Bill Murray Confirms ‘Ghostbusters 3′ Rumor

Published by Jeff Leins on: February 9th, 2010

In December, Sigourney Weaver discussed her involvement with the developing sequel to Ghostbusters.  The actress who played Dana Barett in the first two movies spilled the beans on a few major details, but the wild plot points seemed a bit suspect because she hadn’t actually read a script yet.  Until now.

One concept in particular stood out as a major spoiler, so I’ll bury it below in case you don’t want to know.  However, Bill Murray confirmed the rumor in an interview with the Mail Online and basically said he will return for Ghosbusters 3 under one condition.  Incoming spoilers, you’ve been warned.

“I’ll come back in Ghostbusters III only if I get to be a ghost. I said to them, ‘I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.’ So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film.”

Peter Venkman will become a ghost.  That’s… different.  I guess he’s able to call his shots as the last major cast member holding out on the sequel.  Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson are all returning, along with director Ivan Reitman.

The plot is rumored to be about the original Ghostbusters coming out of retirement and “passing the torch” to a new team.  “The Office” writers Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg wrote the script.  According to Cinematical, the villain may be Ahriman, a devilish character from the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism.  The tidbit remains unconfirmed, but fits with rumors that Hades unleashes Hell on Earth in the third installment.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Columbia Pictures is licking their chops at the idea of a new set of movies with a fresh group of ‘Busters.  They’ll squeeze any remaining comedy out of the premise until one of the younger cast members becomes too famous and demands to be turned into a ghost.