Der Highlight Reel Interviews

Ghostbuster Dan Akroyd Has a New Game and a New Vodka to Compliment It

June 12, 2009

NEW YORK CITY — Dan Akroyd looks just like he did back in 1989 in the new Atari Ghostbusters: The Videogame, which comes out across all platforms on June 16. In real life, the 56 year old actor has definitely grown, but he still loves to talk about ghost busting - and vodka. The man who co-wrote the two Ghostbusters movies and the new game talks about his own supernatural experience and why gamers should drink vodka while playing Ghostbusters in this interview.

Was your Crystal Head Vodka inspired by the last Indiana Jones movie and its Crystal Skulls?

I didn’t realize the Indiana Jones movie was about the crystal skull legends, which I have followed for 13 years. We first started designing this two and a half years ago and it took that long to get it where it is. We designed a skull-shaped bottle from Bruni glass, an art piece which I think everyone will want. This skull is essentially a copy of Mitchell Hedge’s skull. A friend of mine has a whole collection. He’s an artist and he has this Mitchell Hedges skull. This is an adolescent native Ashinicok tribeswoman skull. You know, Spielberg referenced this in his movie.

What does the vodka taste like?

The vodka is a pure spirit from Newfoundland glacial pool water, and peaches and cream corn mash.

Do you have crystal skulls in the new Ghostbusters videogame?

Well, we have the flying skull sequence in the game, which is great and you can go back and play it over and over again. I would hope when we begin to get into distribution with the game that we could promote the Vodka with the game — maybe giveaways. I don’t know if you can give away alcohol. In some states you can’t. I’d send a case to the CEO of Best Buy to make sure we have the game in stock or something. We’ll figure it out.

What’s it been like introducing your vodka to the world?

The Crystal Head Vodka lives on its own and it’s been really, really fun. That’s a whole other thing, but you know, it is a spiritual legend. A lot of people thought that the website launching the Vodka was sort of a tease for Ghostbusters 3, but now we have the flying skulls in the game, so you know, somewhere we’ll figure out a way where people can play the game and sip Vodka. There’s no law against drinking and playing videogames. You can drive a car, or a helicopter, or fly a Boeing 757 on these flight simulators with the Vodka. It’s for people 25 and up.

So we don’t have to worry about underage drinking, right?

It’s 50 bucks, so we all have to have jobs to buy that stuff. Whether you drink it or not, you can give it to your friends to drink and it makes a great vase for flowers or candles. Or you can put wine in it because it looks great red.

With your new Ghostbusters videogame and third film in the works, have you ever had a paranormal experience yourself?

Well, you know There were stories in the house we lived in. We lived in Momma Cass’ old estate and she died in England. She choked on a ham sandwich, you’ll remember. In fact, in my friend’s apartment. He wasn’t there. And then there was a death in the hillside (near our house). Some hippie came up from Sunset Boulevard died at a party and they buried him in the hillside. So there were two spirits associated with that house and I remember the maids used to talk about the Stairmaster going and they used to hear voices and one of them was touched and turned around. Relatives would come and stay and my friend Preston, God rest his soul, he said he saw a big black shadow, so did Gary Kentlink, one of my partners. So I had lots of people telling me stories.

Where did you get your interest in ghosts?

My grandfather was a Bell telephone engineer and he read up on Steinmetz and crystals and they were about to design a radio that could hopefully reach the spirit world, but these were people who were inspired by Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. There were many, many scientists at the turn of the Century that were interested in Spiritualism, just to mention those two, and that’s where my interest came from. My great grandfather was a devotee and follower of Oliver Lodge and Conan Doyle and their interest in Spiritualism and passed it on to me. I read an article in the American Society for Psychical Research about Quantum Physics and Parapsychology and basically what the physical molecular make-up of a manifestation would be. How did that stewardess in that L1011 see a full torso manifestation of a pilot that was killed in another wreck. How did he come back and do that? How is the nitrogen, the oxygen, the hydrogen in our atmosphere? What’s the ether? How does it coalesce? What’s the physical behind that? So if you find out that, man, you’ll be able to make yourself disappear. I can’t do it now. You might want me to.