It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when a sequel to a highly popular and profitable movie wasn’t a done deal. Each was film renegotiated just before they were made. Actors signing multi-film deals was very rare. Now if you decide to do a Marvel film, you may be asked to sign a nine-movie contract. By why didn’t Ghostbusters 3, or rather Ghostbusters: Hellbent, never get made?
While Ghostbusters II wasn’t a critical darling, it did make its budget back ten times over. Surely another film had to be in the works. Some of the cast and creative team were ready to give it another go, but some holdouts stalled a third Ghostbusters film for decades. It took some of them literally dying before another film could finally grace movie screens. What kept this film from getting made sooner? Let’s find out here on What Happened To This Unmade Film.
As Dan Aykroyd was doing the press rounds for Ghostbusters II, he was constantly asked if we would end up seeing another Ghostbusters film. He would answer that the possibilities were endless, but not everyone else on the team felt that way. Originally Bill Murray only agreed to do the original film if Sony would agree to let him do an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Razor’s Edge.
In order to get him to agree to do Ghostbusters II, the studio brought the cast together to discuss it. He said to People Magazine that he got outfoxed into doing it. When he hung out with the cast, he had a lot of fun reconnecting with all of them. Then the studio pitched him some ideas that he really liked and thought it would work. When he showed up to shoot the film, he realized whatever it was that had captured his imagination had been taken out of the script. They had already begun shooting at that point, and he couldn’t back out. Would he come back for part three?
That ended up being a big sticking point for a long time. He didn’t have any interest in reprising the role of Peter Venkman. Money had never been a big factor in what he decided to work on next. With this, Aykroyd would have to change some of his ideas. He offered Murray a five minute walk-on role. It was turned down. It would seem that the next movie would have to move forward without Peter Venkman.
Dan Aykroyd and his writting partner Tom Davis would set out to figure out what the next adventure for the Ghostbusters would be. Aykroyd said he had an idea that he thought would work pretty well. One of the concerns had been that the cast of the original were getting older and some didn’t even want to return. He figured this was a good starting point as that could factor into the script. What if they had retired but had to be pulled back out in order to save the world once again? It seemed like a good idea but it needed something else.
While Aykroyd thought about this he took some acting jobs. On one set he got to work with a comedian that really reenergized him on the idea of a new Ghostbusters. Working with Chris Farley on the set of Tommy Boy got his mind spinning. If the original team had retired, maybe there was a new team that had sort of been franchised out. Multiple teams across the whole city. This led to Aykroyd writing a character just for his new co-star.
In Ghostbusters: Hellbent we find that the original team has all but retired from the busting game. They all still work for the company but all the actual grunt work is now handled by other teams while the original crew now handles the business and research side of things. We are introduced to a new team of Ghostbusters in Frank Stantz (Ray’s Nephew to be played by Farley), Lovell, Moira, Carla, and Dr. Nat Colby.
Spiritual activity was once again seeing an uptick. Teams all over the city have been busy trying to contain all the ghosts they have been called about. Ray and Egon spend their time working on a theory that the spirit world is actually another dimension that sits right next to the world of the living. Using different frequencies it would be plausible to phase from one world to the next.
The guys get a call that the Chief Administrator of the Vatican Investigative Group is on his death bed. They go to his side and find that he hopes to be able to contact them from the other side. After some back and forth the priest tries to pass over but is pulled into the afterlife by some savage looking spirits.
Ray and Egon set out to finally push their theory forward and phase to the spirit realm. The original team gets back together minus Peter Venkman. Depending on the version of the script he has either gone to Indonesia to lay claim to the largest gold deposit in the world, or he died during some research at the Ghostbusters headquarters. The group, along with some new recruits are able to phase into the spirit world and find that it’s not much different than our own. They are in a hellish version of Manhatten called Manhellton.
They quickly learn that the reason there has been an increase in ghostly activity is because hell has run out of room. Spirits keep trying to enter the city only to end up back in the world of the living. To get to the bottom of what is happening, the crew tries to find someone that can take them to someone in charge. Through multiple scenarios they finally meet with Luke Sifer. He seems to be in charge of hell. In the script he is described as a Donald Trump type.
The group have to find a way to get some of the spirits out of Manhellton while also not being stuck in the spirit world themselves. They are able to work with other characters who are still in Manhattan to try fix things on both sides.
So why did the movie not move forward? It seems like it should be easy for Sony to greenlight another Ghosbusters movie after the last two had been so profitable. Harold Ramis would say in an interview that some of the actors they wanted to bring in to play some of the new characters would have been Chris Farley, Chris Rock, and Ben Stiller. In the late 90s, these comedians were on the rise and would have been a great addition to the original cast. Well, a lot of things actually happened that brought this possible movie to a screeching halt.
First and foremost, the death of Chris Farley put the project on hold. Aykroyd had been pushing for him to be in the film after working with him on Tommy Boy. He was a comedy star on the rise when he initially pushed the studio for the idea but had become a certified box office star. When he passed away the studio felt that a major part of the profitability of the film had been lost. Since the character of Frank had been written with him in mind, Aykroyd and company didn’t know how to continue.
Another hit to the draw of the film was that Bill Murray, Sigourney Weaver, and Rick Moranis had declined to return. Bill Murray was the biggest hit as his character of Peter Venkman was one of the biggest draws of the franchise. If the special effects looked great then audiences would enjoy it. When you have great special effects and Bill Murray to give off a quick zinger about the ghost, that’s pure gold. Without Murray it wouldn’t leave much for Weaver to do so she opted not to return as well. Moranis has gone on record that he had kind of gotten bored of acting and stepped away to raise his sons.
Then the whole landscape for films shifted after a small horror movie came out and changed how studios looked at filmmaking. The Blair Witch Project had been made on a shoestring budget and garnered a massive windfall for the studio that released it. The purported budget of the film was only $60,000. It would take in over $250 million. This was more than Ghostbuster II made in theaters. According to CBR, Sony then began to wonder why they should spend over $100 million if they could put out small budget films and gain a huge amount back on their investment.
There are reports that Sony even asked if the new film could be made for a much much much smaller budget to which the creators told them that they couldn’t. With all these factors happening at the same time, Ghostbusters: Hellbent was dropped.
Within the next 5 or 6 years, Sony would decide to once again try to put together another Ghostbusters film. They would bring in new writers who would try to keep some elements of Hellbent but add other elements to set it apart. An idea they had was to make Dana’s son Oscar from part 2 one of the new recruits on the team of younger Ghostbusters.
After failed attempts by over the years, and many denials by Bill Murray, Sony would finally decide to just reboot the franchise with the 2016 film that had all new characters and start in a world that has never had Ghosbusters before. This movie didn’t connect with audiences and failed to be the jumpstart the franchise needed to reinvent itself.
Jason Reitman would then come on board to create a sequel to the original films which would become Ghosbusters: Afterlife. This would also introduce a new Ghostbuster team although unofficially. Egon’s grandchildren would discover a new apocalypse that he had been trying to prevent before he died. The old team would then step in once again to help out the family of their old friend. It had a bit of everything from the previous drafts while adding plenty of new elements to make it a great return for the fans of the original.
Even though Hellbent didn’t make it onto the screen, parts of the idea for the film were used in other Ghostbuster media. According to ScreenRant, the videogame would take some ideas for the story to rework into a playable adventure. The original crew (even Bill Murray!) returned to voice their characters as they train a new recruit. Throughout the game there is homages to the original films while also setting up a new story where the team goes to the spirit world. It’s not a hellish version of Manhattan but instead a mystical realm of spirits and monsters.
While Ghostbusters: Hellbent didn’t get past the script stage, it did help influence the future of the franchise in different ways. Little elements can be seen through all sorts of movies, games, and comic books that have come out since. It may not have started a new Ghostbusters revolution, it did help nudge it forward into what we have today. Another sequel is on the way from the cast and creators of Ghostbusters: Afterlife and there has been talk of expanding the franchise even more. If you ever find yourself confronted by a spook, spector, or ghost then all you have to do is ask “Who are you going to call?”