Judd Apatow says only "nerds" disagree with the all female line-up of ‘Ghostbusters’.
The 48 year-old ‘Trainwreck’ director insists the fact Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Leslie Jones have been cast as the paranormal fighting gang in the rebooted film – instead of four men like in the original 1984 movie – is an indicator that Hollywood has moved on from creating roles just to "serve the male parts of the story".
And he thinks the few people that disagree are a minority of stalwarts who are stuck in the past and probably live in their "parents’ basements" and don’t have much clout in the movie industry.
Speaking about how comedy is bringing women into the foreground, the filmmaker said: "Take the female ‘Ghostbusters’ I hear about, that I think (Paul) Feig is making with Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Lesley Jones and Kate McKinnon. That sounds awesome, but other people are less happy.
"Then again, I think sometimes the people complaining are 28 nerds in their parents’ basements. Most people are thrilled they’re going to make the movie and so they should be.
"Movies need both men and women and it should all equal out."
Apatow – whose previous work includes movies such as ‘Knocked Up’, ‘The 40-year-old Virgin’, ‘Superbad’ and ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ – is married to ‘The Vacation’ star Leslie Mann and said in the early days of their marriage, the couple would discuss the issue of women being marginalised in film which inspired him to write better parts for the opposite sex.
Judd – who married Leslie in 1997 – told The Independent newspaper: "When my wife and I got married we would talk a lot about how bad the scripts were and how the female characters were just there to serve the male parts of the story and were really underdeveloped. I made a real effort in writing to go deeper and make stronger choices."
Judd Apatow: Critics of female Ghostbusters are just nerds
