Who You Gonna Call?

[Y 2 Jake]

Well, readers, we thought we couldn't get any more excited than we were a couple of weeks when news leaked that Shane Black was writing Lethal Weapon 5. Shane freakin' Black!

But we were wrong. For Columbia Pictures has just announced serious plans to make... Ghostbusters 3.

Yes, folks, a third installment of the wildly successful comedy-horror franchise has been rumoured for years, but now it looks like it might actually happen. And that is reason for much rejoicing – you know, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!

Columbia has recruited Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky – writers and producers of the wonderful American version of The Office – to write a script which would, and this is the really exciting bit, reunite the original Ghostbusters, almost twenty years after the under-rated Ghostbusters 2.

And that doesn’t just mean Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), or Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) or Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), it also means the return of Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman, possibly the sleaziest and most likeable lead to ever grace a modern blockbuster.

Murray’s participation in Ghostbusters 3 has always been a sticking point, but here’s hoping that the script delivered by Eisenberg and Stupnitsky will be good enough to lure him in.

Of course, the announcement of Eisenberg and Stupnitsky’s involvement throws up more questions than answers – the screenplays for the first two movies were co-written by Ramis and Aykroyd, while the latter had written a script for a third movie, called Ghostbusters In Hell.

It’s surprising that they haven’t been asked back to perform writing duties this time around – but Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are rising writing talents, who worked with Ramis on his most recent directorial effort, Year One. So let’s give them a chance.

Story details are not forthcoming at the moment, so we don’t know whether there’s any room for the return of Rick Moranis (who’s pretty much retired from acting these days), Sigourney Weaver or Annie Potts, or indeed Ivan Reitman as director. Hey – here’s a crazy idea: why not hire his son, Jason, to direct?

And, until those plot details are confirmed, we’re not sure if this new Ghostbusters flick will involve the original quartet handing over to a younger, newer group of Ghostbusters, as had been strongly rumoured in the past. We hope not – we’d love to see the Ghostbusters back in town one more time and, as certain revived franchises have perhaps proved, crowbarring in young sidekicks doesn’t always work.

More on this as we get it. Altogether now: “And the flowers are still standing!

This film could, and probably will be, total shit. But all us 80's kids will see it anyway. Fuck that game that was supposed to come out. I'm all about the movie now. After Watchmen comes out I'll need a new film to be all geeky and excited about, this is that film.

I don't know why they didn't do one before. Bill Murry was great in the originals, but let's not forget about Harold Ramis & Dan Aykroyd. Another film would have survived with just them.

 

[Papa Shango]

I read an article yesterday where Dan Akroyd claims that Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd may be helping to write the script and possibly co-star. This peaks my interest a bit. I mean, if they do go the route of the "passing-of-the-torch" plot, then I could definitely see Seth Rogen in there. It could almost be a passing of the torch within the industry. Bill Murray was arguably the biggest comedy star of the 80's and into the 90's. Seth Rogen is the rising young star in today's comedy world. And now that I picture it, I can see a lot of parallels in the way Murray and Rogen do comedy. I can also see a few similarities between Rudd and Akroyd. So, I think it would be interesting if each of the original Ghostbusters sort of took-on proteges. Murray would mentor Rogen, Akroyd would pair with Paul Rudd. I could see Harold Ramis mentoring someone like Michael Cera, Bill Hader or Jason Segel. And I know it's sounds a little bit racist to pair two black guys together, but why not have Ernie Hudson mentor someone like Romany Malco or, jail time pending, Craig Robinson?

 

[Lee]

Did somebody say Mark out?!

Chicago Tribune writer Mark Caro - upon getting word of last week's big Ghostbusters 3 news - received an e-mail from Harold Ramis explaining where he and his fellow Ghostbusters stand on what Sony hopes is a franchise relaunch.

Here's a partial reprint of Ramis' e-mail (apparently, he's not big on capitalizing words):

"aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point. everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we'll take it from there."

Ramis also hints that the studio is keen with perhaps "tapping" some of the acting talent in director Judd Apatow's films. Nothing is confirmed, of course.

It seems like they're going to be Ghostbuster mentors, which I honestly think will suck balls. We saw that with extreme Ghostbusters and it failed. I hope they do a full Ghostbusters with the four of them plus Rick Moranis, but I heard he has retired, and Bill Murry's been a bit of a dick with regards to Ghostbusters for a while!

The movie will be way way better than the game, or it will be as big a disappointment as Indy 4...

 

[Trance Metaphor]

I actually enjoyed the Extreme Ghostbusters. The artwork was hilarious. But, it did lack the feel and quality of the Real Ghostbusters series.

Ghostbusters III the movie has been in developmental hell for years, according to Dan Aykroyd. I think he pretty much explained in a magazine that the third movie will essentially be Ghostbusters The Video Game. Here's how it works. The game takes the player through the first two movies in video game format and then the third, which has an all-new original story based off the would-be movie script. From what I've seen in the trailers, I think it will be worth checking out. Plus, all the original cast members return to do their voices, and that seems to be the only way for Harold Ramis and Bill Murray to co-operate, I suppose.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

If they keep the tone and the writing style of the first two films without trying to be too different, it should be fun. But like Jake said, this has massive potential to be a total shit bomb.

I'm assuming that they'll go along with the "passing the torch" story that others have already mentioned. If they do in fact do this, you can pretty much guarantee a few things, just out of standards that current Hollywood likes to do (despite how badly it comes out sometimes):

1. One of the new team members will be a long haired woman. Whether she's blonde or brunette depends solely on the hair color of TWO of the other characters - the main male and the secondary male. She will most likely either have an "edge" to her or she'll be the one to replace Ray's role as the sort of sweet and naive second-in-command.

2. Chances are the secondary male will be a black man. He may also be the "smart guy" of the group.

3. The main leader quite possibly could be a relative of Peter and if the woman isn't the one with the "edge", he certainly will be the one to fill that role. He will probably be at least remotely attractive, but not a model. (If they do this, I'd suggest casting Eric Christian Olsen. He's proven himself a very funny actor and I think he'd take the role and run with it).

4. Slimer will definitely make an appearance. I doubt he'll be a member of the team, like in that cartoon haha, but he should definitely show up.


Its so odd how these movies are coming out. There's rumors of a new Ninja Turtles film, a new Robocop...its like they're trying to bring about a replication of the films that came out when I was a kid. If Varney weren't dead, I'm sure there would be an "Ernest Does Blah Blah Blah" film coming out as well lol.