Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a 2024 American supernatural comedy film directed by Gil Kenan, and written by Kenan and Jason Reitman. It is the fifth in the Ghostbusters film series. The film features Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace reprising their roles from the previous film, with Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts reprising their characters from the earlier films, and Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt joining the cast. It sees the veteran Ghostbusters returning to New York City and collaborating with their successors to save the world from a new ancient evil.
Following the success of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Sony Pictures announced the sequel in April 2022, with Reitman returning as director. In December, co-writer and executive producer Kenan took over as director, with Reitman remaining as co-writer and co-producer. The same month, Rudd, Coon, Wolfhard, Grace, Hudson, Potts, Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd were all confirmed to be reprising their roles. New cast members including Nanjiani and Oswalt were announced in March 2023, with principal photography commencing that month and wrapping in June. Dario Marianelli composed the film's score. As the first film in the Ghostbusters franchise to be released following the death of the franchise's co-creator and Jason Reitman's father Ivan Reitman, who posthumously receives credit as a producer, the film is dedicated to his memory.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire had its premiere at the AMC Lincoln Square Theater in New York City on March 14, 2024, and was released in the United States on March 22 by Sony Pictures Releasing. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $202 million on a budget of $100 million.
Plot
Three years after the events in Summerville, Oklahoma, Callie Spengler, her boyfriend Gary Grooberson, her children Trevor and Phoebe, and their friends Lucky Domingo and Podcast, relocate to New York City to aid Winston Zeddemore and Ray Stantz in re-establishing the Ghostbusters. After the group captures a ghost known as the Hell's Kitchen Sewer Dragon, Walter Peck, the Ghostbusters' long-time opponent and the city's mayor, threatens to close them down. To appease Peck, Callie removes Phoebe from the team for being underage. Upset, Phoebe plays chess in a nearby park, where she encounters and befriends Melody, a ghost of a teenage girl killed in a fire.Ray and Podcast collect cursed objects for examination. Nadeem Razmaadi sells them a strange brass orb with ritual markings written in Mesopotamian Arabic. Ray determines it is an apotropaic trap due to copper alloys typically being used in rituals since the Bronze Age, believed to have spiritual conductivity.
When Ray evaluates its psychokinetic energy levels, the orb emits broad-spectrum psionic energy. A cold wave travels from the orb to the Ghostbusters' firehouse headquarters and damages the ecto-containment unit, which is at near capacity. Winston takes the orb to his company's paranormal research and development center, run by Dr. Lars Pinfield. Using an experimental extraction device, he is unable to extract any orenda from it. The orb's captive psychically sabotages one of the center's ecto-confinements, allowing a ghost known as The Possessor to escape and hide in Podcast's equipment. To learn more, Lars joins Trevor and Lucky to see Nadeem, who reveals that his grandmother kept the orb hidden within a brass-lined chamber. Peter Venkman, brought in to help, discovers Nadeem has latent pyrokinesis.
Ray, accompanied by Phoebe and Podcast, visits Dr. Hubert Wartzki, a New York Public Library research librarian and anthropologist, who explains the orb was built over four thousand years ago in Southwest Asia by sorcerers known as the Firemasters to imprison Garraka, a demigod who sought to conquer humanity with endowment of "Kusharit Umoti", or the Death Chill, which can kill living creatures through fear alone. Nadeem's grandmother was of the lineage of the Firemasters, who prevented Garraka from escaping the orb in 1904 during a mock ritual conducted by members of the Manhattan Adventurers' Society, whom he froze to death. Garraka was confined in the orb due to being vulnerable to brass. This, combined with fire, and the removal of his horns trapped him within the orb.
When the trio attempts to stop the escaped Possessor from stealing a phonographic recording of the club's ritual, Peck exploits Phoebe's involvement to shut down the Ghostbusters. After an argument with Gary and her mother, Phoebe runs away and takes Melody to Winston's research center. She uses his extraction equipment to project herself as a ghost for two minutes so the duo can physically interact.
Melody reveals she had been secretly working with Garraka, who has offered her passage to the afterlife. By controlling Phoebe's disembodied spirit, Garraka forces her physical body to recite the ritual chant. He then escapes, recovers his removed horns at Nadeem's residence and begins freezing the city. Realizing Garraka will free the ghosts in the containment unit after freeing ones at the center, the Ghostbusters gather to defend their headquarters. They are aided by Nadeem, who dons the Firemaster brass armor kept by his grandmother and attempts to master his powers.
Garraka overpowers them and breaches the containment unit. Phoebe electroplates Egon Spengler's proton pack with brass to strengthen it; Melody atones for her misdeeds by helping Nadeem utilize his powers to weaken Garraka. Ray, with help from his fellow veteran Ghostbusters, captures Garraka by turning the ruptured containment unit into a giant ghost trap. A passage is opened for Melody, and she reconciles with Phoebe before departing for the afterlife to reunite with her family. As the city thaws, the Ghostbusters are hailed as heroes again, with Peck forced to support the team and reinstate Phoebe. The Ghostbusters begin pursuing escaped ghosts, including the Sewer Dragon and Slimer across New York City.
Cast
Additionally, Kevin Mangold and Ian Whyte serve as the puppeteers for Slimer and Garraka, respectively, though the latter's voice performers were uncredited. Shelby Young and Ryan Bartley also appear uncredited as the voices of the Mini-Pufts, tiny versions and replicated forms of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, with Young returning from Afterlife. John Rothman cameos as New York Public Library administrator Roger Delacorte, reprising his role from the first film.Production
Development
Following the release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife in November 2021, Dan Aykroyd expressed interest in having the surviving cast of the original Ghostbusters team reprise their roles in up to three sequels. In April 2022, it was announced that a sequel to Afterlife was in early development at Sony Pictures.In June 2022, the film was confirmed by director Jason Reitman under the working title Firehouse. That same month, it was announced that the sequel would take place in New York City. On October 5, 2022, Mckenna Grace announced that she would reprise her role. The following month, Ernie Hudson revealed he had read a script for the film.
In December 2022, it was announced that Gil Kenan would take over as director from Reitman, who remained as a writer and producer. It was also announced that Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard and Carrie Coon would return. In March 2023, it was announced that Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, James Acaster and Emily Alyn Lind had been cast in the film. Lind's role was established in secrecy during pre-production. She met Reitman, Kenan, and casting director John Papsidera, and was not aware that she had the role until shortly before filming.
According to Nanjiani, the filmmakers drew inspiration from the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, noting they "wanted to make a long episode of the animated series".
Filming
began on March 20, 2023, in London, Winnersh Film Studios, and Shinfield Studios, under the working title Firehouse, with Eric Steelberg serving as the cinematographer. On April 25, 2023, Hudson indicated that Aykroyd, Murray and Potts would reprise their roles from previous Ghostbusters movies in the film; Aykroyd confirmed he would return for the sequel in June 2023.Filming was spotted in New York City, where Casey Neistat was caught filming a stunt scene in a video posted on June 7, 2023, while documenting the effects of the 2023 Canadian wildfires in New York City. Filming wrapped on June 23.
Music
On January 18, 2024, Dario Marianelli was confirmed to compose the film's score, replacing Afterlife composer Rob Simonsen. This marked Marianelli's second collaboration with Kenan after A Boy Called Christmas. He recorded his score on the Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in the John Williams Music Building on the Sony Pictures Studios lot in Culver City. The original film's composer Elmer Bernstein's son, Peter Bernstein, returned as score consultant, after doing so for Afterlife. In addition to using some of the elder Bernstein's original scores on some of the film's scenes, the song "Ghostbusters", which was performed by Ray Parker Jr., is heard during the film's end credits. Other songs "Home on the Range", arranged by Kenan and Reitman, "Melano" by Caino x Jun R.O.T., and "Love Is Strange" by Mickey & Sylvia are used in the film.On March 7, 2024, Japanese girl group Atarashii Gakko! released a track called "Ghostbusters: Frozen Summer" as a collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan.