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Movie News: Legendary Pictures Promises a 'Gritty Ghostbusters' in SPECTRAL

Written by Chris Holt Friday, 04 November 2011

Movie News

It seems very rare these days that a wholly original script not based on a pre-existing property sells for a huge amount of money. When this happens it’s a good idea to take notice because chances are you are hearing about the blockbuster to beat in a few years time. Now something called SPECTRAL has sold for a six figure sum to Legendary Pictures.

The screenplay as written by Ian Fried is pitched as a gritty version of GHOSTBUSTERS following a special ops group whose mission is to take out evil ghosts who have taken over New York City. Fried supposedly pitched his script with a “rip reel” composed of scenes from other movies to represent the feel of the finished product. One of Fried’s previous scripts THE EVER AFTER MURDERS ended up on the 2010 ‘Black List’, an annual list of the best unmade scripts doing the rounds in Hollywood. A further screenplay by the name of GASLIGHT involving Jack the Ripper and Florence Nightingale also forced studios to take notice.

So with the lack of a GHOSTBUSTERS 3 and the fact that the concept of an elite ghost catching unit is still sufficiently interesting, this could be something to look out for. Now if they can get the screenplay in the hands of someone suitably talented and with enough clout to get the sort of budget they need we could be talking about a future classic summer blockbuster.

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