25 Things You Didn't Know About Ghostbusters
4. John Belushi Was Originally Meant To Star
As you can tell, Ghostbusters was almost a very different film. Perhaps the most well-known casting choice that never happened was that of John Belushi, who had originally been pegged as one of the films top stars in the role of Peter Venkman.
Any hopes of a Blues Brothers reunion on the set of Ghostbusters were ended after Belushi died of a drugs overdose during the very early writing stages, leaving the role open for Bill Murray to assume.
Years later, FX master Steve Johnson told Bloody Disgusting that he based the final design for Slimer on the late comedian after snorting lines of cocaine off a photo of him during an all-night rush to meet a deadline. In this way, Belushi did end up in the movie after all, even if it wasn’t quite the starring role it was meant to be.