by Gill Pringle
And as much as Reitman appreciates his new generation of ghostbusters – Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace reprising their roles from Ghostbusters: Afterlife in Frozen Empire – it’s his co-writer and co-director Gil Kenan who has become a treasured friend.
And it’s a friendship that remarkably dates back almost 20 years – long before the two of them set out to co-write Afterlife and Frozen Empire, with Reitman directing the former and Kenan the latter.
“Jason and I first met when we were both editing our first films. I was editing Monster House actually here on the Sony lot. And he was editing Thank You for Smoking,” he says referring to Reitman’s bold and award-winning debut starring Aaron Eckhart, J.K. Simmons and Katie Holmes.
Kenan’s animated debut wasn’t too shabby either, featuring the voice talents of Catherine O’Hara, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Steve Buscemi, and doubling its budget at the box office.
“I was stressed out in the editing room and decided to go ice skating one night, because I wanted to play a game of ice hockey – something I don’t normally do. But I was going to see if maybe it could help me relieve the stress.
“And I got there a little bit late. And there was one other guy who was a little bit late, and we were in the locker room, lacing up our skates. And it was like, ‘hi, hi. What’s your name? Gil. Jason, what do you do? I’m a filmmaker. I’m editing my first film. No kidding. That’s exactly what I’m doing’. And we started a conversation – and that conversation has been going on for almost 20 years now,” he tells us when we chat at the storied Sony Studios in Culver City.
“It developed into a working relationship when our daughters were very young, and we started taking them on camping trips together. And on the drives to the camping trips, we began to talk story, and it just blossomed from there. And the handoff for us now is pretty organic. It made all the sense in the world for Jason to direct Afterlife. That was a story about lineage. It was about a generational passing of the torch. And it was so important that it was him at the helm.
“And for this film – because we’re creating these stories together and because of some of the horror themes that this film delves into – it made all the sense in the world for me to step behind the camera,” says Kenan, 47, who delved into the horror world in 2015 with Poltergeist.
Surprisingly, the announcement of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire came in early 2022, just months after the death of Ivan Reitman.
Kenan thinks the film would have made the late Reitman proud. “I’ll just say that Ivan is such a vital voice in ghost busting. Not just that he created that first film and directed the first two films and gave us everything that we know about this world of storytelling, but also his role in nurturing Jason and I on our steps of creating Afterlife.
“Then, as we began to write this story, we were able to tell Ivan the entirety of this story before he passed, and it was very meaningful. I remember the session so well, and it was a really joyful, positive experience. So, it did feel like there was continuity,” he says of the supernatural comedy which comes with all the scares and laughs of its predecessors.
Ostensibly the franchise’s fifth film, Frozen Empire promises to take audiences right back to the heart and spirit of the original.
A sequel to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, this latest film sees the descendants of Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler – portrayed by Rudd, Coon, Wolfhard and Grace – arrive in New York, having now embraced their legacy as ghost busters.
The film welcomes the return of original ghostbusters Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson in a much more meaningful way than in Afterlife where they were really only glimpsed.
“I’m really proud of the way that this film is able to create space for our new family and new characters and the original Ghostbusters,” says Kenan. “Obviously, I grew up learning what comedy was through a lot of these actors and the characters that they created. And it’s amazing to watch when you start to work with them. First of all, that they all still have all of that sharpness, all of that comic invention.
“And when you see Bill, Ernie and Dan and Annie Potts – who, as Janine, actually has a real role to play and a big role in this story – together, it just takes you right back to that feeling of being a young movie lover and watching them save the world.
“So, it was a unique thrill for me as a director, and I feel like there is a role for them to play in this story because of the scale of the obstacle, the challenge. Our villain – whose name is Garaka – is a much more dangerous threat than we’ve ever encountered in a Ghostbusters story. It is so great that it takes more than just one group of Ghostbusters, one family. It takes the wisdom, the experience of the folks who have been doing this for 40 years to help to shoulder some of that burden,” concludes the director.
With Celeste O’Connor reprising her role from Afterlife, and the film featuring Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt and British comedian James Acaster, Kenan hopes this latest installment lives up to Reitman’s legacy.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is in cinemas now
