Sony calls on Ivan Reitman to resurrect a 'Ghostbusters' 'toon for TV

Who you gonna call in 2050? An all-new team of animated Ghostbusters.

Sony Pictures Animation has announced its programming slate through 2018, including another Hotel Transylvania sequel, a faith-based theatrical 'toon about a donkey at the first Christmas and a date for the emoji movie.

But the biggest surprise from Monday's release may be the forthcoming Ghostbusters animated series, Ghostbusters: Ecto Force, billed as "further expand[ing]" the Ghostbusters universe. It will focus on a new generation of Ghostbusters in the year 2050 and is being "creatively spearheaded" by original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman's production company Ghost Corps.

Sony did not disclose, however, whether the animated Ghostbusters would be all men, all women, or a coed team.

Ghostbusters: Ecto Force is not the first animated Ghostbusters show -- The Real Ghostbusters aired in the late '80s following the original films' release, followed by Extreme Ghostbusters in 1997.

Other animated series Sony announced include Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs and Hotel Transylvania: The Television Series. Both are planned for 2017 debuts.

On the film front, Sony shared plans for Smurfs: The Lost Village, as well as the animated Spider-Man feature produced by dream duo Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie).

Other animated films include The Star, out Dec. 8, 2017 from director Timothy Reckart (Head Over Heels), which tells the tale of a donkey at the first Christmas. And it dated the long-rumored emoji movie, EmojiMovie: Express Yourself -- which it called "a surprising and comic take on the secret world" of the emojis on our phones -- for August 2017.

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