Puft trade
A brief history of slime…
GHOSTBUSTERS: THE ULTIMATE VISUAL HISTORY Book
DANIEL WALLACE | TITAN BOOKS
The bad thing about Paul Fieg’s Ghostbusters reboot is that it finally closes the door on Ivan Reitman’s original. The good thing is that it’s opening it again for a whole new wave of bustin’ nostalgia – spearheaded by Daniel Wallace’s lovingly written coffee-table tome.
Spanning every production detail of both movies along with its expanded universe, Wallace covers everything you ever wanted to know about Ghostbusters and a hell of a lot more. From concept art and sketches to backstage photos, storyboards, costume designs, vehicles, locations and props… in Twinkie terms, it’s big.
Fittingly, the result is a weird mix of sci-fact and sci-fun. The backstage anecdotes are great – how the guy inside Mr Stay Puft got crotch chafe, how Sigourney Weaver Method-acted her way through the audition by ripping up Reitman’s sofa cushions with her teeth – but there’s also plenty of page space given to waffling on about which brand of electric shoe polisher formed the base shaft for the PKE meter.
Half Egon, half Venkman, the book serves as a timely reminder how lucky we are to have Ghostbusters. Here was a horror-comedy hybrid made for kids and adults – partly by Hollywood moneymen gambling on a new property; partly by a dying breed of practical FX craftsmen; and partly by some of America’s edgiest comedians, sitting in a sushi restaurant with a walkie-talkie, listening out for the moment they were absolutely required on set.