The cliche about pitching a movie is that you describe it as two movies put together-- "It's Titanic meets A Beautiful Mind!"-- or a slightly tweaked version of something people already like -- "it's Gone With the Wind, but with dogs!" This tactic works, but there are times when there are two ideas that simply can't be mashed together and taken seriously. Like "gritty Ghostbusters," for example.
And yet, that's the exact description being thrown around for Spectral, a supernatural action project recently picked up by Legendary Pictures. According to THR the company picked up the project from writer Ian Fried, who wrote a treatment and a "rip reel" that, in true pitch form, showed clips from other movies that would give Legendary a sense of what they were buying. I told you that strategy works! The story follows a "modern-day, militaristic and gritty approach to fighting the supernatural," and somehow avoids a copyright claim by following a special ops groups that fights the evil ghosts that have taken over Manhattan. Yes, the same Manhattan that the Ghostbusters protected. I don't know how they're getting away with it either.
You can say it's a bad idea to try and replicate the Ghostbusters formula, and I'll agree with you; then again, it's not nearly as bad an idea as Ghostbusters 3, a movie that people out there are actively trying to make, so we can take comfort in that. I'd much rather see Spectral exist than for Bill Murray to be dragged kicking and screaming back into Venkman's coveralls; if we somehow wind up with both, we'll know that the evil Stay-Puf Marshmallow Man has truly won.
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