Ivan Reitman Talks Ghostbusters Sequel We Almost Recently Got
An entire book could be written about the many Ghostbusters sequels that were almost made over the years, and it’s no secret that Bill Murray was often the one preventing those franchise continuations from happening. But did you know that Ivan Reitman, shortly before the reboot got off the ground, was *this* close to making Ghostbusters 3?
Speaking with Vulture, the Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2 director spilled the beans.
“About four years ago, I started working on [Ghostbusters 3] with Harold [Ramis] and Danny [Aykroyd] to try to figure it out — because Bill was always the holdout,” Reitman told the site. “I think he was just not interested. He loves Ghostsbusters, and he appreciated all the good that it did for all of us, but he just wanted to pursue different things as an actor. And at the same time he didn’t want to do anything that would sully the other movies.”
“And then Harold died before we could get anywhere,” he continued. “That’s when I decided this is just too tough, that I should try to find somebody with another kind of idea. So I focused on changing the deal so that it would be possible to actually make another Ghostbusters movie. And I was successful in getting that accomplished with the studio. Then Paul Feig came along.”
What was Reitman’s plan for this version of Ghostbusters 3, you ask?
“My movie, by the way, the one that I was working on before Harold died, had both male and female ghostbusters in it,” Reitman revealed. “Bill and Sigourney’s kid, Oscar, is a postgrad student, and weird things start to happen. Bill Murray dies in the first scene because he always said, ‘I won’t do it unless I die.’ And I said, ‘Okay, you got it.’ [Laughs.] It was a father-son story, with him as a ghost.”
“By the way, the studio green-lit it. Everything was ready to go. I couldn’t get his attention, and in the midst of that, Harold got really sick. And that was pretty much it.”
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