Paul Rudd now has yet another great franchise under his belt.
Fresh from the success of Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, Rudd on Thursday announced that he’d be joining the cast of the upcoming Ghostbusters 2020 through the franchise’s official Twitter account, voicing his excitement about being in front of the building that served as headquarters for the team in the 1984 film by saying, quote, “I’m sliming myself right now.”
The film will start principal photography around Autumn in Canada, and the script, written by Gil Kenan and director Jason Reitman, has also been forwarded to members of the original ensemble, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Sigourney Weaver, though their involvement in the upcoming sequel remains unconfirmed as of yet.
On the other hand, Reitman has stated that the film will center on a group of teenagers who become successors to the eponymous team, with actors Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace having already been signed to play the role of siblings who will be the film’s lead protagonists.
Actress Carrie Coon has been cast as their mother, and Rudd will reportedly portray a teacher in the small town where the family lives.
Reitman is no stranger to coming-of-age films, having directed 2007’s critically-acclaimed Juno starring Ellen Page, and neither to the Ghostbusters themselves, being the son of the great Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two films of the supernatural-comedy series and will serve as a producer on the upcoming installment.
The film will serve as a follow-up to 2016’s ill-fated Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, which failed to resuscitate the franchise and proved to be one of Hollywood’s biggest box-office disasters ever, with losses in excess of $100 million.
Ghostbusters 2020 is set to release in July next year.