When the official word came down to the cast of Paul Feig‘s all-female GHOSTBUSTERS film, fans of the original movies wept for the end of their beloved horror-comedy franchise. After false starts for twenty-six years, it seemed the Ivan Reitman-directed series would end after two films. But, if the ever hopeful Dan Aykroyd is right, all hope may not be lost for GHOSTBUSTERS 3.
During an interview on Sirius XM radio, Akyroyd indicated that there are still plans for a direct sequel to the films he starred in.
“Oh I’ve written… well, we have…I’ve written, well, there’s three drafts of the old concept that exists. And we’re going to be able to salvage some of it and use it. Yeah, we’re gonna be able to use it some day. Let’s get this one made and that will reinvigorate the franchise and then we’ll go on to maybe doing a more conventional third sequel as we were planning and another idea I have for it.”
Aykroyd went on to say that he still sees GHOSTBUSTERS 3 as the “next generation” movie we have been hearing about for several years now. With Ivan Reitman no longer involved and Harold Ramis having passed away in recent years, it would likely fall to Akyroyd, Ernie Hudson, and hopefully Bill Murray to make it work.
But, don’t get the wrong impression of Feig’s GHOSTBUSTERS. Aykroyd has positive things to say about it.
“I can tell you, as the originator,” Dan said “I’m very happy with what he’s done. It’s very tasteful. And it needed a reworking. The thing needed a new engine. You know? It needed new exhaust. It needed new steering. And this is what we’re getting…a great great script from Paul Feig which we will work on and make better.”
It is nice to hear that GHOSTBUSTERS gets the seal of approval from Akyroyd, but I would take his ideas for GHOSTBUSTERS 3 with a grain of salt. if the new reboot works, it would likely be too confusing to have a sequel released for a conflicting take on the franchise. The only way I could see it working would be if they incorporated the parallel universe idea into the movie and had the old and new teams cross-over.
For now, we can look forward to seeing just how well Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones can pull off being GHOSTBUSTERS when it hits theaters on July 22, 2016.