Imagine
Eddie Murphy and his fellow paranormal firefighters battling a
motorcycle-riding skeleton and a giant lizard monster from their
gas-station base in a futuristic New Jersey. Who you gonna call? Ghost Smashers!
By the time it became an instant classic upon its release in 1984, Ghostbusters
had morphed through radically different iterations, featuring bonkers
plot points and unrecognizable creatures. Those mind-blowing details are
chronicled by Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History, author Daniel Wallace’s revelatory, self-explanatory new book due out this week, just in time for Halloween.
“I’m a huge Ghostbusters
fan, and pretty much every page in this book contains some sort of fact
that either wowed me or gave me an acute case of nostalgia,” Wallace
tells Yahoo Movies.
Thom Enriquez’s Mr. Stay Puft concepts (via ‘Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History’)
Indeed,
from star and co-writer Dan Aykroyd’s sci-fi-tinged original treatment
and the casting process to concept art and deleted scenes, the new Ghostbusters tome is full of behind-the-scenes factoids that will astound even the movie’s biggest fans. Here are 15 to ponder:
1. Dan Aykroyd truly believes in ghosts. He wrote Ghostbusters
in part because he didn’t think it was right for skeptics to dismiss
the paranormal. “What if you advertised on TV or in the Yellow Pages and
said, ‘Hey, we believe you, we understand you’” the actor is quoted as
saying in the book. “That was the birth of the commercial enterprise of
ghostbusting.”
2. Dan Aykroyd dreamed up his original treatment for Ghostbusters around 1981 — the original title was Ghost Smashers.
Per Wallace, the story “threw audiences into the deep end of the pool,
with a near-future setting and innumerable procedural details concerning
high-tech parapsychological tactics. The heroes operated out of a
converted New Jersey gas station and faced spectral threats, including a
skeletal biker who terrorized a small town.” In the climax, “the
Ghostbusters traveled to alternate dimensions.” As director Ivan Reitman
relates in the book’s introduction, he received an updated outline in
1983 featuring “a group of men, acting much like firefighters, [who]
would trap and catch ghosts as part of a new protective emergency
service for the universe at large.” Reitman suggested that Aykroyd
reconceive “the story in modern-day Manhattan and frame the adventure as
a 'going into business’ tale.” He also encouraged Aykroyd to bring in
Harold Ramis as a co-writer. The brain trust was set and together over a
two-and-a-half week vacation with their families in Martha’s Vineyard,
the trio reshaped the story.
3.
The script was written for Aykroyd’s fellow Blues Brother John Belushi
to co-star as Peter Venkman, but Belushi died of an overdose in 1982.
Aykroyd then zeroed in an Eddie Murphy to co-star. At one point another
Saturday Night Live colleague, Chevy Chase, was eyed for the
role — the book includes an excerpt of a script that mentions a “female
ghost (romantic-sexy) [that] seduces Chevy Chase.” (Bill Murray, of
course, ultimately came aboard.) Chase, meanwhile, cameoed in Ray Parker Jr.’s “Ghostbusters” music video.
4.
While the new book doesn’t dive into all the name-brand actors in
contention for various roles (like Michael Keaton as Venkman; Paul
Reubens as the demon Gozer; or Christopher Walken, Christopher Lloyd,
Jeff Goldblum, and John Lithgow as Egon Spengler), Reitman does mention
that he considered Grace Jones as Gozer (eventually played by
Yugoslavian model Slavitza Jovan). Sandra Bernhardt was considered for
the role of secretary Janine Melnitz, which went to Annie Potts. And
John Candy had been tapped for the role of accountant Louis Tully. “It
was a different kind of character, much more flamboyant, more the
character John played on SCTV [Johnny LaRue],” explains Ghostbusters
producer Joe Medjuck in the book. "I think he just didn’t want to play
it again, but he also had some strange ideas that Ivan didn’t want to
deal with.“ Reitman balked at Candy wanting the character to have a
German accent and a pair of Rottweilers as pets. So they brought in
another SCTV alum, Rick Moranis, who rewrote the part. But, like Chase, Candy resurfaced for the "Ghostbusters” video.
5.
While many of the original elements of Aykroyd’s spacey early
treatments were jettisoned, several key pieces remained. Among them:
there would be a core team who operated like spook-battling
firefighters, and they would encounter an apparition with a voracious
appetite as well as a monstrous Stay Puft marshallow man. However, as
shown in early concepts sketched by production artist Thom Enriquez (who
came up with the looks for many of the film’s signature creatures), at
least one version envisioned Ray’s pet lizard being transformed into a
Godzilla-sized creature for the climactic attack on New York City — a
tidbit Wallace cites as one of the most surprising things he discovered
during his research.
6.
Mr. Stay Puft was a cross between the Michelin Man and Pillsbury
Doughboy, according to Aykroyd. Like the old Godzilla movies, the “real”
Stay Puft was a guy in a (fireproof) suit wreaking havoc on a
scale-model Manhattan populated by toy cars. Filmmakers executed the
stream-crossing incineration sequence as a practical effect in one
take.
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