Ghostbusters 3 has been wallowing, rather poetically, in some sort of haunted production hell-limbo for some years now.
Bill Murray hasn’t been shy about voicing his opinion on the threequel, having denied it will ever happen or that he’ll ever take part. But according to co-star Dan Aykroyd, the new film contains “the comic role of a lifetime” for Murray.
Aykroyd, who wrote the first two Ghostbusters with Harold Ramis, has revealed that The Office writer/producers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg turned in a “strong first draft” for a threequel.
Though Murray has panned it (“It’s all a bunch of crock!” he told GQ in August), Akyroyd is positive that he and Raimis can make good with a second draft of the script.
“I think [ Murray ] was concerned that the writing on Ghostbusters 3 by these guys would not be up to standard,” he says, “but I can tell you firsthand, I’m working on the script now and those two - Stupnitsky and Eisenberg - 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.”
Aykroyd went on to add how things have changed for the guys since we last caught up with them, stating: "It has to evolve. Now [ in Ghostbusters 3] my character's eyesight is shot, I got a bad knee, a bad hip - I can't drive that caddy anymore. We need young legs, new minds - new Ghostbusters; so I'm in essence passing the torch to the new regime, and you know what? That's totally okay with me."
Will all this bad blood eventually turn into a fine wine? We’re sure this isn’t the last we’ve heard of it…
