The Hollywood Reporter has spoken to unnamed Ghostbusters III insiders at the project and studio level, who tell two versions of the same story.
The project insider (we think, HR is unclear about who is saying what) revealed that Ivan Reitman will be meeting with Sony's production team in the coming days to discuss what changes need to be made to move the film forward. According to the source, Ghostbusters III is described as being in "active development" and Ramis was slated for a "cameo role," (as were Aykroyd and Murray) causing the script to need some revamping. The insider added that "there will be some repercussions."
Source #2, at the studio, made it seem like no big deal that Ramis wouldn't be involved. This source's section goes into detail about the guts of the deal that would eventually be inked for the third film, divulging that Ramis' one-third stake in the franchise would go to his estate and mentioning that the principal talent would have to "take break-even cuts in order to get the film off the ground."
More from the Sony source states that filming wouldn't have started in 2014 either way, as the script had still not progressed enough to move to green-light even before Ramis' death. Source 2 adds that Ramis "was always great to bounce something off of, and that will certainly be missed."
And so here we are. There are doubts and there are emotions swirling around the Internet right now. We won't go too far into analyzing all of this, but one must assume that Aykroyd has been aware of Ramis' condition and almost four-year-long battle. Aykroyd was championing the script as recent as last month and mentioned Harold's rewrite involvement last in July of 2012.
If anything, we'll say that John Belushi was originally slated to star in Ghostbusters, and the project pressed on despite Aykroyd's close friend having recently passed. It was a totally different beast in the end, but one that was fated to turn out the way it did. And it was magical. If anything is to come of the tragic events of the last few days, let's hope it is a film that's a befitting tribute to Ramis' legacy. It will, after-all, be the last project he wrote for.
A Stay Puft-sized hat tip to Davide Passaia, who spots these news items even amid a Ghostbusters Google Alert overload.
Etan Cohen was announced as the new scriptwriter, so after reading "The script, written by The Office writers" I don't think it comes from a reliable insider.
ReplyDeleteIt is true, this fact is a bit confusing. I think that Cohen has rewritten their script but perhaps they will still be getting credit? A good question for Aykroyd if anyone gets the chance to ask.
DeleteAfter this, I'd just prefer they don't do it. I think interest will definitely decrease from the cast, especially Murray. Harold played such an integral part in the DNA of that movie that I just don't think it would feel right without him.
ReplyDeleteThe very mention of a Ghostbusters III just leaves an extremely bad taste in my mouth now. The real sadness is I know that Ramis would want it to be made regardless of what's now happened to him. He was always aware it's what fans wanted. I don't think he considered the idea that we wouldn't want it if something happened to him or another member of the cast however. And now it has. I worry though that since he was so sick chances are he perhaps didn't write his greatest work for it or perhaps one as equal to the original. To put out a sub-par third movie would taint his greatness. They had 20 years to get this thing made and if they suddenly now rush it into production I find that something of a disgrace.
ReplyDeleteI am deeply concerned however if the project truly gets canned that the greediness of those cigar chomping, corporate suits, big wigs at Columbia will lead them to decide to reboot the series. And that my friends can be so much worse. Every sci-fi classic under the sun is getting ravaged right now by the bland as heck modern remake. That's exactly what will happen mark my words. These days studios are constantly gunning for franchises. Why do you think some fool thought it was a great idea to remake Robocop?
All these reports of the old script been used and not the Cohen script. Either there has been a drastic change in pre production or someone is simply making news from the sad passing of Mr Ramis. If that's the case they need to learn how to do more research on recent reports regarding the possible 3rd film
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