The forthcoming “Ghostbusters 3” sequel/reboot has hit a major road bump, as Vulture reports that Columbia Pictures wants a younger talent in the director’s chair instead of series director to date, Ivan Reitman.
As has been previously reported, the original Ghostbusters gang would return for this film, but would train a new generation of ghost hunters, presumably setting up the first film in a newly revitalized franchise. Unfortunately, Columbia is being forced to reckon with a deal struck with Reitman, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis that gives them considerable veto power over many of the major creative aspects of the production. Most importantly, it gives Reitman final director approval.
Columbia wants to oust Reitman in favor of a younger, hipper director and even greenlit the forthcoming comedy “Friends With Benefits” (aka “Fuckbuddies”) for Reitman in the hopes it would make him too busy to take on “Ghostbusters 3.” Unfortunately, Reitman doesn’t appear to be budging and with a second draft of the script due in May and the film currently standing as Sony’s only tentpole for 2011, this is an issue they’ll want to resolve soon.
As can be expected, Murray might be the only wild card left in the bunch. He hasn’t yet been consulted on the story (Aykroyd and Ramis have) and can still walk away, but speaking on David Letterman earlier this month (see video below), he called the prospect of a sequel his “nightmare” and “crazy talk.” He further went on to say that he agreed only to appear in a sequel if they killed him off in the first reel, which seems to confirm the “ghost” rumors that floated around earlier last month. But clearly Murray is not interested in the film at all (and has been that way ever since the project first started gaining traction), and it seems he wants it to be nothing more than an obligatory turn for old times sake and probably doesn’t really care one way or the other about the story, as long his involvement is minimal at best.
So if Reitman doesn’t direct, who will? At one point Judd Apatow was rumored to be involved in the production, and considering his past relationship with Sony, we have no doubt they would be eager to put the Apatow Productions stamp on this sequel as a major selling point. There are a couple of directors — Jake Kasdan and Steven Brill (“Drillbit Taylor”) come to mind — in that stable who would probably be a good fit for the material, but something tells us that a 2011 release might be optimistic at this point.
