Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd pitch Ghostbusters to independent movie theaters in a recently-unearthed 1984 promotional video reel.In the clip, Murray and Aykroyd stand in front of the now-iconic Ectomobile (A.K.A. Ecto-1) at the entrance of a film studio in their Ghostbusters' uniforms. Aykroyd leads the introduction, mentioning the odds would be in the movie theaters' favor if they were to pick up Ghostbusters as Aykroyd foretells it to be "the greatest comedy motion picture of all time." Murray follows with "This is gonna make E.T. look like Raiders of the Lost Ark...This is gonna be the kind of thing that your children are gonna say, 'Dad, I can look up to you now, and I never could before.'"
"And it is PG," says Aykroyd. "I'm fucking telling you, it's PG!"
Originally, Columbia Pictures enlisted the help of Murray and Aykroyd to sell the film to theater distributors at the ShoWest Convention in Las Vegas in 1984. Murray and Aykroyd's pitch functioned as the introduction to a 13-minute reel full of rough Ghostbusters' cuts -- including clips with no music or special effects -- to show at the convention. Also, the video reel featured an unused theme song performed by Glenn Hughes and Pat Thrall. Columbia Pictures presented the song in three parts in the original reel, but below is the entire stitched-together version for fans to hear.
An edited version of this 1984 reel was recently released as a bonus feature on the Ghostbusters 1 & 2 4K UHD/Blu-ray set, where Aykroyd's ironic "fuck" was edited out.
The Ghostbusters franchise was resurrected in recent years for fans to enjoy newer tales, starting with the all-woman cast reboot of Ghostbusters released in 2016. Soon, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be released as well, focusing its story on where Ghostbusters II ended. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was set to release this summer, but its release has been postponed to 2021 due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is directed by Jason Reitman who also co-wrote the film with Gil Kenan. Starring Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd and Mckenna Grace, the film arrives in theaters March 5, 2021.