Ghostbusters 3 materialises: Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd involved

: 10 September 2008; John Howell

Bill Murray as Dr Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 It looks like there’s always time to fight more ghosts, with news that Ghostbusters 3 is on its way. Promisingly, some of the key cast members from the original movies appear to be heavily involved.

“Columbia is developing a script for Ghostbusters 3 with my Year One writing partners, Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg,” Harold Ramis recently told The Chicago Tribune. “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,” said Ramis.

Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd starred in the first two Ghostbusters films, Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. Murray stole the show as the flaky Dr. Peter Venkman, while Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd played his smarter sidekicks, Dr. Egon Spengler and Dr. Raymond Stantz respectively. Aykroyd and Ramis also wrote the first movie’s script.

“The concept is that the old Ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity", he said.

It’s been 19 years since the last movie, so it‘s hard to know what to expect. Will the old crew merely train a younger bunch of Ghostbusters to fight a new ghostly menace? Or will they get the chance to jump back into their suits once more and take on the paranormal anomalies and crazy deranged spirits that frequently infest New York City? Is Sigourney Weaver interested in co-starring as she did in the first two movies? And more importantly, will that translucent green gobbling monster from the library make a guest appearance?

It’s going to be tough whatever path they take. Blending comedy and science fiction is tricky. Just look at Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: an extremely funny book, but an appalling movie.

Still, the first Ghostbusters movie was one of the few Hollywood creations to get it right on all counts, and with all the key players there to help them out, perhaps we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

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