I can't say this comes as much of a surprise. Variety has just reported that Ghostbusters: Afterlife has been moved from July 10, 2020 to March 5, 2021. On the positive side, this gives Jason and the crew more time to refine those special effects, make other tweaks, and do everything to make it as perfect as possible. Once this pandemic is over, of course.

I'm going to assume that any merchandise directly related to Afterlife will also be postponed until when the movie is finally released. The companies might still go through with anything related to the classic movies. Hasbro took pre-orders on the Plasma Series and The Real Ghostbusters figures. They could still go ahead and release those on time to fulfill those pre-orders, since other than the Neutrona Wand from the Plasma Series, those aren't directly tied in with Afterlife. The only issue is whether the stay-at-home orders, and needing materials from China, will affect the production of these items.

We'll just have to wait and see how things go. In the meantime, we always have the monthly comics from IDW. They may or may not be able to do any printed books (depending on whether print shops had to shut down due to stay-at-home orders), but they can certainly do digital books. A lot of the artists, I think, work from home anyway. They could publish new digital books and then do some trade paperbacks later on to collect the digital stuff into a print form. Compared to some other companies, they may have it fairly easy in this situation.

(Thanks to MrMichaelT for the tip on the release date announcement. Photo Credit: Aero Theater in Los Angeles, March 2020.)

Last year, I had the honor of consulting with Sony on bonus features to include on the Ghostbusters 1 & 2 4K/Blu-ray set. I gave them a mighty list of things to find and, amazingly, they found a lot of them. I was overjoyed to know that these rare videos would, finally, get an official high-quality public release. While I am still pleased with the set, that joy turned to disappointment when I realized that several new videos were presented in an incomplete (or edited) form.

Read more »

I ain't afraid of no Ray Parker Jr., and neither were the Ghostbusters.

Long before Columbia Pictures enlisted his help for a theme song to the 1984 classic film, they approached other musicians. None of the fans know how many other artists submitted music for the film, or even who all of those artists are, but two of these unused theme songs are now known... one of which is getting its first general public appearance right here on Spook Central today!

Read more »

When Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler opened their little paranormal investigation and elimination business back in 1983, they knew they needed a television commercial in order to let others know of their new operation. Derek Osborn recently was recently given a box of old VHS tapes from his father, who was a video engineer at WKRR12 back in the 1980s. Amazingly, contained on those video relics were copies of the Ghostbusters' original commercials. Let's take a look at what he has found.

Read more »

There are not many Ghostbusters filming locations that I have actually visited in person. Basically, I've only been to Rockefeller Center, Times Square, and the Statue of Liberty (the latter I haven't visited since the 1980s). I've certainly never been to any Ghostbusters (2016) locations, but that's because I don't live in or around Boston, Massachusetts. Well, that changed last month when I stumbled across one of that film's few New York City locations.

Read more »

Most Ghostbusters references are short bits that can best be encapsulated with a small video clip, as evidenced by Spook Central's collection of Ghostbusters reference videos on Critical Commons. However, sometimes there's a reference for which a small clip won't do it justice. It is for these types of references that I have this reoccurring feature here at Spook Central, the Ghostbusters Reference Review.

Read more »

On Saturday February 22, 2020, I attended the Hasbro 2020 Toy Fair in New York City, an offshoot of the larger New York Toy Fair going on elsewhere in the city at the same time. Thanks to the invitation-only event, I was able to be amongst the first to see the new Ghostbusters toys Hasbro will be releasing later this year. Join me as I share with you my experience of the event and provide you with details on all of the products you can look forward to. (UPDATE: Most of the products listed below, and MANY that were not announced at the time, can now be PURCHASED AT AMAZON.)

I should warn you that this article will be very long and image-intensive, but I have broken it up into THREE PAGES to ease the pain. (There will be page links at the bottom of each page.) I will also give some attention to the non-Ghostbusters booths I visited, as I want to fully document my experience. The images seen here are only a fraction of what was taken. Check out the supplemental page elsewhere on Spook Central for the full gallery of 100+ images. The product descriptions in the quote blocks are what has been given to me by Hasbro, and are being presented exactly as written. After each description, I will give my opinions and impressions on the item.

Except for the presentation livestream screenshots (taken by Matthew Jordan), and where otherwise noted, all photos in this article were taken by me, Paul Rudoff, exclusively for Spook Central. Please do not repost them elsewhere without permission. Thanks.

Read more »

Pages: 1· 2· 3

Most Ghostbusters references are short bits that can best be encapsulated with a small video clip, as evidenced by Spook Central's collection of Ghostbusters reference videos on Critical Commons. However, sometimes there's a reference for which a small clip won't do it justice. It is for these types of references that I have this reoccurring feature here at Spook Central, the Ghostbusters Reference Review.

Read more »

It's very rare that Spook Central's Shot On Site series has covered a location that only appears in a deleted scene. Even a place like Truffles Cafe, where the Ectomobile rejected a parking ticket in a deleted scene, technically appeared in the film in the background of a magazine photo. Well, today's Ghostbusters location doesn't appear anywhere in the final film.

Read more »

Insight Editions will release six educational PlayPop books in 2020, which introduce kids to beloved characters and films, such as Ghostbusters and E.T., while developing essential skills and concepts including first words, counting, colors, and shapes. The line begins with two titles set for release on February 4, 2020: Ghostbusters: 1 to 10 Slimer's Loose Again and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: E.T.'s First Words. Even though the release date is a month away, the kind folks at Insight Editions sent along copies of both books now, so I might as well do an EARLY REVIEW of them. (The E.T. review can be found on The Corner Penthouse.)

Read more »