Bill Murray recently donned a proton pack and appeared in character as Peter Venkman at the 2010 Scream awards, while Dan Aykroyd has been talking up the script. But today there was more evidence that Ghostbusters 3 could soon be on its way to the big screen after Production Weekly said it expected the film to shoot in May next year.
The usually reliable magazine tweeted: “We’re hearing that Sony Pictures is planning to put Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters 3 into production in May 2011.” That would mean the new movie arriving 22 years after Ghostbusters II.
Aykroyd, who has been revising a screenplay by Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, who worked on the US version of The Office, said earlier this month that there was a “comic role of a lifetime” for Murray in the new movie, and confirmed it would concern handing over ghostbusting duties from the old team to a new generation.
“My character’s eyesight is shot, I got a bad knee, a bad hip – I can’t drive that caddy any more or lift that psychotron accelerator any more, it’s too heavy,” Aykroyd said. “We need young legs, new minds – new Ghostbusters; so I’m in essence passing the torch to the new regime, and you know what? That’s totally OK with me.”
Let’s be honest, sometimes you never want your favourite childhood movies to be ruined by the addition of a sequel (I’m looking at you, George Lucas). But maybe because of the pure sillyiness of the franchise (or simply because I believe Bill Murray to be a god and when I grow up I want to be just like him), I hope they do make this film.
I dunno… Murray kind of lost his charm for me a few years ago. And sequels are rarely worth seeing. I think the first one succeeded because it was a novel idea, but not every idea is franchise-worthy. One movie based on this idea seems to have been enough.
Pre-zombieland, I would have been real hesitant to see this. However, after seeing Murray’s performance in Zombieland, I am more than willing to give this a shot.
What? No love for him in Rushmore? Lost in Translation?!
And I STILL need to see Zombieland.
Broken Flowers? Royal Tenenbaums? Bill Murray IS a god. But the second Ghostbusters film was an alsoran compared to the first. And now a ‘new generation’? Let the past stay in the past.