ever mind that “Ghostbusters’’ won’t open in theaters until Friday. Everyone, it seems, has already staked out a position on director Paul Feig’s reboot of the classic 1984 film that starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis as goofy ghost wranglers in Manhattan. For months, those who pledge allegiance to the original have been tweeting their disdain for the remake, determined to hate the movie even before they’ve seen it. But there are plenty of film fans who are very much looking forward to watching Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones play a new crew of apparition exterminators. Yes, they’re women this time. So what? That was Feig’s reaction when reached by phone at the end of a long promotional tour that took him to Singapore and Moscow. The director had a lot to say about his new movie, which he’d really prefer we not describe as the “all-female ‘Ghostbusters.’ ’’

Q. After everything that’s been written about a movie no one has seen, will it be a relief when “Ghostbusters’’ finally comes out?

A. The biggest relief ever. I’m tired of the controversy surrounding a film that was only made to make people laugh. The fact that the media allowed this micro-minority of voices to have a say in all this is very frustrating. So I’m excited to have people see the movie and say, “Oh, I see, they were just trying to make a fun movie to make people laugh.’’ All the rest of the stuff is a whole lot of noise.

Q. You don’t do yourself any favors by being on social media. Doesn’t that elevate your blood pressure?

A. Yeah, but at the same time, I love social media. And to be chased off by a few people, and cut off from the huge number of wonderful, supportive people I’ve met over the years, especially since I announced I was doing this project, that’s a nonstarter for me. Honestly, the people I’m in touch with every day who’re positive is overwhelming. The few unhappy voices or negative voices that were deluging me at first have let up, or maybe I just blocked them. I don’t know.

Q. Knowing that the original engenders this sort of emotion, was it daunting going into this?

A. It was. When you’re rebooting a classic film, it’s nerve-wracking. But one of the many reasons it’s a classic is because it’s a great idea, a showcase for funny people. As much as I love the original, I also kind of said, “All right, that was 30 years ago. That was a vehicle for the funniest people of the day. Why can’t this once again be a vehicle for the funniest people of today?’’ It seemed like kind of a shame to let this amazing idea sit.

Q. It’s not as if, in the long history of Hollywood, there haven’t been successful remakes of comedies. Is there something sacred about this film?

A. Well, there’s something sacred about it to a group of people who grew up with it, which is funny to me because I was 22 when it opened. I saw it opening night and I saw it with a group of people and we were all in film school together. For us, it was this amazing game-changing comedy. But it wasn’t the childhood religion that it was for this group of people who were even younger and who grew up with it. I knew it was canon because it was canon to every single one of us in comedy, but I didn’t realize there was the sacred nature to it that a slightly younger generation has attached to it. If you look at the people who seem to be the most upset about [the remake], in general it’s guys in their mid-30s to early 40s who were kids when it came out and they ran around their neighborhoods with the toys and the packs playing Ghostbusters. That’s great, but then I say, “Why can’t a new group of kids, including girls, have that same kind of fun and adventure and excitement that this generation felt?’’

Q. The bar seems to be set unreasonably high, like this movie has to be perfect or it’s no good.

A. I hear what you’re saying. But you can’t think about that. I do know the expectations are high, both positive and negative, but if you let that overtake your thinking you’d be ground to the point of stasis. All you can do is get the greatest ingredients you can think of and put them in the blender and shake them and mix them. At the end of the day, I can only make the movie I think is best. I happen to think this movie is great and could not be prouder of it and the test audiences who watch it go crazy for it. I can’t control people who bring in extra baggage. I hope people go along for the ride but if they don’t, that’s fine, too, and they’ll always have the original movie to enjoy.

Q. Was there something essential in the original that you needed to be faithful to or did you set out to create something entirely new?

A. A little bit of both, honestly. When [co-screenwriter] Katie [Dippold] and I sat down to figure out what we were going to write, the first thing we did was say, “OK, if someone else was doing this movie and we were going to the theater to watch it, what would we be hoping we would see and what would we be sad if we didn’t see?’’ I mean, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so, you know, the Ecto-1 and Proton pack and the slime and the Slimer and the logo: That stuff was all pretty great. Then we were, like, how can we have a little fun with those things in a way that fans of the original will get a kick out of and yet a new generation that hasn’t seen the original movie or doesn’t know it by heart can see these things come to fruition and how the Ghostbusters started. A true origin story.

Q. Did you always imagine an all-female cast?

A. When they were first pursuing me to do another “Ghostbusters,’’ I thought, “Oh, God, I have to get the funniest people,’’ and your mind does go to, “Who are the guys who are going to be the new team?’’ But that was even before I agreed to do it. It was fraught with peril because people are going to be directly comparing the new best funny guys with Bill and Dan and Harold. So that was one of the many reasons I kept saying no. But then [former Sony Pictures chairwoman] Amy [Pascal] pushed me and said, “Really think about it.’’ I did and I said, “Oh, I’ll work with the funniest ladies. I know all of the funniest ladies on the planet. I’ll work with them.’’ And that was the moment I said I wanted to do it.

Q. Why are we still talking about issues like gender-balanced casting?

A. The reason we’re still talking about this stuff is because Hollywood is so stagnant in doing what other businesses across the board have already done. For years, the corporate world has been working harder to bring some sort of equality to the workplace in a way that Hollywood has completely dropped the ball on. They have a million business reasons why — you know, male audiences won’t go to see a female-driven movie but women will go to see a male-driven movie, and the foreign market won’t go to a movie starring a woman but they will go to see one starring a man. I get it, you’re a business and you have to take the safe bet. At the same time, that’s why we’re in a situation where [an all-female cast] is so radical. It could not be less radical to put women in the lead of a movie. Over half the population of the planet is women, and I still have to read every single time the description of my movie as “the all-female ‘Ghostbusters.’’’ Like, come on. They never say that about any movie that stars men. They never say “the all-male ‘Hangover’’’ or whatever.

Q. Tell me about shooting the movie here in Boston. We have a little bit of an inferiority complex about New York.

A. We had the greatest time, honestly. The city is so helpful in letting us do things in a way that New York is not. I like shooting in New York, too, but it’s much more of an ordeal. I debated setting the movie in Boston, but one of the characters in “Ghostbusters’’ is New York City, so I felt like we had to preserve that.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at Shanahan@Globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkAShanahan.