The Associated Press has spoken to Ivan Reitman, out promoting his new Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher comedy “No Strings Attached,” and Reitman had at least two interesting things to say about “Ghostbusters 3”:
1) Bill Murray has not yet read a "very good script” for “Ghostbusters 3.”
2) Bill Murray has been sent that "very good script" for “Ghostbusters 3.”
I’m guessing Murray isn’t refusing to read the script and that it was forwarded to him only very recently.
Now, we know this is not the first "Ghostbusters 3” script Murray has read. He certainly saw the Dan Aykroyd script written back in the 1990s, the one that turned Manhattan into Hell, the one that never got shot. (This was so long ago that there was talk of casting Chris Farley and Ben Stiller as the younger Ghostbusters recruits Aykroyd created.)
Much more recently, Harold Ramis’ “Year One” collaborators, “Office” writer-producers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, have been at work on a new “3” script.
Has Murray seen earlier Stupnitsky/Eisenberg drafts that weren’t “very good”? As with Aykroyd’s draft, the new version of “Ghostbusters 3” is said to focus on younger Ghostbusters (younger SNL vets Will Forte and Bill Hader are reportedly being eyed for roles). Stax’s 2002 review of the old “Ghostbusters 3” script suggests it failed because the younger characters weren’t funny or compelling. The success of this new script may rely on how interesting the new recruits turn out to be. Find the AP’s story here.
