Ghostbusters: Afterlife should finally arrive in theaters later this year. After three launch delays, the movie is due out in November and, while there's a new younger group of heroes set to take center stage, the series' iconic cast are also set to feature in some capacity.
Among that group is Bill Murray, who is reprising his role as Dr. Peter Venkman from the first two Ghostbuster films. Now aged 70, Murray isn't as spritely as he used to be and, in a chat with Collider about his life and career so far, Murray admitted that filming on Afterlife put a huge physical strain on his body.
"It was really hard (to film)," Murray said. "We were just in it for a little while, but it was physically painful. Wearing those packs is extremely uncomfortable. We had batteries the size of batteries. They now have batteries the size of earrings. It’s still a really heavy thing to wear, all the time. The special effects in this one are a lot of wind and dirt in your face, and there was a lot of going down and getting back up. I was like, 'What is this? What am I doing? These are like Bulgarian deadlifts, or a Russian kettlebell, getting up and down with this thing on my back.'"
Despite the demands placed on him and other returning elder statesmen of the series, including Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, Murray said that Afterlife would be worth the wait. The movie has had its release pushed back three times by the Covid-19 pandemic, but it's hoped that the Sony Pictures film will now stick to its current release date.
"Usually, when something has a very high misery quotient, something comes of that and some quality is produced that, if you can capture it and project it, comes on the screen and affects you," Murray explained. "I think it comes out sometime in the fall. They’ve delayed it for a year or a year and a half, but I’m glad they did. It will be worth seeing."
What is Ghostbusters: Afterlife about?
Afterlife is a direct sequel to the first two Ghostbusters movies, which were released in 1984 and 1989. It's the fourth entry in the series but, due to the poor reception of the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot flick, Afterlife is billed as a canon follow-up to the two films that preceded it.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife will follow Callie (Carrie Coon), a single mother of two children – Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) – who move to their grandfather's old farm after being evicted from their home. When some spooky goings-on start to threaten the small nearby town of Summerville, the family discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the legacy that their grandfather left behind.
The movie has been co-written and directed by Jason Reitman, the son of former Ghostbusters actor and director Ivan Reitman, who passed away in 2014. Afterlife will also star the likes of Paul Rudd and Bokeem Woodbine, while Sigourney Weaver will also reprise her role as Dana Barrett from the 1984 and 1989 movies.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released on November 11 in theaters worldwide.
- Foundation on Apple TV: here's everything we know so far
