News from Ain't It Cool via MTV is that Ghostbusters 3 is a go, with the original cast on board! Per Harry K.'s site:
Ramis promised that all the old core players will take part in the updated version, including Bill Murray (Dr. Peter Venkman) and Dan Aykroyd (Dr. Raymond Stantz), who co-wrote the original films. "We're all going to be in it in different kinds of roles," Ramis said. "We're going to be the sage mentors. There are going to be young Ghostbusters."
At the moment, Ramis is waiting on a first draft of the script, which is being penned by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, two writer/producers on "The Office," who also wrote "Year One." "Gene and Lee, both of whom I mentored, are now writing the new 'Ghostbusters,' " Ramis said. "I'm consulting with them, as is Dan Aykroyd and [original director] Ivan Reitman.
Best part was Ramis's kicker at the end:
"Bill Murray is just waiting for the truckload of money to arrive to get him out of his office," Ramis joked.
Tough to say whether or not Ghostbusters 3 will be worthy of the hype. The original is a classic, but Ghostbusters 2 sucked slimer's green gonads. Injecting young blood into the franchise is certainly a decent — if tired — way of resurrecting the franchise.
Now, if only Ramis and Murray would get to work on Caddyshack 3, maybe we'd have something here.
This article appears in Mar 25-31, 2009.