Ivan Reitman Talks Ghostbusters 3 And Why He’s Not Directing
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Whether we like it or not, it’s fairly certain that we’re going to get a Ghostbusters 3. What’s not as certain is what it’s going to look like. Right now, only two members of the original team, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, are on board—Bill Murray wants nothing to do with it, and Harold Ramis tragically passed away earlier this year. And the most recent news we’ve heard about the project is that Bridesmaids director Paul Feig could reboot the title with an all female cast. Being involved with this, Ivan Reitman, director of the 1984 original, has a close working knowledge of the situation, and took some time to share pieces of what he know with fans.
Talking to Coming Soon, Reitman, who also directed 1989’s Ghostbuster 2, talked about the future direction of the franchise, who might be involved, and why he, himself, declined to helm this new film.
He confirms what we already know, that Murray is not going to be involved, calling the actor “disinterested” in participating. This is no surprise since he’s held that stance pretty much since this talk has been going on, which is years at this point. Whatever form this appears in, it’s going to be hard to take a Ghostbusters movie seriously as such without Murray being involved. As much as I love all four of the guys, his Doctor Peter Venkman is clearly the leader of the gang, and without him it won’t feel complete. Then again, without any of them it just won’t feel right.
If Feig does reboot Ghostbusters, female centric cast or otherwise, it will be interesting to see how he approaches it. He could tell a kind of parallel origin story, or this might be a soft reboot, set in the same world, one where the original Ghostbusters exist, but following a new cast of characters with no real connection to the original. That would at least open the door for Slimer to show up.
Reitman says that he is “very involved” with the film, but in a producer capacity. Earlier this year he pulled out of the director roles. It’s unclear if he has any input on the direction of the story. He explains his choice:
I wasn’t giving it all up. I suddenly felt that Ghostbusters didn’t necessarily need me as a director, at least I didn’t need to direct Ghostbusters, let me put it that way… I thought it was better for me just to produce it and to make sure we’re going to have the quality and style of what is appropriate for another version of that film. But the franchise could benefit from somebody else’s point of view. I’ve done it twice before and it will be great to get somebody else to lend a hand as well.
Regardless of how they go about it, or who is ultimately involves, and even it if turns out to be good, the very idea of Ghostbusters 3 just feels unnecessary. But Sony still seems to have their heart set on it. At least with Feig taking the helm there’s a chance that we could get a good movie out of this entire deal.
There’s also a chance that Feig is working on a reboot, while a separate movie, still linked to the original world and chronology, is also in the works. I don’t know how likely that is, but it would mean a lot of Ghostbusters in our immediate future.
