Ghostbusters all-female cast and release date confirmed

Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig will take the lead in the new all-female line-up, it has been confirmed. Paul Feig, the director of the upcoming film remake, revealed his cast in a tweet on Tuesday night.

The former co-stars will be joined by comediennes Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon in the reworked version of the cult 1984 film.

Paul, who has worked with both Kristen and Melissa on and , also confirmed the release date for the film.

"In other news, #Ghostbusters will be hitting theaters July 22, 2016. Save the date!" he tweeted.

The original film made nearly £200million at the global box office in 1984, and was followed by a sequel, in 1989.

Talk of a follow up – featuring the original cast – had been ongoing for years, however this idea was scrapped after Bill Murray declined to sign up and his fellow original cast-member Harold Ramis died in 2014.

Paul Feig became involved in the project last year, and decided to put a radical twist on a remake of the film by working with an all-female cast.

" is such a great thing and everybody knows it," Paul told . "It's a shame to just let this thing sit there. My favourite thing to do is work with funny women.

"I was like, what if it was an all-female cast? That would be really fun."

The cast are expected to start filming the remake in New York in the summer. Paul has also said that the film will be set in the modern day.

"I want the technology to be even cooler. I want it to be really scary, and I want it to happen in our world today," he said.

While the remake has faced criticism from fans of the original , one person who will be watching is Bill Murray, who played Dr. Peter Venkman in the first film.

"It sounds great to me…it's a good idea, I would watch it" he told The 64-year-old also offered his suggestions for the cast – which included two of the new leading ladies.

"Melissa [McCarthy] would be a spectacular Ghostbuster. And Kristen Wiig is so funny – God, she's funny!"

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