Well, readers, we thought we couldn't get any more excited than we were a couple of weeks when news leaked that Shane Black was writing Lethal Weapon 5. Shane freakin' Black!
But we were wrong. For Columbia Pictures has just announced serious plans to make... Ghostbusters 3.
Yes, folks, a third installment of the wildly successful comedy-horror franchise has been rumoured for years, but now it looks like it might actually happen. And that is reason for much rejoicing – you know, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!
Columbia has recruited Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky – writers and producers of the wonderful American version of The Office – to write a script which would, and this is the really exciting bit, reunite the original Ghostbusters, almost twenty years after the under-rated Ghostbusters 2.
And that doesn’t just mean Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), or Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) or Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), it also means the return of Bill Murray as Dr. Peter Venkman, possibly the sleaziest and most likeable lead to ever grace a modern blockbuster.
Murray’s participation in Ghostbusters 3 has always been a sticking point, but here’s hoping that the script delivered by Eisenberg and Stupnitsky will be good enough to lure him in.
Of course, the announcement of Eisenberg and Stupnitsky’s involvement throws up more questions than answers – the screenplays for the first two movies were co-written by Ramis and Aykroyd, while the latter had written a script for a third movie, called Ghostbusters In Hell.
It’s surprising that they haven’t been asked back to perform writing duties this time around – but Eisenberg and Stupnitsky are rising writing talents, who worked with Ramis on his most recent directorial effort, Year One. So let’s give them a chance.
Story details are not forthcoming at the moment, so we don’t know whether there’s any room for the return of Rick Moranis (who’s pretty much retired from acting these days), Sigourney Weaver or Annie Potts, or indeed Ivan Reitman as director. Hey – here’s a crazy idea: why not hire his son, Jason, to direct?
And, until those plot details are confirmed, we’re not sure if this new Ghostbusters flick will involve the original quartet handing over to a younger, newer group of Ghostbusters, as had been strongly rumoured in the past. We hope not – we’d love to see the Ghostbusters back in town one more time and, as certain revived franchises have perhaps proved, crowbarring in young sidekicks doesn’t always work.
More on this as we get it. Altogether now: “And the flowers are still standing!