In the iconic film “Ghostbusters,” the first ectoplasm ghost our heroes capture is a green creature named Slimer, who has a hefty appetite and leaves a slime trail everywhere he goes. ‘Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reiter told HuffPost Live on Friday that Slimer is a sort of tribute to the late John Belushi.

Belushi and fellow Saturday Night Live castmate Dan Aykroyd were the original ones to cook up the idea for Ghostbusters, which would have them venturing through space and time, fighting ghosts along the way. Belushi’s death in March 1982 forced a change of direction in the film. Reitman joined the film after Belushi’s death and suggested some differences of his own, most notably putting it in modern-day New York.

“When [Aykroyd] saw what I had gotten designed for Slimer and the fact that he would be just eating all the time and that was part of the comedy of it, we started thinking of it in those terms,” Reiter told host Ricky Camilleri. “Aykroyd and Belushi were very close … there was a great deal of affection.”

Watch the rest of the clip above, and catch Reitman’s full HuffPost Live conversation here.

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