Ghostbusters 3 hires screenwriter, but Will Bill?

We all know that Ghostbusters 3 is not going to happen, because Bill Murray will waffle back and forth until everyone is dead and no one will be able to do the movie with actual ghosts. But that doesn't mean we can't report on new developments about it. It's like hearing your really fun cousin, Dan Aykroyd, talking about the awesome band he's in. It mysteriously never, ever seems to produce any kind of music, but he's having a great time talking about it.

And this time, he's talking about the "awesome new writer" they got to write songs for them: Etan Cohen, who wrote Tropic Thunder, Idiocracy, and Men In Black 3, has been hired to write a script for Ghostbusters 3.

Oh wait, I just realized that covering this movie amounts to insanity.

Cohen had a fair amount of success bringing Men In Black back to the big screen this summer, even though we kept hearing that movie was shooting without a finished script for a portion of its production. But hey! That's fun! Improvising a special-effects-laden alien movie? That's ambitious filmmaking! Either way, MIB3 was a draw enough to knock The Avengers from its billion-dollar, number one box office pedestal, and there's something to be said about that. (Even though the movie had been out for about a month at that point, but still.) But talk to anyone about a gem of a movie that was spot-on about the state of society and seen by nearly no one and they will say "Idiocracy." Cohen is a frequent collaborator of Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, both of which the former wrote for. He's also written for Seth MacFarlane's American Dad, so this is a guy trusted in several comedy circles. To say nothing of his work on the super-fun Tropic Thunder, co-written with Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux, both very trustworthy dudes. (I won't get into one of his next project, which is Candyland, which has Adam Sandler in it. Because Idiocracy, guys!)

He'll be replacing the previous duo tasked with writing this thing, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, who wrote for The Office and were hired way back in 2008. It was their draft of the script that was unceremoniously -- and allegedly -- ripped to shreds by Murray.

While we are all still getting to know each other, here is some information about me, your new entertainment editor: Ghostbusters is my favorite movie of all time. Ghostbusters 2 is included in this. Oh good, you're still here. Some people don't like to hear that second part. This said, the idea of Ghostbusters 3 is both exciting and infuriating. On one hand, who wouldn't want to see all those guys get together again and bust ghosts that would probably look stupid-amazing considering the special effects we have now? On the other, this movie would have to be flawless. Flawless. Especially after we've been jerked around this many times, for this many years. And that means we need everyone on board in some capacity, and every cast member on camera in some shape or form.

I'm referring to Mr. Murray. I understand his trepidation about coming back, and as much as I'd love to see the Phantasmic Four reunited, I can't be all that upset if he ultimately shoots this down. But if he loved the script, gave it his blessing, and this thing rocks? Then man alive, some of us are really going to freak out.

No pressure, Etan Cohen. No pressure. (via Variety)

• [noahd]

  They already made Ghostbusters 3. You just might not know about it because it was in video game form.

  • [xzzy]

    It was a pretty good game too. Not great, but decent. It was nice to have the gang back together even if it is a format we’re not used to seeing them in.

    They even left an opening for a sequel in some of the dialog about opening new offices, which if I remember right, was a central concept of the movie script that was in the works.

  • [Seg]

    I was about to say this! I was delightfully surprised at how well written the game was.

    The only two people that were noticeably missing from the cast were Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis. For Mr. Moranis, he’s not doing acting work these days to focus on his kids, but the game literally left the chair open for him. I don’t have the conformation with Sigourney Weaver on the story, but the rumor stated she passed, then later was told everyone else was in the project.

• [Stephen Schenck]

  Etan Cohen definitely contributed to the Idiocracy and Tropic Thunder screenplays, but to say that he outright wrote them, not co-wrote or anything, seems like a bit of an overstatement, even if you clarify that later.

• [Navin_Johnson]

  I seem to remember a Facebook campaign a while back:  “Make Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Rachel Dratch the new Ghostbusters”

  • [Snig]

    Kristen Schaal could work.

• [Teller]

  Get Wes to helm, Bill will.

  • [penguinchris]

    I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t do it, but that would be amazing.

• [joeposts]

  Will Bill 2: Groundhog Day 2? I’m still waiting for resolution on that plotline.

• [Toxa]

  Chinese Democracy

• [tristan eldritch]

  Needs to be a dark and gritty reboot, with a Bourne/Dark Knight edge.  Fassbender to play  Slimer as a spectral variation of his self-loathing sex addict in Shame.

  • [Cowicide]

    And the good guys will all be avenging the death of Bill Murray’s character.

• [strugglngwriter]

  Do we really want/need a Ghostbusters 3? 

  Am I the only one who would rather have something new and original that is good like Ghostbusters was in its time?

  • [Snig]

    Yes, we should have learned our lesson when they realized how bad Indiana Jones 4 was going to be, so they stopped filming and destroyed all copies  of the film.   (sticks fingers in ears and mutters to drown out reality)

    • [JaiGuru]

       Eh, so long as you keep turkey jowl Lucas away from it, I don’t think that’ll be so much of a problem. Reitman is a comedy legend and wont wreck any ghostbusters property he’s involved with.

  • [Jer_00]

     Something original?  That sounds risky.

    Better to take something we know works and copy it.  That’s less risky.

    • [malindrome]

      Isn’t there some kind of law that all films must be either a sequel, remake, or adaptation of a video game/TV show/board game? 

    • [hymenopterid]

      Hollywood should just go back to making Lethal Weapon movies, because that is essentially what they want every movie to be.

      Don’t even make it a sequel, just start shooting the next remake as soon as the last one goes to print. Didn’t they make Stagecoach like 11 times?

      • [Snig]

        They did that with Rashomon, it kept being remade during filming.

        • [Andrew Garrett]

          Well, that’s true from a certain point of view.

  • [Thorzdad]

     I agree completely. The first film was great, and funny. Just let it be, and enjoy it for what it is.

• [Rob Knop]

  Duke Nuke’Em Forever was finally released.  Just sayin’.  Mean that something like Ghostbusters 3 did happen.

  (And the lesson from that was: when something is vaporware that long, it’s WAY better as vaporware than as something real.  Of course, from what I hear Duke Nuke’Em Forever sucked in an absolute sense, not just compared to the decade+ of anticipation.)

• [Marko Raos]

  “The Real Ghostbusters” is the only GB sequel worth its name. Amazing scripts for a saturday cartoon there – small wonder considering David Gerrold was involved.
  If they hire that “stupid=funny” guy the franchise isn’t going to be “dead and buried” any more, it’s going to be “dead, pissed and defecated on and then burned in the town square.”
  Keep stallin’ Bill!

• [landersrl4]

  Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis (yes there char) are not needed for a third movie, they were clients of the Ghostbusters, not Ghostbusters.  Time to move on from them. And I agree the game had a very good story

• [David Witt]

  WTF is Harold Ramis?

• [rtresco]

  Bustin’ makes me feel good.

• [Jorpho]

  Psst: The Wikiquote is missattributed.   Someone named Rita Mae Brown said it, not Einstein.

  And sure, I wouldn’t mind a Ghostbusters 3.  Of course it would never hold up to the originals, but I’d like to see it anyway.  (By the way, how are the graphic novels?)

• [Hanglyman]

  I’m with Bill. Don’t make it, ever. You KNOW it’s going to be bad. Let Ghostbusters be one of the very few franchises without a crappy, way-too-late sequel made purely to cash in. Just be glad the video game turned out as well as it did, and if you REALLY need more Ghostbusters, watch the cartoon show, which was also pretty decent before Slimer took over.

  • [BarBarSeven]

    What about prequels? Why can’t they make a Ghostbusters prequel? WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG!

    • [Hanglyman]

      Sure, they could base it on “The Ghostbusters in Paris”, where it turned out the Eiffel Tower was an early prototype of a ghost containment unit. It could be all about Gustave Eiffel bustin’ ghosts in the 1880s!

• [TheMudshark]

  It’s like hearing your really fun cousin, Dan Aykroyd, talking about the awesome band he’s in.

  Apart from the fact that my cousin Dan Aykroyd is a real bore and has never been fun, except rarely, when he´s standing right next to someone who is.

• [TokyoSpark]

  Tropic thunder was a comedy?

• [BarBarSeven]

  They did such a good job with the Blues Brothers sequels, what could possibly go wrong? RIGHT!!?!?!?

• [francoisroux]

  Having been killed in Zombieland, is he not already a ghost?

• [jhertzli]

  The first two Ghostbusters movies were partly based on “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.” Is “The Call of Cthulhu” next?

• [John Ohno]

  To be fair, the first Ghostbusters movie was good in part because everyone involved was only half-humoring Ackroyd. It wasn’t intended to be a comedy; everyone but Ackroyd was adlibbing the funny bits.