IESB: When you hear all the rumors about the possibility of a Ghostbusters 3 for all these years, is that something you hope will eventually happen, or have you just become indifferent about it because you’ve been waiting for so long?

Ernie: We did the first Ghostbusters, and that was really trying for me, in a lot of ways. I worked really hard on the movie for four months, and then the movie came out and was very successful, but work didn’t necessarily come for me, as a result of it. And then, it took five years to get the second one ready, and that was a challenge, too. Now, it’s been 20 years since the second one.

I knew Bill Murray really loved the franchise, but he was the hold-out. The discussion with him has always been that he really wants to do something exceptional. We tapped into something that was really creative and different with the first one, so you want to be able to bring that challenge to it. The whole economic thing becomes an excuse to do nothing, so the tendency with studios is, “Okay, let’s just do something.” And then, because we have the audience out there, even if we do something bad, by the time they realize it’s bad, we’ll have made the money. But, I know that’s not what Bill Murray wants to do, and that’s certainly not something I want to do.

It’s a real catch-22 because you really would love to do another one, since the fans have been asking for it, but you also want to be able to stand by the work that you do. I’m really happy to have been a part of the movie. A lot of actors work for years and never find [something that special]. Ghostbusters is nice to have in my filmography. Wherever I go, people have seen the movie and love it, so that’s really nice.

IESB: So, you’d be happy to return for another film, if they get a script together?

Ernie: I would love to do the movie, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I’d love to get paid. So, when Bill Murray says, “I only want to do it if it’s something really extraordinary that we can really commit to,” it’s a little bit different than my thing. I’m saying that I only want to do the movie for that reason, unless they pay me a lot of money. I’m probably more conscious of that. But, the fans are there. Wherever I go, people are always asking about it. I think the studio wants to do it, but hopefully the script will be really good.

Harold Ramis is taking the lead in it, from what I’ve been reading. I hear about it like the fans do. I saw Harold at the opening of his film Year One in New York, so I know that he’s been putting together a script that everyone will be happy with. I talked to Bill recently, and I know that Danny [Aykroyd] has been wanting to do it since the day we finished the second one. We’re all up for it. It just has to be something we can be proud of and stand by. I’d love for it to happen. I think it would be very, very cool. But, it really needs to be something that makes sense. I don’t want to just do a cameo. If we’re going to do it, I want to be involved.

IESB: Did you enjoy returning to the character for the recent video game?

Ernie: I really was very happy with the game because the characters were very much there. My character was totally involved. It was a lot of fun to do the voice-over, and having all the guys back to do it was really cool. So, I’m hoping the movie happens, but I have not heard from Ivan Reitman or the studio, or anybody who signs checks. Until that happens, it’s still just speculation. They also came out with a whole new series of toys. Wherever I travel, or when I was doing the play, people show up with the toys for me to sign.

How does Egon live in 2012, Ramis shares this thoughts,

I had two initial first instincts. One was that Egon had become a shaved head Buddhist monk. That is not going to happen. The thing that I pitched for my character is that he’s been living in Geneva, and he works for the Institute of Imaginary Science. The work we are doing doesn’t require any conceptual, intellectual, special, or mathematical models for what we are doing. Even we don’t know what we are doing. It’s that theoretical.

And on the difficulties of writing the sequel,

I think we are just going to try and make a good movie. The intention of a sequel is not to give an audience more of what they didn’t get enough of the first time. It’s to give the audience something that is new. We want them to feel that they are having a new experience of some kind. That becomes a tightrope. Yeah, we definitely are introducing new Ghostbusters. That much is for sure. And there will be inter-dimensional creatures visiting New York. And we will deal with it. That’s all I am allowed to say at this point.

Will Slimer be making a cameo in the upcoming Ghostbusters movie?
I’m going to see the script in the next few hours, I’m about to read the third script, I’ve been submitted it and we’ll see what happens.

“I don’t put not making the third movie on Billy. We can’t do that. I’ve been very busy. Harold’s been busy, Ivan’s been busy. And a third script really didn’t coalesce properly. And Billy, you can’t blame an artist for not wanting to do the same thing again. He did two of them, for God’s sake. Although I’m the biggest cheerleader as the originator of the concept but I’ve never begrudged Billy not doing a third movie. I never said he held it up or that he refused. Hey, listen, he’s an artist. You can’t force somebody into it. I’m sorry he never read my third draft because I thought it was pretty good but, look, now we’re at a point that there’s a story that he can accept and that’s going to work, and I think we’re going to be in production fairly soon. We could be in production by winter.”

Storyline — Akroyd says they are aiming for a five member ‘core’ crew, with more than one female. Some of his choices are Alyssa Milano and Eliza Dushku — neither of which have been cast. Sigourney Weaver is now on board.

“There will be a whole new generation that has to be trained, and that whole new generation will be led by an individual who you’ll all love when you meet him but I’m not going to tell you anything yet,” teased Aykroyd. “They’ll be lots of cadets, boys and girls, who’ll be learning how to use the psychotron, the accelerators and all the new stuff, the neuron splitter, which is going to be the interplaner, interceptor and all these great tools that they’re going to have, to flip from dimension to dimension.”

The word, ‘Cadet’ implies there may be some sort of ghost and paranormal academy. And using the word ‘lots’ suggests there will be a large group of Ghostbusters.

Time to throw an oddball out there, with mere speculation you can see how this might spread out to form a number of Ghostbuster franchises across the US, tackling the paranormal everywhere, rather than just NY.

An early summer 2011 release could put filming approximately a year from now. This announcement shows us that Sony are taking GB3 very seriously.

Via /Film

“We’re all going to be in it in different kinds of roles. […] We’re going to be the sage mentors. There are going to be young Ghostbusters.”

I am a little apprehensive about the term ‘young’ rather than ‘new’, I see child ghost-busting characters and teen heroics — reminiscent of the appalling Thunderbirds movie adaptation. Currently the rumors surround actors such as Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd, which is more the age I would expect.

As for the progress of the script being penned by Eisenberg and Stupnitsky (The Office):

“Gene and Lee, both of whom I mentored, are now writing the new ‘Ghostbusters,’ […] I’m consulting with them, as is Dan Aykroyd and [original director] Ivan Reitman.

Neither Ramis or Reitman are expecting to direct GB3 which raises the next big question, who will?

“I’m sure we’re all hoping someone else will do it,” the 64-year-old Ramis said. “It’s a lot of work!”

Hellbent, 1999

In May 1999 Dan Ackroyd scripted a 122 page first draft of the movie entitled “Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent”, with plans for it to be a Real D Cinema Digital 3-D feature, completely in CGI. “I can do all the things I wanted to do for much, much less money”. IGN have since commented on this script, suggesting it was too technical (‘more Jargon than jokes’) with all too similar characters. The outline of the 1999 Hellbent plot arc is described below, and it doesn’t sound all too convincing — ultimately it did not go into development:

Without revealing too many spoilers, Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent suggests that hell (portrayed as a stygian mirror image of The Big Apple dubbed “Manhellton”) has grown overcrowded and congested. As a result, hell is literally evicting people back into the world of the living in order to alleviate their congestion problem.Obviously, this isn’t good for our world so the Ghostbusters must use their latest technology to literally go to hell and ask the devil why he’s doing this and to see what they can do to make him stop. Naturally, the devil – portrayed here as a Donald Trump-like mogul named Siffler – has a secret agenda that leads to a grand conflict with our titular heroes. The Ghostbusters must once again save New York City from the evil forces of the afterlife. There is indeed a younger crop of Ghostbusters (or, as the script abbreviates it, GBs) introduced that perform much of the otherworldly legwork here. This new crew includes: Franky, a body-pierced, tough New Jersey punker; Lovell, a dread-locked dude; Moira, a pretty but uptight gymnast and science grad; and Carla, a Latino beauty. There’s also Nat, a prepubescent genius whose powerful brain has made his head abnormally large. Despite his youth, Nat serves as a supervisor for the new GBs. That’s all we ever get to know about these characters (we don’t even learn their last names!) and they’re our guides throughout most of the story.

Ghostbusters in Hell, 2005

This concept entered the news again in 2005 as Harold Ramis and Ackroyd attempted to get the ball rolling again. Ramis suggested:

“the dream plan is that Danny and I would produce it, I would direct it, and we would recruit some newer, younger, popular Ghostbusters to star.”

One of those young new stars could have been Ben Stiller as a Venkeman-esque replacement, as reported Hollywood.com.

Whilst the story stills keeps much of the 1999 draft; the Ghostbusters were still going to hell:

“We go to the hell side of Manhattan, downtown, Foley Square. It’s all where the cops are–they are all blue minotaurs. Central Park is this huge peat mine with green demons there, surrounded by black onyx thousand-foot high apartment buildings with classic red devils, very wealthy. We go and visit a Donald Trump-like character who is Mr. Sifler. Luke Sifler. Lu-cifer. So we meet the devil inside”

New Script, 2008

In September 2008, Columbia Pictures hired Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to script a third Ghostbusters movie (Variety),

The studio has set “The Office” co-exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to write a script for a film designed to bring back together the original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.

Eisenberg and Stupnitsky have just finished working on “Year One”, a comedy directed by Harold Ramis and starring Michael Cera and Jack Black. The article also gives a fresh angle on the development ‘hell’ GB3 has seen,

An attempt to make a third installment of the franchise was stymied in the dealmaking stage. Sources said so much gross was pledged to the participants that it was next to impossible for the studio to make any money on a third installment.

As a result, until this script has been completed, the original cast will not be offered a new deal. Dan Akroyd, Harold Ramis and Ivan Reitman are all consulting on the project whilst Bill Murray has expressed an interest in reprising his role, AICN report from City of Ember screening:

But tonight he said that he knew “some writers from THE OFFICE” were taking a stab at the script right now (which we already knew) and that he thinks that’s a good start. He paused for a few seconds then said that he thinks enough time has passed and that “the wounds from GHOSTBUSTERS 2 are healed” and that he would definitely be into doing another GHOSTBUSTERS movie, stating that the first 40 minutes of the original film is some of the best stuff he’s been associated with and the whole shoot was an amazing amount of fun.

He also went on to say that his enthusiasm for Ghostbusters was heightened after recording the voice of Peter Venkman for the video game over the summer. In fact, he said he found himself walking down the street singing the Ghostbusters theme song and then thought people walking around him were going to start yelling at him to “get over yourself, Bill,” so he stopped… But the enthusiasm was there.

Harold Ramis also wrote to the Chicago Tribune:

“yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. 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.
best,
harold

More recently, that Judd Apatow comment has been in contention, with Production Weekly (Via /Film) recently suggesting that Apatow had officially signed on to produce, but this rumor has since been debunked by Doug Belgrad, president of Columbia Pictures (Via LATimes):

We have some great new writers working on a new script, but Judd isn’t involved. Judging from the frenzy on the Internet, there still seems to be plenty of interest in the idea of doing another film, so we’re certainly taking that as a good sign.

It is still hoped that the movie shall enter production in late 2009. And that’s where we are now! The next step is word of the green-light on The Office scribes new script.