Ghostbusters 3 To Film In 2015, Waiting For New Director
Ghostbusters fans have been kept waiting long enough for the film’s third sequel, and it seems that they will finally get to watch Peter Venkman and Co. in a couple of years’ time. Ghostbusters 3 will reportedly start production next year with a new director at the helm.
Ivan Reitman, who directed the first two Ghostbusters movies, has stated he will not be directing the third film in the wake of Harold Ramis‘ death. Ramis is Reitman’s co-writer and close friend who played Dr. Egon Spengler in the first two Ghostbusters movies.
Reitman has also admitted that he was never completely sure of his involvement in the project and that the death of Ramis only heightened his decision to decline as director. He was thinking of just producing the film instead of directing it, and told Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal that he could help them find a “really good director”. Reitman is currently working on a short list so they can start filming by the beginning of 2015.
Bill Murray, who played the parapsychologist Peter Venkman in the previous films, also declined involvement. Since then, the screenplay has gone through several changes. Reitman says that there’s a new draft that the production studio is very excited about, and it’s written by him, screenwriter Etan Cohen, and Dan Aykroyd, who was one of the original co-writers and who played Ray Stantz in the earlier films. In contrast to Murray, Aykroyd has always expressed his enthusiasm for the sequel.
Hollywood is abuzz with conjectures of who the new director could be, and one of the names that is being heard more loudly than the others is that of Barry Sonnenfeld. Sonnenfeld has experienced working with Cohen and has the Men in Black franchise under his belt. The way he injected MIB with both humor and fright seems to be a good fit for the Ghostbusters.
Another thing for fans to fantasize about is the cast. Who will take over the roles of ghost hunters Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Raymond Stantz, and Winston Zeddmore? Will Slimer be present to play tricks? How about the sassy assistant Janine Melnitz? It would be interesting to find out which young actors will be chosen to wear those Proton packs and wield those Neutrino wands—and to see how the particle accelerators will look like in 2015.
Reitman shares that the third Ghostbusters movie will feature the original cast “in a very minor role” and says that he is determined to keep the spirit of the original film in the reboot.
Image via YouTube
