Ghostbusters is as iconic as a franchise gets. Following the story of ghost hunters who try to fight evil ghosts lurking in New York City, the first film from this franchise released in 1984, started a cultural movement, having one of the biggest impacts on mainstream media to this day. On top of this, the film led to sequels, reboots, and TV shows that managed to make their way into the lives of everyone in some way or the other.
Recently, the actor of one of the central characters in this film, Dan Aykroyd, who played the role of Ray Stantz revealed some behind-the-scenes information about the making of this project, that will have many surprised, in an eerie way. As it turns out, the origin of this cult classic may be based on true events.
Dan Aykroyd Had a Personal Reason To Make Ghostbusters
Dan Aykroyd played one of the most iconic roles in the Ghostbusters franchise, starring Ray Stantz, An expert on paranormal history and metallurgy. Outside of him playing one of the most memorable characters from this franchise, it would seem that the actor also had a hand in the creation of the project itself. He was responsible, alongside Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Ivan Reitman, for creating the screenplay of the project, helping it shape into the classic that it has come to be today.
“It has always been in my family,” Aykroyd told. “My great-grandfather was an Edwardian spiritualist. My dad wrote a book about the history of ghosts. I grew up with it.”
When he was making this project, it would seem that, to a certain extent, the actor was deriving from personal experience. It was revealed by Aykroyd during an interview with the Daily Mail that he wanted to create this film because of his grandfather’s past experiences with the paranormal in Britain. he also mentioned that this has always been a part of his family, with his great grandfather being an Edwardian spiritualist and his father, having written a book about ghosts, this was something that he was surrounded with when growing up.
He Wanted the New Generation To Enjoy Ghostbusters Too
After creating such an iconic franchise that became a part of the childhood of the majority, from his own experiences, it would seem that Dan Aykroyd wanted to make sure that his generation wasn’t the only one enjoying this series. During this interview, the actor also talked about his motivations and his contributions to making the 2021 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a film starring names, actors like Paul Rudd, Mckenna Grace, and Finn Wolfhard, as well as bringing back legacy actors like Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, and Aykroyd himself.
“The writers of Afterlife loved the first two movies and wanted to pass the torch to a new generation,’ says Dan. “I was 100 percent on board. I added my whatever talents to make it happen last time and I hope to continue to do so as there are many, many horror stories to be told.”
He revealed that the writers of this movie were big fans of the original works. So much so that they wanted to tell the story in a new way and fashion it so that a new audience could get introduced to this culturally significant franchise. Everyone on the cast was fully supportive and contributed as much as they could to making this happen, with Aykroyd, himself, adding that he would want to do this for as long as he could.
