Making Ghostbusters

by Don Shay

The script for the movie, Ghostbusters, is accompanied by discussions of its filming, actors, and special effects

Genres: Media Tie In

223 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1985

About the author

Don Shay is the author of the new award winning coffee-table book "Endangered Liaisons," on African wildlife and the safari experience. He is also the founder/publisher of "Cinefex," a quarterly magazine on movie special effects, and has written extensively on motion picture technology for that publication and others. His book, "The Making of Jurassic Park," topped the New York Times best-seller list for several weeks in 1993. He lives in Riverside, California. "

Reviews

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Onvan : Making Ghostbusters: The Screenplay - Nevisande : Don Shay - ISBN : 0918432685 - ISBN13 : 9780918432681 - Dar 223 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 1985

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big Ghostbusters fan, but it wasn't until somewhat recently that I found out this book even existed. Yeah, some sellers ask a lot for it, but I was able to find a decent copy on eBay for a reasonable amount. And yes, the book is available for free as a pdf, but I wanted the actual paper. I guess I'm just weird like that.

I enjoyed the read quite a bit. If you didn't know, it is the shooting script for the movie, with annotations and trivia in the margins. There are a lot of production photos (which I wish were color) included as well. There is a short color photo section at the end, though. A lot of the stuff I knew already, but a lot of the notes are direct quotes from the creators, which I liked. Over 200 pages, and it was a good read.

If you're not a big fan of the franchise, you can skip it. Even if you are, I'd check out the online version for free just so you can be sure it would be worth the investment.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very neat to read: basically the original movie script annotated with trivia and changes made while filming. Check out SpookCentral to find the full book digitally (because the paper version has been out of print for decades)

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I probably learned about Making Ghostbusters sometime in the early 2000s, when I watched the trivia track on the 1999 Collector's Series DVD and learned that the content came out of this book, but even then it was already out of print and fetching hundreds of dollars online. Sometime around 2008 or 2009 I briefly thought I had lucked out when Half Price Books said they could obtain a copy for $8, but then the actual book couldn't be located when I tried to order it. I wasn't planning on buying another copy of the movie on home video, but in addition to a bunch of reasonably tempting new video extras, they packed in a brand-new miniaturized copy of this book and that made it a slam dunk for me, since there was no way I was paying $200 to buy the one that's been on Amazon for years.

While I've already watched enough and heard enough and read enough to know basically everything there is to know about the making of the movie, this was still a very good read because it was written in 1985 and everyone's memory is fresher and the clarity of detail is better, not to mention the book does reveal plenty of information that just isn't recorded anywhere else -- single cut lines, minor changes in dialogue, and deleted scenes that haven't been unearthed and put on the DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K for people to just watch. No idea how interesting it will be for casual fans, but for me it was worth waiting 20 years to read it.

[Jeff Szpirglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a real gem of a book, containing an annotated copy of the shooting script complete with photographs, storyboards, blueprints, and interview quotes. The various elements are expertly assembled to give a comprehensive overview of the development of the movie from idea to finished film.

[neo b · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite parts is when we find out the poem sigourney weaver wrote and read at the Los Angeles wrap party said "I have a crush on Harold"