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SYFY WIRE Ghostbusters

First teaser trailer for Jason Reitman's secret Ghostbusters film, coming in 2020

By Josh Weiss
New Ghostbusters movie trailer screengrab

Less than 24 hours after the announcement of Jason Reitman "spiritually" following in his father's footsteps, we now have a teaser for the director's secret Ghostbusters project. Not only that, but we also now know it's set to open in the summer of 2020.

Featuring snippets of Elmer Bernstein's score for the 1984 original, the teaser trailer features an abandoned barn on a dark, stormy, and windy night. As the camera pans closer to the barn, we see brilliant flashes of light, not unlike those made by Egon Spengler's proton packs, coming from within.

Inside, a tarp is blown back by the wind to reveal Ecto-1, the converted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor ambulance limo used by the spirit-hunting gang of Egon (Harold Ramis), Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). The screen then cuts to black as the words "Summer 2020" appear.

Here's the teaser video from Entertainment Weekly:

This is an excellent example of how marketing for a film like this should go. It's on par with The Cloverfield Paradox reveal from last year's Super Bowl. Die-hard fans don't mind being surprised about their favorite franchises every now and again.

Penned by Reitman and Monster House director Gil Kenan (he also remade Poltergeist), the new Ghostbusters will take place in the universe of the original two movies. With Harold Ramis no longer with us and most of the OG cast up there in years, it would make most sense for the plot to revolve around the original team handing over the reins to a younger generation of Ghostbusters. But at this point we don't know what they have in store.

Both Aykroyd and Hudson offered their thoughts on the trailer reveal:

“I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a six-year-old visiting the set. I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans,” Reitman told EW. “This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day ... This is very early, and I want the film to unwrap like a present. We have a lot of wonderful surprises and new characters for the audience to meet."

Produced by Ivan Sr., the movie is set to begin filming in just a few months. An animated feature based on the iconic IP is also in the works, but won't be released until its live-action counterpart.