As soon as the rumours were confirmed, party poopers took to social networking sites panning the idea of all-female cast for Ghostbusters reboot. Paul Feig (Bridesmaid) has cast four women in Ghostbusters, three of them over 40, one of them black, and one of them an lesbian – this shouldn't be noteworthy, but amid ongoing sexism and monoculture in film industry, it's a little victory. When Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon got cast for the reboot, they knew what was coming. Though reactions were overwhelmingly positive, a few male tweeters accused the film's production company, Sony, of 'pandering' to feminists by changing the gender makeup of the classic comedy. We ask our own horror movie directors what do they think of the reboot and gender bias...
Bhushan Patel (1920: Evil Returns, Ragini MMS 2, Alone)
Horror and women go together very well. We won't like to see our heroes getting scared and running to the heroine for help. Also, they look good with that expression of 'fear'. All said and done, it's not fair to pan the reboot. Actually, I am looking forward to it. I think all-female cast will be a different take on the original movie. I don't believe in horror-comedy. People may laugh during horror movie to ease the tension, but the spoof am sure is going to be really good.
Vishal Mahadkar (3 AM)
I think it would be a fun spin on the original depending on the final cast. The original Ghostbusters had quirky humour which the cast possibly brought to the table. Without that humour the film will fall flat. However, I'm all for a director trying a balsy move as this. Power to them! Most game changers have been panned at the idea level... Everyone likes to say they want something new but are too fixated on the old. Yes, horror comedies can work with any cast, irrelevant of the gender, provided the casting is right. When we have the parade for Obama led by a woman Air Force officer (male dominated) why not a horror comedy? I don't think gender and genre have any correlation... Bollywood apes Hollywood for plots etc. They have women leading all genres...we should ape that too. Who thought a thriller could have a female lead? No one! And then Vidya Balan and Sujoy Ghosh nailed it with Kahani!
Akshay Akkineni (Pizza)
Ghostbusters has a very cool concept and I've enjoyed the books when I was younger. Coming to the point of all female cast - I'm imagining something like Death Proof meets Ghostbusters. And with the kind of starcast it's got, it could be a really comic film. I guess horror comedies are the sudden new trend and it's proved successful also mostly. I think it's a very interesting idea to explore all-female cast. Look at The Heat... there was a good audience for it.
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