UPDATE: For the time being, all bets are off. Aykroyd has fallen out with Columbia, to the extent that he no longer maintains his production offices on the studio lot, and Murray has expressed doubts about the whole idea. Even Weaver and Ramis have said they don’t see a third movie in the future. But that’s never stopped Hollywood before. Another few years and the whole idea might be back on the table again. However, for the foreseeable future, no Ghostbusters 3.

OLD NEWS: Yes, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are working towards another Ghostbusters movie, BUT (and I can’t stress this enough), it’s a long way from done. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis have made several comments to the press that they are interested in making a third movie, and there are even rumours that Bill Murray is interested (in spite of several other rumours that say he isn’t). But the script, at this writing, is not finished and no offical commitment has been made by any studios. Many a movie has stalled at a similar phase of development.

I think it’s safe to assume that Ghostbusters 3 will be made, the first two being so commercially viable. The Real Ghostbusters cartoon has found new life on the Fox Family Channel, Extreme Ghostbusters had a brief run, but found a cult following, and there is every indication that fans want to see a third installment. The Ghostbusters franchise could continue into the foreseeable future.

STUDIO: Columbia Pictures / Sony Picture Entertainment

WHO INVOLVED: Nobody. At this point there is no real interest from any of the principles.

RELEASE DATE: Unknown. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

PLOT: “Hell is not some distant place, far away from this dimension or realm. Hell is right next door. It’s like those old tintype photos where you turn them one way and they look positive, then you just flick them slightly and they look negative. That’s our concept.”

Harold Ramis recently reported to a British movie site that the idea of a newer, and younger team was very likely. Various comments by Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and alledged comments by Bill Murray suggest that the new ‘busters will get most of the screen time, with the original Ghostbusters making only brief appearances.

Ernie Hudson has expressed an interest in reprising his role as Winston Zeddemore, but as far as anyone can tell, no one has asked if he’ll participate in a new movie. It is likely that he will take part (what’s Ghostbusters without Winston?) provided Sony/ Columbia Tristar commit and the project goes into proper production.

GB3 script review.

January 27th, 2003

I mentioned about a month ago that Filmforce had a peek at the GB3 script and had a few thoughts on it. Well, not content with that, I’ve gotten a look at it my self. As was originally reported, the script is more premise than jokes, with Aykroyd going into great detail about various science gimmicks and the nature of the afterlife. The inclusion of Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman to help fill out later version of the script and the rest of the cast to help bring their sense of humor to the set (such as Bill Murray’s ad-libbing) obviously played a much larger role in the first two movies than I’d imgagined, as Aykroyd uses the first draft to indugle his love of techno-babble and fringe theory. You can’t judge a book by its cover and you can’t judge a movie by its first draft, but it does make for dry reading.

There a lot in the script and I don’t want to detail it all as frankly that would just spoil the surprise on the off chance the third movie ever goes ahead. You can have a look at the Filmforce link above for Stax’s excellent report. There are only a few things I will add right now (though there may be more I think to add later)

After all these years, Aykroyd has made Ghostbusters a full blown corporation, with dozens of employees, including mechanics to look after the fleet of converted ambulances; one scene echoes the shot of the Ecto-1 driving across the Brooklyn Bridge, only this time there’s a whole line. They’ve also built themselves the Ecto-50, a converted truck with (if I understand correctly) its own containment unit. Winston is in fact a doctor, but it doesn’t feel quite right, as if the normal guy we identified with was now indistinguishable from the rest of the team - having him working on his degrees would have been cool, while still keeping him a tad more down to earth than Egon and Ray. Venkman is noticably absent for most of the movie, a concession I’m assuming to the fact that Murray didn’t want to do another GB installment.

Blatenly ripped off from a Ghostbusters site. I can’t remember which one though