His children—including director Jason Reitman and his daughters Catherine and Caroline—released the following statement:

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life. We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

All of us here at The Bits, and movie fans everywhere, are indebted to Reitman for a lifetime of laughs. I still fondly recall the first time I saw the original Ghostbusters (1984) in a movie theater when I was 16. I laughed so hard at the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man that I literally had tears running down my cheeks, which took me completely by surprise—it was the first time I’d ever had that experience. And then I realized that everyone else in the theater around me was having the same problem. Moments like that are priceless and stay with you, and Reitman and his collaborators have us quite a few of them over the years.

We continue to hope that Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will consider re-releasing their recent and tremendous Ghostbusters Ultimate Collection 4K/Blu-ray box set (which we’ve reviewed here), perhaps now in his honor.

You can read more about the man and his work here at Variety and there are many other lovely tributes around the Internet today. Reitman will certainly be missed, but also dearly remembered.

That’s all for now. Stay tuned...

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