Here we go again.
As Dan Aykroyd continues in his struggle to get a third Ghostbusters film to screens, he has gone back and forth as to whether franchise co-star Bill Murray would be back for a third go-round as wisecracking paranormal disposal expert Peter Vehnkman or not.
Most recently, Murray sounded as if he was still actively involved in the development by telling late night talk show host David Letterman that although the most recent draft of the script didn’t meet his expectations they were going to “try again.” But now Aykroyd seems to be squelching that assumption by stating that the sequel training is leaving the station and Murray is not aboard it.
The revelation came in an interview with the British Metro –
No, I can tell you he [Murray] won’t be involved… It’s sad but we’re passing it on to a new generation. Ghostbusters 3 can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn’t seem to be coming and we have to move on. It’s time to make the third one.
Aykroyd did confirm that they were moving forward with a new writer, though he didn’t mention newly hired scribe Etan Cohen by name.
[W]e’ve got a brilliant new writer on it and we’ll be passing the torch on to a new generation. We’re working on it to make it just right to satisfy our fans. I’m confident we’ll be in production in the next year… [W]e’ve got the studio on side. We’ve tried a few concepts which weren’t right but now we’ve got a good structure and will make it happen.
Murray has always been the main hold up on a third film due to a contract clause from the original pair of films that gave him a vote on moving forward with any new film. His dissatisfaction with how Ghostbusters 2 turned out has been the major factor in his reluctance to approve a third film.
And with Murray’s absence it looks as if we’re back to the same two questions about the film we had the last time it appeared as if he wasn’t going to be participating – Will they recast his role or will his character not appear at all and his absence be explained away with a few lines of dialogue.
If course, there always remains the biggest question – Will people want to see a Murray-less Ghostbusters film?
