‘Ghostbusters’ Director Paul Feig Finally Fires Back At Haters

Ghostbusters will hit theaters very shortly, and as early as the pre-production phases, the film has been the subject of more scorn and hate than most other rebooted films, but director Paul Feig has remained relatively quiet about the criticism. Now that the film has reached completion, Feig has the time to respond to the Ghostbusters haters out there and he’s doing just that, both with his words and with a special added feature on the Ghostbusters film.

Ghostbusters Director Paul Feig Shares His Thoughts On The Film’s Haters

Ghostbusters may have very well made Paul Feig the most hated director in Hollywood with the public using social media to send their feelings of contempt for Feig’s reboot and even for the trailer, but now, as IGN reports, Paul is responding to the hate with some words of his own. For the first trailer, Paul reveals there was a very different look at Ghostbusters than that which was delivered. He says they had developed a thrilling teaser to launch in theaters as a lead into Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but, at the last minute, it was decided that the teaser would be pulled, and in its place, Feig delivered the much hated Times Square Ghostbusters trailer.

Feig says the trailer was screened for the country’s most hardcore Ghostbusters fans and they loved it, so everyone on the production team assumed they had a winner on their hands. The high of knowing they had a hit didn’t last long, and the online community didn’t take long in delivering a very different response.

“And then the second wave comes in and that’s when it disseminates out to either haters, or the skeptical, or people who are just mad that we’re doing it,” says the Ghostbusters director. “And then quickly I saw the dislike numbers were going up very fast. It was this thing where you were like… plenty of people I’m sure didn’t like it and I completely get that. But this seemed disproportionately high and fast going up.”

For the completed Ghostbusters film, Paul says he does understand some of the hate he’s been seeing. He acknowledges that fans of the original Ghostbusters films are nervous about the reboot and would be wary of the project, no matter who was involved with it. He also says much of the comments he sees from people hating the all female cast of Ghostbusters have been misinformed. That group, in particular, is responding to the Feig’s statement that haters of Ghostbusters are criticizing the film because they hate women, and Mr. Feig says he never made that statement.

“Everybody on the internet is painting it like I have been saying ‘If you don’t like it, you’re against women.’ I’ve never said that, ever,” said Paul Feig. “They take the quotes and they pull one part of the quote. So I understand – I completely get why people are nervous, so you just go… all I can ask is please just judge the movie on its own merits. Don’t judge it off a trailer.”

The Ghostbusters Cast Mocks YouTube Haters In Newly Added Scene

Mr. Feig took to his film to react to some of the more hateful YouTube commenters on his Ghostbusters trailer, reports C-Net. The director filmed an extra scene in which he asks actresses Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones to ad lib comments to troll the trolls. As last reported, the Ghostbusters trailer had earned 914,452 dislikes out of 35 million views, so Paul felt such strong resentment deserved a direct response.

Actress Melissa McCarthy says the Ghostbusters scene felt very organic, as though it had been written into the film purposely, even though it was completely made up on the spot.

“You have a great script that Paul and Katie Dippold wrote,” reveals Ghostbusters‘ McCarthy. “What’s so great about Paul is that on the day, we get what’s written and he says, ‘Now have a little bit of fun with it.’ It doesn’t mean you go wildly off topic or try to switch stories, but you can change it up just enough to really surprise who you’re talking to.”

Ghostbusters opens in theaters on July 15.

[Image by Rich Polk/Getty Images for Sony Pictures Entertainment]