Variety are reporting the news that many geeks have been dying to hear for around 14 years. The original team of Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson (he was the black dude) & Bill Murray are all back for GHOSTBUSTERS III
. Sadly though, it's not a film and it's just a video game.
GHOSTBUSTERS will be out next year from Vivendi Games in what it hopes will be the first game in a long running series. All four members of the original cast will be providing likeness and voice recognition (including Bill Murray who has always distanced himself from this kind of thing) as well as Aykroyd & Ramis coming up with a new story idea and script. The game will be set sometime after the events of GHOSTBUSTERS II but will still take place in 90's New York, so I guess you can officially call it GHOSTBUSTERS III. Vivendi have struck the deal after seeing their game adaptation of SCARFACE do impressive sales of $125 million worldwide, selling around 2.5 million units. They also have the rights to several other movie franchises including the Robert Ludlum 'BOURNE' series but it looks like they are going to tackle one franchise at a time. GHOSTBUSTERS could potentially be a huge seller for Vivendi & Sony Pictures. The franchise has universal appeal, not only to those in their 20-40's who grew up or was at an age when they found GHOSTBUSTERS appealing upon it's initial release but also young kids who will find this game far more accessible than violent games like SCARFACE. And looking at the film situation. This is the only time the four have agreed to work together on a new GHOSTBUSTERS project after years and years of talk, speculation and denials. Is this the first step towards a new feature film or is this really only becoming a reality because it's a couple of days work and their aging bodies are not a factor towards how the film will look? If the script for this is so good and they have such a good time making it... could we see it translated as a new feature? Or is the inevitable next GHOSTBUSTERS movie (there will be one, I'm certain) destined to have a new cast and crew? Are the likes of Ben Stiller, Own Wilson and even maybe younger talent destined to have GHOSTBUSTERS in the future and the original cast we all know and love forever tucked away in a studio with a microphone and headset?