Like many, I was saddened by the recent death of Harold Ramis. His worked is stamped over many great films, but one of the most beloved is Ghostbusters, which he co-wrote and starred in as Egon. As a child of the 1980s, there are few films that I loved more growing up. The fact that Ghostbusters became a phenomenon with a cartoon series made it even more a part of my life.
1991’s Ghostbusters II wasn’t anywhere as good as the original and I have always thought the idea of a third movie was a bad one, especially since Bill Murray (who was the main star of the original) was not really interested in doing anything more than a cameo at most (and half the time in interviews he said he didn’t want to do that). Ramis hadn’t been too talkative on the subject in recent years, especially compared to Dan Aykroyd, who wrote a third film in the late 1990s and has been working with various rewriters ever since, though it’s always been generally about the old Ghostbusters training new rookies to take their place at, well, busting ghosts.
But now that Ramis is gone, I (and many others) have assumed that was it for Ghostbusters III. If Murray won’t do it and Ramis is no longer here, what’s the point? Well, apparently Sony thinks others, because according to The Hollywood Reporter Sony believes the project can still move forward with a source saying, and I quote, “There will be some repercussions.” The source later adds regarding Ramis, “He was always great to bounce something off of, and that will certainly be missed. But it won’t affect the script.”
Excuse me? Ramis’ missing creative spark as both co-write and actor won’t affect the script? Of course there will be “repercussions” when when one of the three main characters from the original who was supposed to train the new rookies can no longer appear. Egon was a essential piece of the original team and having not only him but Bill Murray missing from the movie makes a Ghostbusters III seem even more pointless than a Ghostbusters remake (not that I want to give Sony any ideas).
According to the article “Director, Ivan Reitman, is scheduled to meet with Sony production brass in the coming days to assess how to move forward on the project.” I have a lot of respect for Reitman and Aykroyd, but I really hope that Ramis’ death makes Sony rethink the fifteen-year stall to make this movie. Murray has thought it was a bad idea for years. It’s time for the rest of the Ghostbusters team to accept that.
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