'Ghostbusters' Director Paul Feig on Deleted Dance Numbers and Whether or Not a Sequel Could Happen
In the extended edition of Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (the full title of the 2016 reboot), there is a dance scene between Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig that is quite possibly one of the funniest things they’ve ever committed to film. “That was a real tough one to cut out of the movie because I absolutely loved it,” director Paul Feig tells Yahoo Movies, in a conversation about the new Blu-ray release of the extended edition (available today).
Here’s the set-up: Paranormal investigators Erin (Wiig) and Abby (McCarthy), lifelong friends who have reunited after a falling-out, perform an educational dance presentation about ghosts that they created together as kids. Dressed in black turtlenecks, Erin and Abby proudly show off their middle-school choreography and recite lyrics about the science of the supernatural (“Para! Normal! Is! Normal!”) while the other Ghostbusters (played by Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) watch open-mouthed.
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“While we were writing, there was a point where I felt like, I want to see Abby and Erin’s relationship from when they were kids. I want to see how nerdy they were,” says Feig. The director commissioned cheesy, futuristic dance music in the vein of Meco’s disco Star Wars album from composer Teddy Shapiro, and the actresses collaborated with choreographer (and So You Think You Can Dance alum) Stephen “tWitch” Boss to create their routine. But after test screenings, it became clear that the hilarious sequence fell in the wrong place — a moment where the audience “wanted to get to the next ghost attack,” Feig explains.
Fortunately, Feig was able to put the dance in the director’s cut, which contains 15 minutes of never-before-seen footage — including that other dance sequence featuring Chris Hemsworth’s character Kevin, which Feig incorporated into the closing credits after cutting it from the film. (Kevin’s dance was eliminated late in the game, he explains, because it paused the action and “made everything feel very episodic” in the climactic Times Square ghost battle, “so it didn’t flow together.”) In addition to the extended version, the Blu-ray edition contains over 3 hours of bonus features, including extra deleted scenes, gag reels, and making-of featurettes, like a surprisingly illuminating look at how the effects team created slime.
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The greatest bonus, though, is the chance to spend more time with the ladies of Ghostbusters — and Kevin — through all the additional footage, much of which serves to deepen the relationship between the characters. (There’s even an extended version of Abby and Erin’s deleted dance sequence. This Blu-ray isn’t messing around.) As to whether we’ll ever get to see these Ghostbusters in another film, Feig will only concede that it’s “hard to say” — and that it’s not up to him.
“The studio’s the one that would pay for another one, so, I don’t know, honestly,” Feig says of a potential sequel to Ghostbusters (which reportedly cost around $144 million and lost money in the final tally.) “Now more people will be able to see it than saw it in the theaters, and if it does well, and people really start to feel like they really want to see these characters again, then that’s a very valid thing for the studio. But it’s ultimately their call. And I’ve never made a sequel for any one of my other movies. But it would be fun. This is a big world and those characters are so great.”
Watch a ‘Ghostbusters’ trailer:
