Max Landis isn’t writing Ghostbusters 3 script but he has some good ideas

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Earlier this week you may have seen the rumor about CHRONICLE's scribe Max Landis being hired to develop a new draft of the script for GHOSTBUSTERS 3. Landis quickly denied the rumor on his Twitter, however he later tweeted a few interesting ideas for GHOSTBUSTERS 3, including a pre-credit opening for the film. Just to reiterate, Max Landis is not writing the script for GHOSTBUSTERS 3, and these are only ideas for it, not actual plans for the movie.

Haha a bunch of people asking what my Ghostbusters 3 pitch would've been. I never had a full one, just a skeleton I've goofed around with…My Ghostbusters 3 began in the 1920s with Ivo Shandor murdering a gluttonous associate to protect his cult after he has a moral objection…Shandor tells the overweight man that nothing can stop the coming of Gozer; first, the gate will open in 1984, then again twenty years later…The fat man, who now has all the details of Shandor's plans, threatens to go to the police, and Shandor poisons him. It's scary, but…As Shandor escapes, we see that we're in the Sedgewick Hotel, and that the guy we just saw die…Is Slimer. Cue theme. Show title.

My full movie concerns several new teams (focusing on one), grown from the Ghostbusters Franchise which is now global (and going bankrupt)… Ghostbusters have become a parody of themselves, there are barely twelve ghosts caught a year. People have forgotten what happened in NYC…Egon passed away, Venkman lives on an island, Winston retired rich. Only Ray Stantz is left in charge, and he's a terrible business man.

In an effort to bring back business, an obsessed team whose station has been shut down attempts to summon a minor ghost. Mistake. Gozer…It's up to our hero team to stop the bad team, reunite the fractured franchises, and save our dimension from a very pissed off demigod…It's all very meta (creatively bankrupt Ghostbusters, no one wants the new team, the bad team are slick Michael Bay-versions of the GBs)……But you keep the action, comedy, and emotion sincere. Witty, bluecollar guys who are the last people you'd want saving the world…And I think the teams would be by modern-comedy clique; a Parks/Rec team, a Rogen/Franco team, a Kroll/Key/Peele team…I don't know. I've thought a lot about Ghostbusters 3. But I'm kind of close on the Akroyd/Ramis side of things so it always felt weird.

I don't know about the rest of you, but Max Landis' ideas GHOSTBUSTERS 3 sound pretty damn cool to me, and I think they could work as well. It wouldn't be a straight-up sequel, however it would have just enough elements from the first two movies not to be a complete reboot either. Last we knew, Etan Cohen, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky were working on the script for GHOSTBUSTERS 3, and Sony is still looking for a director. If I was Sony, I'd definitely see if Max Landis has any actual interest in contributing to the script for GHOSTBUSTERS 3.

What do you think of Max Landis' ideas for GHOSTBUSTERS 3?