The ongoing saga of ‘Ghostbusters 3’ and the will they won’t they of it all has been going on since 1996. Recently, things started to look up as Dan Aykroyd and the gang decided to move on with the sequel without Bill Murray and hire ‘Men In Black III’ writer Etan Cohen to rework the script. However, the latest news dropped about a month ago that the film is placed on hold again indefinitely.

BUT if you’re a hardcore ‘Ghostbusters’ fan who’s fiending for more, some new actors will be strapping on those iconic packs (so to speak) for director Jason Reitman. No, they’re not rebooting the franchise. Rather, some of Hollywood’s finest and funniest will be gathering at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for another installment of the ‘Up In The Air’ director’s ongoing series of live reads of classic films. This reading takes place tonight, December 13, 2012, and is sold out, but at 6:30pm, the stand-by line will open up to fill all available seats. Why even try to go if it’s sold out? Well, here’s the cast list:

  • Peter Venkman – Seth Rogen
  • Ray Stantz – Jack Black
  • Egon Spengler – Rainn Wilson
  • Winston Zeddmore – Phil LaMarr
  • Dana Barrett – Kristen Bell
  • Walter Peck (as well as the voices of Larry King and Casey Kasem) – Kevin Pollak
  • Janine Melnitz – Mae Whitman
  • Louis Tully – Paul Rust
  • Everyone else – Paul Scheer

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, who first revealed the casting choices, Reitman talked a bit about his picks for the leads:

Seth Rogen as Peter Venkman

“It’s the most crucial and tricky piece of casting. I knew we needed an actor whose rhythms were equally unique to Bill Murray’s and had that kind of a swagger.”

Jack Black as Ray Stantz

“When you think about Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stantz, you think about this positive enthusiasm and energy. No one has that like Jack Black.”

Rainn Wilson as Egon Spengler

“As originated by Harold Ramis, this part needs someone with an earnest, scientific mind and clear-cut decisive humor.”

He certainly has a grasp on these characters because I’d say that these choices are stellar. I especially like Mae Whitman (Her?) as the team’s receptionist, Janine. After her breakout role in ‘Arrested Development’ (which she’ll be reprising next year on Netflix), she shined in ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World’ and ‘The Perks of Being A Wallflower’ and can be seen regularly on NBC’s ‘Parenthood’.

The poster for tonight’s festivities

 

These live reads have been incredibly popular since Reitman started doing them and from what I hear, they’re a lot of fun. And I say “hear” because there’s no photos or videos anywhere of these gatherings, which adds to the mystique of the events. In the past, Reitman assembled amazing A-list casts to read landmark films such as ‘The Princess Bride’, ‘The Apartment’, and ‘The Breakfast Club’. He even put together an all-black cast for ‘Reservoir Dogs’, which I really wish I could’ve attended. Now, he’s tackling a film near and dear to him because his father, Ivan Reitman, directed the original. Now he goes from being that little kid on set to directing his own version of the 1984 sci-fi comedy fan favorite.

So, if you happen to be in the LA area today and are interested in attending this event, head over to LACMA right now and line up. If you get in, you’ll have to be sure to share with us just how awesome it was. As for the rest of us, we’ll just sulk over the lack of ‘Ghostbusters 3’ in our lives and rewatch the originals again.