Ghostbusters was a mega-hit when released in 1984 grossing more than $290 million and became the most successful film that year. It had a number one theme song, starred some of the biggest names in comedy, and for it’s time had dazzling optical and visual effects by FX legend Richard Edlund. Directed by Ivan Reitman it was the brainchild of Dan Aykroyd who originally envisaged it as a vehicle for himself and blues brothers co-star and Saturday night-live alum, the late John Belushi. When Harold Ramis collaborated on the re-write they were able to ground some of the fantastical elements of the initial draft and develop the fun story with engaging characters that audiences responded to.
Bill Murray who ultimately filled the role designed for Belushi brought his own irreverent comic style with a significant amount of ad lib making many scenes truly memorable. After the movie became a hit, studios wanted a sequel however the actors were reluctant but eventually agreed and made what is regarded as a lackluster follow-up, though still financially successful it seemed to recycle the gags of the first, and lacked significant substance that the original oozed.
The Ghostbusters team
More than 26 years later and rumors of a third movie have reached fever pitch with Bill Murray being the sticking point for involvement in the film which is contingent on the script. In a recent video he remarks how the second film detracted from the possibility of a third as it was overdone with visual FX and fraught with script issues, though studios execs were only concerned with the returns.
Bill Murray interviewed briefly by Fantasticfest
Earlier rumors of his participation in a Ghostbusters 3 implied Murray’s character would be killed off in the first reel or appear as a ghost, although as Starpulse reported it seems that the actor himself was the source of the joke to throw the wolves off the scent.
There was always this joke, sort of a half-true, half-joke thing like, ‘Well, I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.’ That was my joke, you know?
It seems wherever he goes people are asking Murray if he’s gonna make GB3 now more than ever.
David Letterman talks with Bill Murray
In an interview original writer and star Harold Ramis talks frankly about the reasons for making a third and his feelings about sequels in general.
Harold Ramis interviewed by making of.com
The GhostBusters video game released last year renewed interest in another sequel movie and saw most of the original cast except Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis reunite to voice their characters. The game featured a new graphics engine developed by Terminal Reality to deliver the ghost-busting effects, and was a success on both the Xbox360 and Playstation 3 platforms.
Variety reported that Ivan Reitman would be readying the new project for Sony Pictures and all seem happy to have the original director return for this installment. However some talk indicates that a new director is being considered or possibly Ramis himself will takeover the reigns in favor of a concept that would introduce a new ghostbusting generation starring hotties Eliza Dushku or former Charmed actress Alyssa Milano who voiced a character in the video game release.
Ramis and Aykroyd have confirmed on numerous occasions that a third film is going into pre-production with shooting slated in the fall with a Christmas ’12 release date. Scribes of NBC’s ‘The Office’, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky are attached to write the new script and were also responsible for the offbeat comedy ‘Year One‘ which Ramis helmed. The need for a good story is a stumbling point with production experiencing constant delays and Murray claiming it has vaporized altogether. The principals actually own parts of the rights to Ghostbusters and so things will likely only move forward when they all have a script they can settle on. Hopefully Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis will just sit down as they did before and hammer out the finer points of the story and with a few table reads it won’t take long for the cast to find their form and create a story that will take advantage of today’s cutting edge visuals and redefine what is a comedy classic. If you head over to Sony Pictures their web page features Harold Ramis in a newspaper style video advertising for a new ghostbuster member for what must be the initial viral marketing campaign, so things definitely appear to be manifesting.
Did you Know?
The Ghostbusters advert we see briefly in Sigourney Weaver’s apartment was used in the TV marketing campaign during the height of it’s cinema run with an actual 1800 number used instead of the movies ‘555’ prefix. The number received more than a 1000 calls a day and featured a recorded message by Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd along the lines of “Hi. We’re out catching ghosts right now.”
[jwplayer config=”ws_movie_2″ mediaid=”152″]Property of Sony Pictures
As for the theme song that made the original so distinct, here’s the original music clip directed by Ivan Reitman to keep the buzz going. Performed by Ray Parker, Jr. the hit song was later sued for plagiarism by Heuy Lewis as it had a ‘similar’ sound to one of his less than memorable songs ‘I wanna new drug‘ -which you can catch on youtube – judge for yourself.
Ray Parker Jr’s hit song from Arista Records, Inc
No comments yet.