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"Ghostbusters: Afterlife" Trailer Highlights Southern Alberta Filming Locations

There’s Finn Wolfhard, southern Alberta and even a pile of Timbits.

The Ghostbusters are coming to the Prairies.

A new trailer for the highly anticipated remake/reboot/ “latest attempt to cash in on ’80s nostalgia” dropped Monday morning in the form of the first trailer for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” and it looks surprisingly Canadian.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is a sequel to the original “Ghostbusters” films. Directed by Jason Reitman, it follows a family who moves to a small Oklahoma town and discovers secrets about their past — also ghosts.

And while the film is set in the U.S., its Canadian connections are as large as the great white north. Reitman was born in Montreal, and the cast features Vancovuer-native Finn Wolfhard as well as beloved Canadian comedy icon Dan Akyroyd.

But it’s the film’s recognizable Albertan locations that really got people talking on social media Monday.

The movie was shot in southern Alberta, with the town of Fort MacLeod standing in as the fictional American town of Summerville, Oklahoma. Locations in Beisecker, Crossfield, Dorothy, Drumheller and Turner Valley are also featured.

The badlands make sense as a perfect setting for a spooky film. Drumheller and surrounding areas are home to plenty of ghost towns, abandoned coal mines and even dinosaur bones.

While Vancouver is often heralded as “Hollywood North” — ask any resident and they have a story about seeing a “Riverdale” actor or Seth Rogan on the street — “Ghostbusters” puts southern Alberta’s film industry into the spotlight. The film’s production was the talk of the town this summer, as stars were spotted throughout Calgary and surrounding areas, and Reitman documented the production through his personal Instagram account.

As for the trailer, anyone familiar with the badlands would recognize the highway winding through the desert hills into the Drumheller valley at the trailer’s opening. There are also shots of Fort MacLeod’s water tower, an old coal mine and, yes, many wheat and corn fields. Alberta teens who’ve taken their parents’ pickup truck out for a joyride can relate to the image of ECTO-1, the movie’s iconic ghostbuster car, blasting through a fresh corn field.

And to top it all off, it almost feels like the film’s creators are trolling Canadians with a gratuitous shot of a pile of Timbits.

A screenshot of a pile of Timbits from the "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" trailer.
Youtube/Ghostbusters
A screenshot of a pile of Timbits from the "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" trailer.

The film also features honorary Canadian Paul Rudd in addition to Carrie Coon and McKenna Grace. Though they don’t appear in the trailer, it will also feature original “Ghostbusters” cast-members Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney Weaver and Bill Murray.

We’ll have to wait until 2020 to see what other Canadian surprises “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” has in store.

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