Ever since Sony announced their all-female reboot of Ghostbusters, there has been plenty of hate spewed from all corners of the Internet, targeting the cast and director Paul Feig. The filmmaker has spoken out against these bullies through social media on many occasions, but last week he was quoted in a New York Daily News article that made it seem he was bashing geek culture as a whole. Now he has offered some clarification through social media. As it turns out, those quotes were from an interview conducted well over a year ago.

Paul Feig released a lengthy statement through his Twitter page today, where he revealed that the interview took place last February, just weeks after he announced the Ghostbusters cast through his Twitter page. Shortly after the cast was announced, the actresses were being bombarded with hateful tweets and comments all over the Internet. Here's what the filmmaker had to say, revealing that he embraces geek culture as a whole, but not the online bullies.

"The quotes from me in a New York Daily News article on Monday, May 2nd, 2016, were not from a recent interview but from an interview I did for a book on geek culture a year and a half ago that the author then sold to the Daily News, misrepresenting them as being my response to recent Ghostbusters reporting. The Daily News ran a correction yesterday, May 7th, for which I am grateful. To clarify, the interview actually took place on February 9th, 2015, one and a half weeks after I had first announced my Ghostbusters cast via Twitter, a week and a half that saw my actors and I inundated with some of the most hateful tweets, posts and comments I had ever seen. My quote was in answer to the question, 'Has the paradigm shifted to a point where (because geek culture is currently so popular) the geek is the asshole now?' I very much regret saying in my answer that I had actually 'met' any 'assholes' from the geek community. I have never met anyone from the geek world face-to-face who wasn't a warm, kind person. The 'assholes' of which I speak are the ones who live online, who write those hateful tweets and posts and comments. I'm not talking about the people who have true concerns and worries about the rebooting of a franchise they love, nor am I talking about people who have watched the trailer for our movie and didn't like it. Those are all valid opinions and I respect them all. I am talking about those that write misogyny and hate and threats. Those are the 'assholes' of which I spoke. As a lifelong geek and proud member of the geek community (as well as the creator of the TV series Freaks and Geeks), I abhor bullies. Every community has bullies who make up a very small minority of the community as a whole. Bullies scream the loudest and seem to get the most attention. But they are simply bullies who in no way represent the vast majority of wonderful, thoughtful people who make up our geek community. The geek world has been a haven for so many of us and we should all refuse to let these bullies hijack the conversations and debates we all love to engage in, nor should we let them represent our community and culture to the rest of the world. The bullies are not the norm and I would dare say they are not even true geeks. They are the micro minority. God bless the true geeks of the world and here's to taking our community back from the bullies."

Just a few weeks ago, we reported that the first Ghostbusters trailer has become the most hated in YouTube history, with well over 500,000 "dislikes" since it debuted in early March. Since that story was posted, the video has shot up from 21st place on the 100 most hated YouTube videos ever, to 12th place, with the video now amassing more than 770,000 dislikes, from 31.4 million views. What remains to be seen is if all of this negative energy swirling around Ghostbusters will adversely affect its box office performance.

Ghostbusters is set for release on July 15, where it will face The Infiltrator in theaters. While Ghostbusters shouldn't have much trouble winning that weekend at the box office, it will face Paramount's sci-fi sequel Star Trek Beyond one week later on July 22. We'll be sure to keep you posted with any further updates on Ghostbusters, including news on when the second trailer may debut. Until then, take a look at Paul Feig's tweet below.