Female Ghostbusters director Paul Feig 'shocked' by all-male version: 'I was like, does that mean don't worry, the real one's coming?'

Feig told Radio Times that the Channing Tatum-led reboot came as a 'surprise'

Director Paul Feig wants to showcase more female talent in movies (Getty Images)

Paul Feig has spoken honestly about his "surprise" at Sony's plans to make an all-male Ghostbusters in addition to his all-female reboot.

The Bridesmaids director cast big names Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones in his upcoming remake, only to find out that there was a similar male-targeted film led by Channing Tatum in the works too.

"It was a surprise - I was like, does that mean don't worry, the real one's coming after this?" he told RadioTimes.com. "It was a bit of a shock but I think it was a mistake - from even the studio's point of view I felt like it had been a mess up that it happened."

Feig is now communicating with the rival production to avoid overlap. "We were just putting our thing together and we were like, what happened?" he said. "But fair enough - they're a big studio, they can do what they want."

Feig's female Ghostbusters announcement last year was largely welcomed but he still received a "very rough and upsetting" reaction from some misogynistic movie-goers, adding to his frustration about male domination in Hollywood.

"I credited the public with being cooler than that. There are so many funny women that aren't getting a chance to showcase who come become big stars," the 52-year-old said. "The more big female stars we have to balance out how many big male stars we have - it'll just create an equality that then we don't have to think about it any more."

Peter Feig's all-female Ghostbusters line-up (Getty Images)

Feig does not want to "put one gender over another gender", but rather counter-balance an inequity when "one has been so subjugated by the roles they've been given in general".

His latest film Spy, with McCarthy in the lead, reaches UK cinemas today.