Because of the way he shoots -- with a lot of improvisation and spur of the moment ideas - Paul Feig is known for getting a lot of footage when making a movie. As a result, his movie's typically can be found with extended or unrated cuts on home video, which restores material that was cut. His latest movie, Ghostbusters, is no different, and the film will have a longer version on Blu-ray and DVD, but there is one specific scene that he really wishes could have been left in the theatrical edition: a giant dance sequence in the streets of New York.
Last week was the Los Angeles press day for Ghostbusters, and it was while sitting down with director/co-writer Paul Feig that I learned about the scene that he really wanted to keep, but ended up on the cutting room floor:
We repurposed it into the end credits: [the dance sequence]. I loved it, and it's actually going to be in the extended version of the movie. But there's some babies that you just have to lose. That's the hardest thing about doing comedy. You have so many funny things, but if you stack up too many, or it comes at a time when the audience wants to be moving forward... if you hang on to them you slow everything down. So that was a really tough one.
Because the sequence would have played in the third act of Ghostbusters, I'll do my best to be vague and as non-spoilery as possible. The scene features a large group of people who are having a face-off with the movie's central villain. Unfortunately, this antagonist is imbued with supernatural powers, and manages to control them like puppets. When you see the movie, you'll know exactly where it would have fit in, and as Paul Feig notes, you can watch pieces of it while the credits roll at the end.
You can watch Paul Feig -- looking extremely dapper in his handsome blue suit -- talk about the key deleted scene from Ghostbusters in the video below.
When you go see Ghostbusters - which arrives in theaters this Friday, July 15th -- be sure to head back to this article afterwards and tell us if you think of the missing scene, and whether or not you think it could have been left in the movie!
