The last time we checked in on the status of Ghostbusters III it was maybe happening, but THR reports that the project was in motion before the death of original Ghostbusters co-writer Harold Ramis and allegedly had planned cameos for Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and even Bill Murray (there’s no mention of fellow Ghostbuster Ernie Hudson) “to set up a baton-passing to a trio of newcomers.†With news of Ramis’s passing earlier this week, Sony and director Ivan Reitman are reportedly in talks deciding how to move the project forward and rewrite the script penned by Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky and reworked by Tropic Thunder’s Etan Cohen.
According to the report, the Ghostbusters III script “had not progressed enough†for the film to start shooting this year, and the absence of Ramis will require more adjustments, though a source told THR that Ramis was involved in the sequel “only minimally.†“He was always great to bounce something off of, and that will certainly be missed,†the source said. “But it won’t affect the script.†That actually seems a little more disconcerting than comforting, and we’ll take any report alleging a Murray Ghostbusters cameo with a gigantic grain of salt considering almost all other Murray-related Ghostbusters news has claimed just the opposite. In any case, the team behind Ghostbusters III is pressing on.