Discuss: Is the Apatow Gang Too Young To Do ‘Ghostbusters’?

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on March 3, 2009

There have been a lot of opinions flying around ever since some of the Apatow crew expressed interest in remaking Ghostbusters (seriously, another horror remake?!), but so far we’ve stayed about as out of it as we could. Meaning we gave some pretty strong opinions. Mostly that we’d believe it was happening when we saw it.

Now that it seems obvious that the project will at least be shepherded along by Apatow Productions under the writing talent of Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupinsky, there’s a decent chance that the four leads will be replaced in some fashion by Apatow’s usual gang of idiots. There’s a faction that believe this is the best of all possible worlds – the people who brought us Knocked Up tossing on some proton packs. There’s also a group of people that sees it as an abomination.

I’m not quite sold either way, but I’d like to throw out an argument that I haven’t heard anywhere else yet: that the Apatow crew is just too young to bring characters like these to life.

There’s a grand appeal of the maturity that Murray, Akroyd, Ramis and Hudson brought to the first two films – both comic maturity and the simpler issue of age range for a group of frustrated, mid-life crisis experiencing scientists. At the time the first film came out, Murray was 34, Akroyd was 32, Ramis was 40, and Ernie Hudson was 39. That also means the biggest age gap was 8 years – not a very big one after you cross the big Three-Oh – but it’s an important factor in making all the men colleagues of a similar level.

In contrast, some of the members of the Apatow crew are a bit younger. Seth Rogen is 26, Jason Segel is 29, Jonah Hill is 25, and James Franco is 30. Martin Starr is 26, Jay Baruchel is 26. So most of the major usual suspects would be just walking off the stage earning their first PhD and going straight to busting ghosts (which makes them feel good). The outliers are obviously Paul Rudd who’s 39, Craig Robinson at 37, and Danny McBride at 32.

I’m not saying that it’s the deciding factor, just that it’s something to consider when casting for scientists. At this point, we don’t know whether the old guard will be the stars of the film and “pass the torch” or whether the Apatow crew will be the new focus or whether the film will star Gozar the Gozarian as a troubled teenager who turns to a life of prostitution and lightning-use. We don’t know because it hasn’t been written, and anyone who claims to know at this point is lying. Or rumor-mongering.

But I think it’s important when opinions are flying around about Jay Baruchel making a great new Egon. I understand acting range, but when a kid can’t even grow a beard, it’s tough to by that he’s been through two decades of secondary education (let alone spent two decades out of diapers).

And it could have a serious effect on the look and feel of the movie.

What do you think? Am I way off here?

Read more articles by Dr. Cole Abaius