Ghostbusters III Curse Hits Again As LEGO Movie Directors Escape The Trap

By Nick Venable | Published 10 years ago

You guys are all probably familiar with the notion of a one-eared, one-eyed, three-legged dog ironically being named “Lucky,” right? The long-gestating third Ghostbusters film is the cinematic equivalent of that dog, only it’s also missing a metaphorical lung, its fur, and the freedom to do anything but lay there in a dying heap. The latest in a long line of setbacks comes with the slow retreat of The LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, who were recently rumored to be circling the sequel. As you can read in the tweet above, from TheWrap’s Jeff Sneider, the incredibly inventive directing duo have now distanced themselves from the project. As with all things Hollywood, it doesn’t actually mean anything since nothing was set in stone in the first place. Now if only this invisible man sleeping in my bed would do some retreating.

It’s been a rigorous couple of months for the project, starting with the untimely death of co-creator Harold Ramis in February. After that, director Ivan Reitman gave up the director’s chair, deciding that he would serve solely as a producer. The only saving grace to date came when Sony/Columbia called out Lord and Miller as their choices to direct, as the Clone High and 21 Jump Street remake creators are two of a very small film-making group who could actually do something interesting and honorable with Ghostbusters III.

But they’ve told the studio they want to keep their outside options open, which is great news for any other project they take on. They’re already prepping the second LEGO Movie, so it’s not entirely clear when they would have been able to give Ghostbusters III the required amount of attention anyway. Then again, this wouldn’t be the first time they backed away from something only to return to it, which is how they came to make LEGO heaven.

Lord and Miller’s strengths have a lot to do with their writing skills and delivering exactly the right balance of heart, comedy, and action. But if they’re not a part of Ghostbusters III, that means the hunt is also on for another screenwriter to reshape this updated story of young paranormal investigators carrying on in the tradition of the original fearsome foursome. At this point, nothing that happens (or doesn’t actually happen) with this movie surprises me, and the only thing that would make me bat an eyelash is if Bill Murray decides to come back and do motion-capture for all of the film’s ghosts.

Columbia is still interested in keeping the 2015 release date for now, but my PK/BS meter is saying that’s just wishful thinking.