James Acaster joins Ghostbusters
James Acaster has joined the cast of the next Ghostbusters film.
The stand-up's role in the sequel has yet to emerge, but he will appear alongside fellow comics Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, as well as Gossip Girl star Emily Alyn Lind.
Ghostbusters fan Acaster previously experienced an entertainingly intense encounter with the franchise's co-creator, Dan Aykroyd, when he and Ed Gamble interviewed him for their Off Menu podcast in 2021.
The pair also spoke to Jason Reitman, director of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, when it was released the same year.
Reitman remains a writer-producer on the new, currently untitled film, which stars Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard and Carrie Coon, suggesting that Acaster may have been attached to it for some time. It also raises the faint prospect that his character could reference his supernatural, dream restaurant genie waiter persona from the hit foodie podcast.
Scheduled to be released 20th December, the film is directed by Gil Kenan, a writer on Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which took more than £160 million at the global box office. US trade website Deadline reports that it will be set in the New York City firehouse where the original films, starring Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, were based.
Acaster made his cinematic debut in the 2021 Amazon version of Cinderella alongside James Corden and Romesh Ranganathan, and appears in the forthcoming British comedy film Seize Them!, set in the Dark Ages. He plays Felix The Ironmonger in a cast headlined by Derry Girls' Nicola Coughlan and Sex Education's Aimee Lou Wood, and also includes Jessica Hynes, Nick Frost, Lolly Adefope and Ben Ashenden.
His music collective, Temps, release their debut album, Party Gator Purgatory on 19th May. The comic has also just announced the UK and Ireland dates of his latest stand-up tour, Hecklers Welcome, with tickets on sale from 31st March.