Ernie Hudson — Paul Warner/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — In a chat with the UK movie magazine Empire, director and co-writer of Ghostbusters: Afterlife Jason Reitman revealed how emotional it was to screen the film for Ivan Reitman, his dad — and the director of the original films.
The follow-up features the film’s original cast reprising their roles, along with Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhard and Captain Marvel co-star Mckenna Grace, playing siblings who move to rural Oklahoma, and thanks to a series of supernatural occurrences, end up taking part in their late scientist grandfather’s old job: busting ghosts.
Jason Reitman, 43, tells Empire he screened the movie for his 74-year-old dad in early December. “My father hasn’t been leaving the house much because of COVID. But he took a test, put on a mask and drove down to the Sony lot to watch the movie…”
The younger Reitman revealed, “And after, he cried, and he said, ‘I’m so proud to be your father.’ And it was one of the great moments of my life.”
For his part, co-star Ernie Hudson, reprising his role as former skeptic Winston Zeddemore, tells ABC Audio about the pandemic-delayed film, “I was disappointed that it didn’t come out last summer, and then they pushed it to February and now it’s pushed to the summer.”
He adds, “But I know the studio wants it to be shown in the theater, where people hopefully will see it to get that full experience as opposed to streaming it…”
The film is now slated to open June 11.
Hudson adds, “For me to…work with a new cast, but also to to be [back] together with Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts…I really feel blessed to have been a part of this franchise and what it means to people.”
By Stephen Iervolino
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