Updated: Reitman says GHOSTBUSTERS 3 films next year with Oscar!

Updated: Just as I posted this story, I am directed to this article at The Hollywood Reporter's Showbizz 411 which has Ivan Reitman confirming much of what Weaver has said. Well, everything but the "Bill Murray as ghost" scoop......

Reitman says a script for €œG3€ is being worked on now, and all signs point to some ghost-busting for 2010. The new story combines the original characters with new ones, including Sigourney€™s kid with Bill Murray, Oscar.

End of update! There's something to this Bill Murray as a ghost thing. I'm certain of it. Sigourney Weaver's doing press rounds for Avatar once again this week and sooner rather than later, some plucky journalist was always going to corner her about Ghostbusters 3. Well it's happened again - and even though she's tried a little bit harder not to spill anything, I would still suggest that she probably has. Here's what she said to MTV;

I don€™t know. I haven€™t read the script. They€™re sending me the script. I guess my little son Oscar, who was kidnapped, is a Ghostbuster, which makes me very proud. So called me the other day€and said he would love me to take a look at it. In a few weeks I€™ll actually know what it is, though I probably won€™t be able to talk about it.

So she's given away that; A) She is a few weeks away from a script, meaning that Columbia are happy enough with what The Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky have written to show it to talent right now. So in the New Year I suspect, we shall hear more on whether Bill Murray, Dan Ackroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson will actually fully commit and sign on to the project. B) Ivan Reitman, who we know is already on board as a producer so yes of course it'll be his job to do this kind of thing, but if nothing else it's showing that he is conducting a very hands-on approach. It's a positive sign in the way of him directing again, I think. C) I imagine, Reitman's phone conversation was a briefing over the broad strokes of what Ghostbusters 3 will become and Reitman's probably mentioned in phone conversation that Murray might be a ghost, that Oscar is now grown-up and will be one of the team, etc. So it's something that must have been discussed and could end up in the final screenplay. From a creative point of view, Peter Venkman as a Ghost will be fun for about five seconds and then the joke will wear off faster than you can "who ya gonna call" - Just like his Zombieland cameo. The original crew need Bill Murray to make this feel like a reunion of the original Ghostbusters, and having him appear as Ghost will take away so much of the energy and charisma the first two pictures had. So yeah, good for five seconds but crappy for two hours.