On this date in 1984, Ghostbusters was released. 10 things you might not know about Ghostbusters:
The film was written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Aykroyd had a lifelong fascination with the paranormal and you could say it was in his blood. His mother claimed to have seen ghosts; his father wrote a book called A History of Ghosts; his grandfather experimented with using Radios to contact the dead; and his great-grandfather was a renowned spiritualist. More specific inspiration came when he read an article on quantum physics and parapsychology in The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, and from living in a house that was said to be haunted by the ghost of Cass Elliot.
Aykroyd’s original name was going to be "Ghost Smashers." The name Ghostbusters was chosen in the end, but it turned out to have been used before in a TV series in 1975 called The Ghost Busters. There was a long legal battle over the rights to the name, with the possibility it wouldn’t be resolved in time for the film’s release. Which meant shooting many of the scenes twice with one version using the alternative name of 'Ghostbreakers'. This was abandoned in the end because it was too much work and the crew continued on faith that they’d win the rights in the end. Luckily, they did.
There were legal issues with the Ghostbusters logo as well. Harvey Comics, creator of Casper, sued the producers because they thought the ghost in the logo looked too much like a character in their comic, a ghost called Fatso. The judge’s response when it came to court was something along the lines of, “Come on, guys, there are only so many ways you can draw a ghost. Case dismissed.”
Christopher Walken, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, and Jeff Goldblum were all considered for the role of Dr. Egon Spengler. So was Michael Keaton, who turned it down. He also turned down the role of Dr. Peter Venkman, as did Steve Guttenberg (in favour of Police Academy). Tom Hanks, Richard Pryor and Robin Williams were also considered for Dr. Peter Venkman. Daryl Hannah, Denise Crosby, Julia Roberts, and Kelly LeBrock auditioned for the role of Dana Barrett. Julia Roberts was turned down because she was deemed to be too young. Bill Murray agreed to be in it only if Columbia agreed to a remake of The Razor's Edge with him as the star. They did.
Creating the soundtrack proved to be a challenge. The Ghostbusters score was composed by Elmer Bernstein who once said it was the most difficult score he had written because of the combination of seriousness and comedy. Over 50 different theme songs by different artists were considered and rejected before Ray Parker Jr. got involved. Even he struggled with it, partly because he didn’t like the name Ghostbusters and didn’t want to use it in the song. He was inspired in the end by an advert he saw at 4.30am one morning for a drain company, which resulted in the line "Who you gonna call?" Working to a tight deadline, the only people he could find to shout the answer, “Ghostbusters!” were his girlfriend and her mates.
You’ve probably noticed that phone numbers appearing on screen in American movies nearly always begin with “555”. This is because, over there, it’s a non-existent code. One trailer for Ghostbusters, however, displayed a 1-800 number on their commercial, one that viewers could actually call. Callers got a recorded message of Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd saying something along the lines of "Hi. We're out catching ghosts right now." They got 1,000 calls per hour, 24 hours a day, for weeks.
The Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man suits cost approximately $20,000 each. Three of them were made, all to be destroyed in the course of filming. Staying with the Marshmallow Man, it was initially envisaged that he’d arise out of the water next to the Statue of Liberty, but that was abandoned because the logistics of filming it were insurmountable.
The actors were encouraged to ad-lib. Most of Bill Murray's lines were ad-libs and at least one resulted in a new slang term. The scripted line was "I'm gonna turn this guy into Toast". Murray said instead, "this chick is toast". This is thought to be the first ever usage of the word “toast” meaning something is finished or doomed. The producers also used a method called guerrilla filmmaking, in which scenes are shot spontaneously in public places. One of the locations for this was Rockefeller Center. During the filming here the actors were chased away by an actual security guard.
55 Central Park West in New York City is the address of the real life building used for Dana’s apartment. The building in question isn’t as high as it appears in the film – it only has 20 floors. Paintings and models were used to add more floors and the top of the building is based on the top of the Continental Life Building in St. Louis, MO.
Gilda Radner once complained she found Ghostbusters difficult to watch because she had dated all of its stars: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis.
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