With additional reporting by Josh Horowitz

Although certain people (ahem, Chris Pratt) have issued stern and vulgar denials that a second, dudely "Ghostbusters" reboot was happening, that hasn't stopped loud whispers coming from Hollywood about a project just like that in the works.

And every time the subject comes up, so does the name of Drew Pearce, the "Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation" writer who's also scripting the other upcoming movie about ghosts, and the people who bust them.

Fortunately, MTV News was able to catch up with Pearce at the New York premiere of the new "Mission Impossible," and pump him for info on the project. And even more fortunately, Pearce aint afraid of no "Ghostbusters" questions (although he reserved the right to be cagey about answering them.) So, is this really happening?

Says Pearce: OH YEAH.

"I've finished my work on that in the last couple weeks," he said. "Obviously it's top secret, but there's a gigantic bold idea that I came up with, and the Russo brothers -- who did 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' and are doing 'Civil War' at the moment -- and Ivan Reitman, who did the original movie, are going to take that and run with it. Obviously I cannot tell you what it is, but hopefully in one year's time you'll know!"

Even better, he wasn't even a tiny bit coy about the dream cast for the film. Who ya gonna call? Might it, in fact, be Chris Pratt and Channing Tatum as rumored?

"That's definitely the cast we've been thinking about as we approach the project," Pearce confirmed, but added, "Whether that happens or not is very much above my pay grade. It's just my job to give them something exciting that maybe they'll do."

And while Pearce made all the same caveats about not having final say in this part, either, he addressed the very important question of whether a new "Ghostbusters" would give proper recognition to both the original source material as well as the all-female reboot of the movie that's being filmed as we speak. The writer revealed that "there's been a lot of chat" amongst producers about how and how much of a franchise this will be -- and yep, he's totally pulling for a single universe.

"My personal inclination is to try and make everything occur in the same 'Ghostbusters' universe, because I feel, as a fan, that's what I would want," he said. "Standing here in New York, you just wanna tie it all together. Whether that happens or not we'll see, but I've certainly given them the tools to do that, I hope."