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| Murray and some of today's prominent funnymen at the 2014 Vanity Fair party after the Oscars |
Last month
The Independent published a truncated quote from Bill Murray about Ghostbusters III, and now it looks like a lengthier version of his comments have made their way online via
Dazed Digital. While dissecting these words, keep in mind that this roundtable style interview was conducted before the death of Harold Ramis.
DD: Talking about friendships, has not wanting to do another Ghostbusters film hurt your relationship with the other guys?
Bill Murray: Oh, that I'm not in a rush to do the Ghostbusters movie? First let's refresh. We made the first Ghostbusters – it was one of the great movies, one of the great entertainments of all time. Then we made a second one; it was okay, right? Right? So what are we going to do? Are we going to rush to make a third one? It would be great if you could make one that was as good as the first one. It would probably be good if you could make one that was as good as the second one. But, you know, there was The Godfather. Then there was The Godfather II. And then there was The Godfather III. So if you want Godfather III…
DD: Your long-time friends want you to do another one.
Bill Murray: Well, my friends. Man, do they want to do it? They kind of do. But someone with a lot more to gain than my friends wants to do it more than they want to do it. Right? And I understand, it's business. They want to refresh the franchise. The franchise is fantastic. But I find that you don't really lose by saying no in showbusiness. If you say no, sometimes they come back with a better script. Or sometimes it just goes away. But I don't know. Are you thinking of going back to high school?
Ouch! What a burn! The most interesting new nibble here is Murray's respect for the series as a "fantastic" franchise and his admission that sometimes saying no will lead to a "better script." But there's always two sides to his arguments... he admits that sometimes saying no will make a script just go away.
Sometimes saying "no" for 23 years leads to friends dying and golden opportunities with them. Sorry but yeah; I'm a little mad at this point.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot at all be mad with the guy. Murray was Ramis' friend. They knew each other more than we'll ever know. They fell out yes but everybody says and does things they regret doing for stupid reasons. I've done some things like this myself especially with my own father rather stupidly. Murray was clearly making those emotions come through in his Oscar's tribute to him (which by the way he didn't need to do but he did and he's a decent man for doing so).
ReplyDeleteI understand what it's like to be a passionate fan, Jai, but let's not be selfish. I certainly don't think it was the dying wish of Harold to reunite the old gang and make another film. Nor do I feel like they really owed anyone a third film. If the Ghostbusters franchise consisted of merely the first film and nothing else, I think we'd all be pretty satisfied. So let's be happy with what we have and not dwell on what potentially could have been.
ReplyDelete