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Ivan Reitman was the Director of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Ivan Reitman was head of Ghost Corps with Dan Aykroyd.

Ghostbusters[]

Ivan Reitman is most known for directing Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, along with Stripes and Meatballs. In Ghostbusters, Reitman provided all of the unearthly voices, such as Dana's demonic Zuul voice and Slimer, except for Gozer's. [2] [3] In Ghostbusters II, Reitman makes a cameo in the film as a pedestrian walking past the Firehouse and crossing the street.

Ghostbusters Related Credits[]

About[]

While he had worked on a few earlier movies (small budget B-movies) his break was as one of the two Producers of National Lampoon's Animal House. He also is known for Directing Legal Eagles, Kindergarten Cop, Junior, Fathers' Day, Six Days Seven Nights, Evolution.

Other Works[]

The information in this section is gathered from IMDb and is meant to only be a brief list of highlights of their career.

  • Mummies Alive! (TV Series) - Executive Producer for forty-two episodes (1997)
  • Kindergarten Cop - Director, Producer (1990)
  • Heavy Metal - Producer (1981)
  • Stripes - Director, Producer (1981)
  • National Lampoon's Animal House - Producer (1978)
  • Cannibal Girls - Director, Executive Producer, Writer -developed dialog by the cast- (1973)

Trivia[]

Miscellaneous Trivia[]

  • Ivan Reitman is the father of Jason Reitman and Catherine Reitman.
  • Ivan Reitman first met Dan Aykroyd when he hired him to be an announcer at a television station in Toronto in the 1970s.[4]
  • On June 8, 2022, it was announced the street where Ghost Corps resides on the Sony lot was renamed "Ivan Reitman Way."[5]
  • Also on June 8, 2022, Jenny Whitlock from Hasbro revealed they made two more Ivan Reitman Plasma Series figures. One will go to Ghost Corps and one will auctioned for charity for the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. The figure has a megaphone based on the one he used during Ghostbusters. Jason found it in the family basement and sent pics to Hasbro to recreate.[6][7][8]

Ghostbusters (1984) Trivia[]

  • Slimer flying around the chandelier in the hotel ballroom is one of Reitman's least favorite effects.[9]
  • Rick Moranis suggested Louis' party right before principal photography started. Ivan Reitman decided to shoot the party as one long take to retain Moranis' comedic flow.[10]
  • While scouting locations and emulating Louis Tully's movements, Ivan Reitman saw the Tavern on the Green and decided to use it.[11]
  • When Louis/Vinz returns to the Shandor Building, in Chapter 23: Keeper Meets Master, Ivan Reitman, the camera and some of the crew can be seen in the reflection of the mirror inside the lobby just before the camera pans upward.
  • One faction in the production unit argued for a 100 foot tall Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, another argued for 125 feet but Ivan Reitman ultimately declared he would be 112.5 feet.[12]
  • As an afterthought in post-production, Ivan Reitman came up with the idea to include Slimer in the last shot.[13]

Ghostbusters II Trivia[]

  • During a videotaped rehearsal, Bill Murray went into a long tirade about an "unspecified indignity" Ivan Reitman forced him to do during the making of "Stripes."[14]
  • Ivan Reitman would often stand in front of William T. Deutschendorf and Henry J. Deutschendorf II and talk to them to get their attention for filming.[15]
  • The Ghostbusters II courtroom set was modified from one used in "Legal Eagles" (1986) which Ivan Reitman directed. It was pulled out of stock and materials were added.[16]
  • Ivan Reitman became concerned the Scoleri Brothers designs might have been over the top but Michael Gross believed it would lighten the moment.[17]
  • As the Slime in Bathtub Attack went through several concepts, Ivan Reitman decided the slime should turn into a creature inside the tub.[18]
  • When Ivan Reitman first read the Slime in Bathtub attack scene, it reminded him of when he worked on David Cronenberg's first movie "Shivers" which involved a woman getting attacked in her bathroom by a parasite monster.[19]
  • In Ghostbusters II, at the 55:10 mark in Chapter 16: Vigo 101, Ivan Reitman, wearing a blue jacket, makes a cameo has a background extra walking away from the Firehouse.
  • Ivan Reitman was the voice for the disembodied voice.[20]
  • In Ghostbusters II, during the montage at the start of Chapter 21: Tenth Level of Hell:
    • The Movieland Theater marquee advertises "Cannibal Girls" starring Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. This early 1973 film, was directed by Ivan Reitman.
    • In entrance area of Movieland Theater, the movie posters for the 1975 film "They Came from Within" and 1977 film "Rabid" are posted. Both are two David Cronenberg horror movies produced by Ivan Reitman early in his career.[21]
  • The scene of the Statue of Liberty's torch exploding in a fireball was a rare case of serendipity. On the first take, a piece of the rig, flew up into frame. It was a mistake but Ivan Reitman liked it and he cut it in.[22]
  • The larger-than-life-full-size-replica of the Statue of Liberty's crown was 30% larger than the original and the glass was left out of the windows since they got in Ivan Reitman's way.[23]
  • During shooting on the Statue crown, Ivan Reitman had the actors tilt down even further than usual in order to capture real fear on camera.[24]

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Trivia[]

  • The back of the Shandor Mining Truck driven by Egon in the opening scene is a GMC 960 Ivanbuilt. Ivanbuilt is a stand-in for Peterbilt and nod to Ivan Reitman. The "Built in 1946" on the rear of the truck references his birth year.
  • The license plate of Callie Spengler's Subaru Outback is "48IRG91" and unscrambles into "IRG1984" or "Ivan Reitman's Ghostbusters 1984."
  • One of Ivan Reitman's suggestions was more wind on the set of Afterlife.[25]
  • "Cujo" was chosen so the script could dovetail into a joke about "Beethoven," a nod to Ivan Reitman, who produced the latter.[26]
  • An insert shot Ivan Reitman filmed was a close up of his hand on the Particle Thrower right after Peter Venkman turns on his.[27][28]
  • Ivan Reitman stood in for the late Harold Ramis and filmed an insert shot of Egon's hands when he manifests and helps Phoebe Spengler take on Gozer.[29][30]

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Trivia[]

  • There is a dedication to Ivan Reitman at the end of the movie before the end credits roll.

IDW Comics Trivia[]

References[]

  1. AP News "Ivan Reitman, producer, ‘Ghostbusters’ director, dies at 75" 2/12/2022
  2. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 56:49-57:02). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "I actually do the voice, the deep voice of...that's me. I did Slimer and the voice that comes out of her here. "
  3. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 127 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In an unusual twist on the directorial cameo, Dana's demonic voice -- reminiscent of Mercedes McCambridge's intonations in The Exorcist -- was actually that of Ivan Reitman. Reitman, in fact, provided all of the unearthly voices in the film, except that of Gozer."
  4. Dan Aykroyd (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 05:39-05:47). Bueno Productions. Dan Aykroyd says: "He hired me as an announcer at a television station in the '70s, in Toronto, so I know him for many years, and the fact that Harold Ramis had worked with him."
  5. Ghostbusters Tweet #1 6/8/2022
  6. Ghostbusters Tweet #2 6/8/2022
  7. Ghostbusters Tweet #3 6/8/2022
  8. Ghostbusters Tweet #4 6/8/2022
  9. Ivan Reitman (2005). Ghostbusters- Commentary (2005) (DVD ts. 35:05-35:10). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "One of my least favorite special effects. "
  10. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 114 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The 'nerd party' evolved from an idea suggested by Rick Moranis shortly before principal photography began. To retain the comedic flow of Louis' blithering monologue, Ivan Reitman shot the entire party sequence -- up to the Terror Dog's appearance -- as one long take, following Moranis around the room from guest to guest."
  11. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 123 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "The original idea was for Louis to be trapped by the Terror Dog in a dark corner of the park. But Ivan was scouting locations one day, emulating Louis' moves from the time he runs out of the apartment building -- 'Louis runs here, then he runs here, and then he runs ... there!' And there was the Tavern on the Green -- a logical distance for Louis to have run, and a logical place to seek refuge."
  12. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 186. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A John Deveikis illustration for the original Dan Aykroyd script suggested a much larger marshmallow man than was ultimately decide upon. Since one faction within the production unit argued for a 100-foot tall version while another favored a somewhat larger 125-foot tall version, Ivan Reitman settled the dispute by declaring that the Stay-Puft marshmallow man would be 112.5 feet tall."
  13. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 201 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "As an afterthought during postproduction, Ivan Reitman decided to add a last-minute reprise by the Onionhead ghost - a final audience zinger misinterpreted by many as implying a sequel."
  14. Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever, p. 115. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243. Line reads: "Giuliano says Murray derailed one of the movie's videotaped rehearsals with a lengthy tirade about some unspecified indignity Reitman forced upon him years earlier during the making of Stripes."
  15. Joe Medjuck (2019). Ghostbusters II- Commentary (2019) (Blu-ray ts. 1:14:33-1:14:39). Sony Home Entertainment. Joe Medjuck says: "No, you would often stand in front of the baby, and be talking to him while they were filming, gets its attention."
  16. Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History, p. 146. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108. Line reads: "Tom Duffield snapped up the courtroom set from 1986's Legal Eagles, a Universal comedy starring Robert Redford, which Ivan Reitman had directed in between the two Ghostbusters films."
  17. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 11 and 13. Cinefex, USA. Michael Gross says: "The Scoleri brothers we deliberately made slightly cartoonish in their design and actions. At one point Ivan got a little worried about this and asked me, 'Do you think we've gone over the top!' I said: 'We need it in the picture at this point. Given how scary some of the other sequences are, it would be good to go over the top with these characters.' I thought it would lighten the moment. It was the first time we saw full-scale ghosts in the film, and I thought we really needed them to be as wild as they were."
  18. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 22-23. Cinefex, USA. Tim Lawrence says: "Many different ideas were discussed for the tub monster. It went from being somewhere where the tub turns into a porcelain version of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors to the tub becoming the beginning of a long road that goes down forever. Perhaps the most cartoonish gag was one involving a bubble bath monster. In that incarnation, Dana put bubble bath into the tub and then turned away. While she has her back turned, the mountain of bubbles get impossibly high behind her and then--when it is up over her shoulder--a dark shape comes up inside it and these eyes open up. With all the bubbles, the lensing effect makes it look like there are hundreds of eyes around this dark shape. When Dana turns back around, the creature opens a big maw and scares her. She drops an electric hair dryer into the tub and there's a big electronic snap. All the bubbles go pop, and what's left is a tiny little creature with two great big eyes that crumbles into cinders and goes down the drain. Ultimately, Ivan decided that the slime itself should turn into a creature inside the tub."
  19. Ivan Reitman (2019). Ghostbusters II- Commentary (2019) (Blu-ray ts. 44:55-45:21). Sony Home Entertainment. Ivan Reitman says: "I remember thinking about this scene, Dan, because I did David Cronenberg's first movie, called Shivers, in which a woman in this apartment gets attacked you know by this parasite monster. And there was just something so horrific about being attacked in your own bathtub that I thought, well we should try something like this in this comedy."
  20. Ivan Reitman (2019). Ghostbusters II- Commentary (2019) (Blu-ray ts. 59:51-59:52, 59:55-59:56). Sony Home Entertainment. Ivan Reitman says: "I think that might be me. I always did the deep voices."
  21. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 30 footnote. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The film being shown -- Cannibal Girls -- was the second feature directed by Ivan Reitman, and the posters in the foyer acknowledge two David Cronenberg horror pictures produced by Reitman early in his career."
  22. Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History, p. 173. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108. Ned Gorman says: "On the first take, a piece of the rig-a circuit, or a ring that was retaining the explosion-flew up into the frame. It was a mistake, but it looked good. We showed it to Ivan and he cut it in."
  23. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 34. Cinefex, USA. Bo Welch says: "When you are up inside the real crown in New York, it's shocking how small it is. If we had kept ours to the exact same scale, you would only be able to see a little of the guys' faces and they would not have had enough room to stand up and move around with their backpacks on. So we made ours a good thirty percent larger than the real one so that we could accommodate the four Ghostbusters and see their faces and shoulders through the windows. We also left the glass out of the windows. That was Ivan's choice simply because the glass got in his way."
  24. Eisenberg, Adam (November 1989). Ghostbusters Revisited, Cinefex magazine #40, page 37. Cinefex, USA. Line reads: "The full-scale crown was built on top of a gimbal so that it could be rocked back and forth to simulate the movement of the statue walking. Unfortunately for production, the gimbal broke down during the first day of shooting on the head set. "In the past," Gaspar explained, "gimbals were used a lot in Hollywood. But there are not many left today, and the ones that still exist are old and have not been well maintained. The first one we used for the statue's head was the Burbank Studios gimbal that was probably built around 1940. It has been sitting on the backlot for years. One of the movements that Ivan wanted was a realy heavy jolt when she looks down at the ground, and the rocking put too much of a load on the old casters. We tried to remedy the problem, but then something started to break in another section of the gimbal and I realized that we needed to get another one. I hated to do that because I knew how much it would cost us, but the old gimbal just was not safe. So we got another one from CBC and remounted the head on that. It too was old and some of the swivel joints had cracks in them, so we had new cylinders flown in overnight and repaired it. From then on, we had no problems--the gimbal was better than it had ever been." Riding inside the crown proved to be a unique experience for the actors."
  25. IGN YouTube "Ghostbusters: Afterlife Director Jason Reitman on Fan Service and Revealing the Movie's Secrets" 2:00-2:19 11/13/2021 Jason Reitman says: "Even just little things like 'You need more wind.' Ghostbusters always has wind. That's who we knew there are ghosts there. You see their hair fluttering. Their clothes fluttering. You see the leaves blowing. It's the presence of a ghost we notice through the wind. Things like that. We had a truck full of fans. We had everything from leaf blowers to six foot ritters."
  26. Yes Have Some YouTube "Jason Reitman Interview - Ghostbusters Afterlife, Franchise Future, Bill Murray!" 27:46-27:54 11/25/2021 Jason Reitman says: "Cujo I did choose as well but I think the reason why we went with Cujo was particularly so we could dovetail into the joke about Beethoven which was obviously a weird easter egg to my father."
  27. Hewitt, Chris (2022). Empire Magazine Issue 398 April 2022, p. 57. Bauer Media Group, Harborough, Leicester, United Kingdom. Line reads: "Of the emotional kind perhaps. "The most important one for me, for a long time, was that when Venkman turns on his proton pack, the close-up of the hand is my father's hand," says Reitman. Turns out that Murray had wrapped and gone home. Reitman turned to his dad who, as a result, donned a Ghostbusters flight suit."
  28. Jason Reitman instagram 11/26/2021 Jason Reitman says: "For an insert shot of Venkman firing up his proton pack, we brought in the hands of another Ghostbuster. My father only suited up for this one shot."
  29. Inguanzo, Ozzy (2021). Ghostbusters: Afterlife The Art and Making of the Movie, p. 155. Titan Books, London UK, ISBN 1789096529. Caption reads: "Jason Reitman directs his father, Ivan, for an insert shot of Spengler's hands."
  30. Inguanzo, Ozzy (November 2021). Ghostbusters: Afterlife The Art and Making of the Movie, p. 191. Titan Books, United Kingdom, ISBN 1789096529. Line reads: "In one of the most meaningful moments in the film, the original four Ghostbusters are standing next to each other again, with Phoebe sharing a proton pack with her grandfather as they defeated Gozer together. For a few insert shots, (Jason) Reitman asked his father, Ivan, to put on the flight suit, subbing in for Spengler."

Notes[]

  1. The information is sourced from "IMDb", which is User-generated content. It will be used temporarily as a reference until it can be replaced with a verified primary source. See link references guide.

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