The road to Ghostbusters 3 has been a long and disastrous one. We've heard a lot of rumors over the years, mostly revolving around Bill Murray not wanting to come back and do it. In a recent interview with Empire Dan Aykroyd addresses some of these rumors and gives an update on the film and where it currently stands. He starts out by giving an update on the status of Rick Moranis.
If we can get the script to Ghostbusters 3 right, then it would definitely have Moranis as a major component. None of us would want to do the movie without having him as a participant.
It would be great to see Maranis back in this franchise. I hope they can get him. He took himself out of the limelight after his wife died of cancer. Aykroyd goes on to talk about working on the script being perfect, because it doesn't sound like they will make the movie if it isn't.
The script must be perfect. We cannot release a film that is any less than that. We have more work to do.
He then addresses one of those internet rumors that leaked out about Bill Murray. The one where he supposedly shredded the script for the movie and sent it back with a note that said, "No-one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts". When Aykroyd was asked about this here's what he said,
Bill Murray is not capable of such behaviour. This is simply something that would not be in his nature. We have a deep, private personal relationship that transcends business. We communicate frequently and his position on the involvement in Ghostbusters 3 has been made clear and I respect that. But Bill has too much positive estimation of my writing skills to shred the work.
Empire speculates that "Bill Murray may not return as Peter Venkman, and that the character could be played by a different actor, a la Jack Ryan." It wouldn't work if they replaced Murray. The fans would be up in arms and ready to start a war. Murray is Venkman, if he ends up not doing it then there's really no point of having the character in the movie. If they move forward on making the film, and Murray won't be a part of it then they might as well cut the character out completely.
What do you think about all this?
Source: Empire (http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33126)