In a phone call to the Dennis Miller Radio show today, Dan Aykroyd gave Dennis Miller and his listeners details about the filming of an upcoming Ghostbusters sequel.
“Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray,” he says, “That is our hope. We have an excellent script and what we have to remember is that ‘Ghostbusters’ is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and was contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold [Ramis], myself and all of us and Sigourney [Weaver]. The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of ‘Ghostbusters 3′ is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood.”
The focus of “Ghostbusters 3’ will be the handing over the franchise to a younger generation. As Aykroyd explains, “My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can’t drive the Cadillac. He’s got a bad knee and can’t pick up the pack … Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that’s the promise. We’re gonna hand it to a new generation.”
So far there is no conclusive news as to whether Bill Murray will reprise his role as Dr. Peter Venkman. In fact, he wasn’t keen on doing a second film. In February, Murray told Howard Stern on his radio program that he hadn’t even read the script. “Yeah, Ivan wants to make it and I… I owe him, ya know. He’s puzzled that I haven’t gotten to this one… Well, it may not be on the desk – it’s over there somewhere… Well, I’ll get to it… I gotta get to it – I feel bad,” he said. “I got a message and I think people – I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings – it’s not the foremost thing in my mind, so I don’t think about it.”
Aykroyd did imply that the filming would occur with or without Murray, but is more focused on the next generation. Right now, there are no names to take on the roles of the next Ghostbusters, but Aykroyd did reveal that they are looking for 3 guys and a young woman. When asked who he thought would be a worthy heir to the proton pack, Aykroyd stated he liked Matthew Gray Gubler from ‘Criminal Minds’.
News of ‘Ghostbusters 3’ starting to film has been circulating since 2009 with several different announcements of filming to begin, so hopefully Aykroyd predictions are right and filming will begin next year! The original ‘Ghostbusters’ was made in 1984 and its not as popular sequel in 1989 so, yes, the passing on to a new generation sounds like a great set-up. Who would you like to see in the roles? As for me, I would like to see the return of the Stay Puf Marshmallow Man!
