Ivan Reitman, the producer and director of the first two Ghostbuster films, has confirmed that the cast will be returning to the franchise for the third outing, and that he will be on board in his previous role.
Speaking exclusively to SciFiNow, Reitman revealed that progress is being made on the development of the third entry in the series. “Right now we have a plot for Ghostbusters III and I can tell you that there is also a first draft of the script,” he said, before commenting on how the film landscape has changed since Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddemore first began cracking down on New York City’s otherworldly inhabitants. “I think that the good news and the bad news about doing a sequel today is that the tools we are given as filmmakers allow for much more elaborate special effects. So, for example, we could do a CGI version of the marshmallow man but, because of that, it is easy to lose track of what is most important and that is story, character and emotion. I do not think that we paid enough attention to that in the last act of Ghostbusters II. So that has been on my mind throughout the genesis of Ghostbusters III.”
News that there will be a third Ghostbusters film isn’t exactly news in itself – the project has been mooted since the Nineties when Dan Aykroyd first proposed a sequel that would see the Ghostbusters taking on Hell. Ironically, the project itself has since lingered in a Hell of the development kind, until recently when the release of the latest game based on the franchise propelled discussion back into the limelight. Reports have, so far, been confusing – all of the actors seem to have suggested different approaches at different times, but the real question is why this is happening now so long after it was first suggested. “The main reason so much time has passed is because the rights to the franchise are very complicated,” said Reitman. “In addition, all of us have to be in agreement about which direction the sequel should go in – and when you have five people, each with their own opinions on what to do, it gets difficult.” Of course, the publicity from the game didn’t hurt to change minds at the big studios either. “In some ways [the videogame helped] because it was such a huge worldwide success and, as a result, it showed the people who matter that audiences were still interested in the characters and the mythology.”
Next: The cast returns, humour and drama.
