Ghostbusters female line-up confirmed

Feig previously cast Wiig (l) and McCarthy in his hit comedy Bridesmaids

Bridesmaids co-stars Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are to reunite in the all-female Ghostbusters sequel, its director Paul Feig has confirmed.

Saturday Night Live comediennes Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon will join them in the film, Feig announced on Twitter.

Feig, who also worked with McCarthy on 2013's The Heat, went on to confirm it would be released on 22 July 2016.

Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson played the ghost-hunting quartet in the 1984 original.

Directed by Ivan Reitman, the film made almost $300m (£198m) at the global box office. A sequel, Ghostbusters II, followed five years later.

Plans for a follow-up have been mooted ever since, but appeared to have been scuppered by Murray's reluctance to sign up for it.

Jones (l) and McKinnon are both Saturday Night Live regulars

Harold Ramis's death last year appeared to make it an even unlikelier prospect, with Reitman ruling himself out as director last March.

Feig's involvement gave new impetus to the project, as the Bridesmaids director revealed to Entertainment Weekly last year: "Ghostbusters is such a great thing and everybody knows it," he told the magazine.

"It's a shame to just let this thing sit there. My favourite thing to do is work with funny women. I was like, what if it was an all female cast? That would be really fun."

Jones, who recently appeared with Chris Rock in his film Top Five, began her Saturday Night Live career as a writer before joining its on-screen line-up last year.

McKinnon has been an SNL regular since 2012 and received an Emmy nomination last year for her work on the series.