This article was first published in the July 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
So you're a Hollywood film executive who wants to reboot a beloved 80s movie franchise: who you gonna call? Paul Feig. The writer-director has built a reputation for smashing gender stereotypes with box office hits such as 2011's Bridesmaids and 2013's The Heat. No wonder Sony picked him to helm next year's all-female Ghostbusters reboot. "I love working with funny women," says Los Angeles-based Feig, 52. Ahead of his new film, the secret-service comedy Spy, Feig talked to WIRED about CIA gadgets, his Yahoo! series and why he ain't afraid of no franchise ghosts.
WIRED: Spy isn't so much a parody as a funny take on the genre. Do you think it is making a comeback?Paul Feig: I'd always wanted to make a spy movie. I'll tell you honestly why I think it's coming back: when Skyfall did so well, I think a bunch of us right at that moment were like: "OK, now we've got to make our spy movie."
**There's a nod to the genre's obsession with gadgets, but most of the CIA technology in the film is believable.**I was trying to be very accurate and got these two people in from the CIA. I'm like, "Can you do this?" And they said: "Er, we can't answer that." So I had to assume this is technology they would have. I got so tired of the Bond movies of the 70s and 80s that got so gadget-heavy they became like cartoons. You also knew exactly what the plot was going to be: this watch saws through rope! OK, so he's going to get tied up with rope...
**You've said that you want your films to pass the Bechdel test [where a movie must feature two women who have a conversation about something other than a man]. They also undermine stereotypes -- in Spy, the male secret agent.**Yeah. I did a lot of research on spies, and it's a known fact that women actually make better spies than men. A lot of spy work is just gaining people's trust, getting in with people, and women are better at that. So it seems so outrageous to have a woman as a spy, but back up: this is actually how it really works.
**Your other current project is Other Space, a sci-fi TV series for Yahoo!**Other Space has been a passion of mine for almost ten years. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and I've always wanted to do a sci-fi comedy. Other than something like Galaxy Quest, the comedy has always been parody -- but for people who love sci-fi, we don't really like seeing it made fun of. I wanted to do something that was funny but smart, like Doctor Who, Red Dwarf -- shows like that.
**How was working with a tech company, compared to a traditional TV network?**We had zero interference from them. The biggest thing was getting them to give us a little more money, because with sci-fi you have to build everything -- even props. My only fear now is that it doesn't get out there. They have a plan, via their Yahoo! infrastructure, but I just want to make sure this reaches beyond all that and finds an audience.
**So: Ghostbusters. Were you a fan?**I went to the opening night of Ghostbusters and was just blown away. You don't often get those -- the other time for me was Raiders of the Lost Ark.
**What was it that you loved about the original Ghostbusters that you’re trying to recapture in the remake?**It's such a great jump-off for comedy to have people fighting ghosts. They originally wanted to do it as a sequel, but I didn't know how to do that. Harold [Ramis] had died, we weren't going to get Bill Murray and the scripts always hinged on "the world has forgotten about the Ghostbusters" -- I don't buy that. It wasn't until they pressed me, and I thought: what if I can put a bunch of funny women in these roles and reboot it so it's an origin story? It's about how they get the group together, how the technology grows -- that's interesting to me.
And do we honestly need the all-male version and wider Ghostbusters "universe" reportedly in the works too?[Laughing] I have nothing to do with it. I don't own the property, so they're free to do what they want with it. All I know is that I'm in love with mine.
Spyis released on June 5
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
