Update: Ghostbusters 3

I originally posted on the possibility of Ghostbusters 3 here in May, 2009. Now this from Moviefone.com:

Out promoting his Crystal Head Vodka via his traveling RV (don’t ask), Dan Aykroyd updated Vanity Fair on where the long-in-development ‘Ghostbusters 3’ is at this point in time. Last we heard from ‘Ghostbusters 3’, Bill Murray was out trashing the film’s screenwriters, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, claiming (in so many words) that their last big-screen venture, ‘Year One’, was … well, one of the worst films ever made.

Murray said, “Year One.’ Well, I never went to see ‘Year One,’ but people who did, including other Ghostbusters, said it was one of the worst things they had ever seen in their lives. So that dream just vaporized. That was gone. But it’s the studio that really wants this thing. It’s a franchise. It’s a franchise, and they made a whole lot of money on ‘Ghostbusters.’”

When asked about Murray’s comments, Aykroyd admitted that he’s now in charge of the ‘Ghostbusters 3’ script while also defending Stupitsky and Eisenberg’s version, claiming they wrote Murray a classic role in it. Aykroyd noted, “I think he was concerned that the writing on Ghostbusters 3 by these guys would not be up to standard, but I can tell you firsthand, I’m working on the script now and those two-Stupnitsky and Eisenberg, [writer-producers of The Office]-wrote Bill the comic role of a lifetime, and the new Ghostbusters and the old are all well represented in it…we have a strong first draft that Harold [Ramis] and I will take back, and I’m very excited about working on it.”

If anyone needs reminding what Year One is, here’s the trailer:

Per BoxOfficeMojo, the movie grossed $62M worldwide [reported $60M budget]. It has a C- rating. On RottenTomatoes, the move has a 14% rating. I saw the movie when it came out. It’s not good.

So given Murray’s antipathy toward another sequel to Ghostbusters, it’s understandable why he would be even more dubious at this point. Check out his facial expression when Letterman asks Murray about the possibility of Ghostbusters 3, what he calls a “nightmare”:

Here’s your chance to be a seer: What do you think will happen (or not) with Ghostbusters 3? Will it get made? If so, will Bill Murray participate in it? Will they kill him off in the first reel, as he’s suggested? Or will they go forward without his character Peter Venkman? Or does the project never see the light of day? 

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