just missing the tops of the ones that we had not already blown out of the way."


Gallery[]

Primary Canon[]

Unfinished Scenes[]

Behind the Scenes[]

Storyboards of Final Version[]

Storyboards of Previous Drafts[]

 
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