In the last two days there’s been a joyous excitement spreading through the Internet like wildfire – and it’s not because of a new cat meme. The Ghostbusters reboot that’s been in the works for eons took a massive step forward when news landed that the film had bagged a new writer. Katie Dippold is now on the project, and will co-write the flick with Paul Feig. This will mark a reunion for the pair who brought us last year’s absolutely brilliant buddy cop movie, The Heat. Needless to say, for the most part, fans of the spook franchise are over the moon.
However, not everyone shares that opinion. One of the original Ghostbusters, Ernie Hudson, is none too pleased with Feig’s purported reboot of the series. In the first two outings Hudson played newest recruit, Winston Zeddemore. Considering he’s previously bashed his experience working on the movies, why is he all up in arms about this new take on the franchise? Oh, yes, that’s right – because Feig’s casting women in the lead roles.
“I heard it was going to be a total reboot, and that it would have nothing to do with the other two movies,” Hudson told The Telegraph (via The Playwire.) “If it has nothing to do with the other two movies, and it’s all female, then why are you calling it ‘Ghostbusters’?”
Hmm. What we have here is a complete lack of linguistic comprehension. The word “Ghostbusters” certainly doesn’t exclude women from its meaning. In the first two outings, they happened to be men. It’s not as if they’re called “Ghostbustermen.” If that were the case he might have a point. Alas, he hadn’t reached the end of his:
“I love females,” Hudson continued. “I hope that if they go that way at least they’ll be funny, and if they’re not funny at least hopefully it’ll be sexy. I love the idea of including women, I think that’s great. But all-female I think would be a bad idea. I don’t think the fans want to see that. Maybe it will come out and be the most amazing thing, but in my opinion I think it would be wrong to do another movie that didn’t include the guys. And that didn’t include me!”
The amount of flagrant sexism in Hudson’s comments here is staggering. I’d prefer to not have to discuss the fact that he immediately resorted to discussing women in terms of sexiness. You know, should they fail to be funny. It’s all a bit bizarre mainly because – the Ghostbusters reboot is going to be a comedy. OF COURSE they’ll be funny! Hollywood has a lot of talented female comics, who’re all doing just fine making us chuckle, regardless of whether or not we’d like to bone them. Hudson’s frankly archaic opinions might very well cost him a cameo on the project, which clearly wouldn’t bother me at all.
What do you think of Hudson’s comments on the all-female Ghostbusters reboot? Have I judged him too harshly? As always, sound off in the comments below.