It's a Wrap - The M.P.A.A Ain't Afraid of No Gay

It's a Wrap - Harold Ramis talks Ghostbusters III, the M.P.A.A. disaprove of man-on-man action, and new posters for Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes underwhelm in our round-up of recent movie news from the world wide web.

Talk of an eighties revival continued this week as Harold Ramis discussed the status of the often-rumoured third instalment in the Ghostbusters series with MTV. Ramis, who starred as Egon Spengler in addition to co-writing the first two movies, claimed that the original cast – including Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd - would be returning to serve as mentors to a younger team. “We’re all going to be in it in different kinds of roles,” Ramis said. “Bill Murray is just waiting for the truckload of money to arrive to get him out of his office. I think we just need a script, because he’s the thorniest of the group.”

There have been no announcements on further casting, while Ramis played down talk of interest from Seth Rogen, recalling a conversation where the latter had commented, “That’d have to be one great f***ing script for anyone to touch that.” However, with Judd Apatow (director of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up) on board as producer, expect to see some familiar faces from his comedy-troupe to become attached in the near future.

Ghostbusters seems to be enjoy somewhat of a renaissance at the moment with the original cast re-teaming for the video game adaptation, which is due for release this coming June. I could see a new Ghostbusters movie proving very popular, and if the upcoming game is a success look for this to be fast-tracked into production. Visit the game's official site here.

In other comedy news, The Wrap has reported that Ali G and Borat star Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest film Bruno has been handed an initial NC-17 certificate by the Motion Picture Association of America. Bruno, based on Cohen’s gay Austrian fashion presenter, apparently contains objectionable material including a scene in which he “appears to have anal sex with a man on camera”. So, while it’s acceptable for gay rape to be shown in films like Deliverance and American History X, it seems that consensual (albeit, comedic) same-sex relations is a definite taboo for the American censors. Perhaps a little homophobia (or repressed homosexuality) at play?


A few new posters have been doing the rounds this week, including a less-than-impressive one-sheet for J.J. Abram’s sci-fi reboot Star Trek, and our first look at Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes, who appears more mafioso than master sleuth…

On the subject of Star Trek, Variety announced the news that Abrams’ Lost co-creater Damon Lindelof has been brought in to pen the sequel alongside current screenwriting duo Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who also have Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen hitting screens this summer. Abrams will return as producer on the second movie, although he is yet to decide on another turn behind the camera.

Finally, Joblo have acquired some preview videos from the latest Disney / Pixar animated release Up, which is their first foray into the world of 3D. "Meet Kevin" is embedded below, and be sure to check out the site for more videos, including interviews with director Pete Docter and studio chief John Lasseter.