Bill Murray Coughs Up The Real Reasons He Never Said ‘Yes’ To ‘Ghostbusters 3’
Billy Murray has been pressured to do a third Ghostbusters film since, well, since the credits rolled on the second, ill-conceived Ghostbusters film. Fans of the franchise hold on to the spark and charm of the first film like a warm proton pack, and hope for the day when the magic from that initial, spook-filled offering can be re-created.
However, a re-creation of that magic wouldn’t be the same without Bill Murray, hence the constant badgering about participating in a third film.
According to Variety, a number of drafts for a third Ghostbusters film have been placed in Bill Murray’s hands, and the St. Vincent star gave the scoop on why he turned each of them down.
Bill commented on the attempts to bring back the franchise.
“What they really want to do is resurrect a franchise. The first one was a spectacular movie, one of the greatest movies. The second one was… It had some moves. It had a few good scenes in it.”
The most well-known of the drafts had Bill Murray playing a ghost. His character, Peter Venkman, would have died, and his spectral presence would haunt the remaining Ghostbusters played by Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and the late Harold Ramis.
Though director Ivan Reitman tried hard to get the Groundhog Day star on board, Murray said that the draft wasn’t all that cohesive.
“It was kind of funny, but not well executed.”
Reitman went on to comment that he didn’t think that Bill Murray would have done any version of the film at that point.
“It was clear he just didn’t want to engage. His head was in a whole different place as an actor. He wanted to do smaller roles where he didn’t have to take on the weight of the lead.”
Another draft, penned by Dan Aykroyd, had the Ghostbusters traveling to an alternate dimension, according to Cinema Blend. The guys find themselves in an alternate Manhattan, called Manhellton. The title of the film? Ghostbusters 3: Hellbent.
Bill Murray admits that he couldn’t really figure it out.
“I read one that Danny [Aykroyd] wrote that was crazy bizarre and too crazy to comprehend.”
The only positive thing that the Stripes star has really had to say about a new Ghostbusters film is when he jumped on the all-female cast rumors that were floating a few months ago, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. Now those rumors have come to fruition, with Gillian Anderson begging for a role.
At the time, most entertainment buffs assumed that the only reason Bill Murray was on board for an all-female cast is so that he wouldn’t be bothered about being in the film anymore.
But have hope, Peter Venkman fans. Variety says that Bill Murray has left a “hair” of a hope that he might play a small role in the third film.
[Image via bestfilmsbyfar]
