Everything We Know About ‘Anything but Ghosts’

Most of the story is still under wraps, but we know Barker and Tomlinson play wannabe paranormal investigators who get far more than they bargained for when their ghost-hunting operation encounters the real thing.

Focus Features describes the group as fame-seeking ghost hunters who quickly find themselves in over their heads as the situation spins out of control.

The cast includes:

• Curry Barker as Mouse
• Bryce Dallas Howard
• Aaron Paul
• Cooper Tomlinson
• Violet McGraw
• Chris Reinacher
• Matty Finochio as Scoot
• Amy Goodmurphy as Producer
• Matthew Clarke as Boot
• Kristina Matisic as News Reporter
• Halle Galloway as Jessica
• Diego Stredel as Director

Skyler Zurn served as one of the casting directors for “Anything but Ghosts.” The CD previously worked with Barker on “Obsession,” helping discover breakout star Inde Navarrette. We recently sat down with Zurn to learn more about the casting process for “Anything but Ghosts,” which she says was “a complete 180” from “Obsession.” 

“There was another discovery process,” the CD told us. “There is a third ghost hunter who is part of their friend group in the film, and his name is Chris Reinacher. This guy, he’s gonna take over the world. He had one of the best auditions we’ve ever seen, just creative-wise, and it all came from micro-moments. He knew the character so well that it was outside of the lines—he was adding his own reactions. Watching him on set—that is my happy place, casting-wise. I think Chris is going to surprise the world.”

Barker directed “Anything but Ghosts” and co-wrote the screenplay with Tomlinson. The pair met at film school before building their YouTube sketch-comedy channel, That’s a Bad Idea.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tomlinson opened up about the duo’s writing process. “We hook our laptop up to our TV, and we let the story unfold and see where things take us,” he told the outlet. “Curry doesn’t like to be constrained to an outline. That puts you in a box. We like to see where the story goes, and so many fun things come out of it.”

Barker also received advice about “Anything but Ghosts” from “Barbarian” and “Weapons” filmmaker Zach Cregger, who advised cutting the page count.

“Here’s me being stubborn because I was like, ‘No, I’m not gonna do that,’ ” Barker said. “It’s funny because looking back at it, I’m like, ‘Damn, Zach Cregger was right, because it was so stressful.’ ”

Barker has made it clear that “Anything but Ghosts” won’t simply repeat what worked in “Obsession.” “Nobody wants the same movie twice,” he said. “So people can expect it to be very different than ‘Obsession,’ but my voice will still be very strong in it.”

As for what Barker wants that voice to look like onscreen, he said, “I like to create worlds that have an iconicness to it. I’m always thinking, What’s the Halloween costume?”

Jason Blum is producing the new horror film for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, with Roy Lee and Steven Schneider producing for Spooky Pictures, and Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath for Divide/Conquer. Barker, Tomlinson, Daniel Bekerman, and Ben Ross are executive producers.