It is rare that fans are delighted when their favourite movies are picked for the remake treatment and their displeasure is often understandable given the long list of classics whose legacy has been sullied.

The reaction to the announcement of a new female-led Ghostbusters movie, however, was off the scale.

In many respects, it is strange given the people involved.

Not only has it received the blessing of surviving original stars Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray (who will appear in cameos) but the new cast have similar credentials.

Like the originals, the new principle leads Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones cut their teeth on the US comedy institution Saturday Night Live.

The director Paul Feig is the man behind Emmy-winning cult hit Freaks and Geeks and directed his muse McCarthy in blockbuster comedies Bridesmaids (also with Wiig), The Heat and Spy to no little acclaim.

With other cast members including Andy Garcia and Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth, perhaps it is shaping up OK.

The Aussie hunk, who enjoys staying in Richmond and Twickenham when filming brings him to England, told us the filming process was a blast.

Speaking to us a while promoting his film In the Heart of the Sea a few months ago, Hemsworth told us: “It was awesome, so much fun.”

Hemsworth plays the Ghostbusters receptionist Kevin, and judging from the trailers already released, will be a great source of laughs.

Not that he was that confident going in to the process and working with the unfamiliar style of Feig.

He told us: “I was really nervous. I kept getting told ‘the scenes are coming, we’ve got to rewrite some scenes’ because there wasn’t much of my character in the script. There just wasn’t much of a character.

“I got to Boston the night before I’m shooting and I’m like ‘I’ve still not got the script, what am I doing?’ I said to [Feig] ‘I’ve still not got the script, what do I do for you tomorrow?’ He said ‘don’t worry, we’ll work it out’.

“Everyone kept saying that’s his method and you get on set and he just keeps the camera rolling and the girls start improvising, he’ll yell suggestions and you keep going, you crack up, you try and hold together. And it is endless reels of chaos. But it is so much fun.”

He added: “It is quite liberating. If it didn’t work, it was like ‘well it’s not my fault, you didn’t give me a script’.

“There was something quite refreshing about that rather than being given the world’s greatest script and going ‘don’t mess it up’.

“It was nice to do that. That improvisation created such a spontaneity and organic feel.”

It would be entirely natural for an actor known mostly for his action roles to feel a little bit nervous up against a team of established comedic superstars but Hemsworth said he soon settled in.

He said: “It was initially (intimidating), then it was just hard trying not to laugh. I just kept cracking up.”

Here’s hoping we all do too.

Ghostbusters (12A) is out on Monday, July 11.

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