It’s a disaster of epic proporations. Or in the words of Dr. Peter Venkman, “human sacrifice, cats and dogs living together… mass hysteria!” Bill Murray will not be appearing in the planned Ghostbusters sequel. There has been talk for a while now that he was not happy with the proprosal for the new movie. It was reported by the National Enquirer that Murray sent the script back completely shredded with a note attatched saying, “no one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts!” I don’t know about you guys but I would DEFINITELY pay money to see that, especially after Murray’s amazing cameo in Zombieland. The guy is awesome, whatever he does.
Dan Akyroyd (Dr. Ray Stanz in the film, also the co-writer) is the one member of the cast who has been vocal about getting the new sequel made. He’s also the one who announced that Bill Murray would not be reprising his role as Peter Venkman, if the film ever gets made. According to Aykroyd via The Telegraph, “at this point it’s in suspended animation. The studio, the director Ivan Reitman, and Harold Ramis feel there must be a way to do it, but Bill Murray will not do the movie.” There has been talk that Murray will simply be re-cast, and there has been no word from anyone to dispute that. I personally think that would be a huge mistake. Bill Murray is such a huge part of the movie it would be idiotic to think anyone could fill his shoes.
When Aykroyd was asked whether or not there will be a new Venkman he skirted around the issue by saying:
We’re not going to do a movie that exploits the franchise. The script has to be perfect. I’m the cheerleader, but I’m only one voice in the matter. It’s a surety that Bill Murray will not do the movie, however there is still interest from the studio.
I do believe that Dan Aykroyd can write an excellent script, something that won’t just be some money-making tool for the studio. Even without Bill Murray the movie could be great. But I don’t know how much faith executives will have in the movie without one of it’s major stars on board. As a fan of the movies I would still check out whatever Aykroyd and Harold Ramis can come up with. But will anyone else? We’ll have to wait and see if Murray’s abscence will seal the fate of the Ghostbusters forever in the afterlife.
Does anyone else want to see Ghostbusters 3 without Bill Murray? Or do you think it’s a bad idea?
