It is probably time to address this issue. I have purposely been avoiding all of the hooplah surrounding the announcement of a new Ghostbusters movie that is in the works from a script by The Office writer-producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Judd Apatow is on board as producer as well, and it is likely that the usual Apatow crew will be on board in this “passing of the torch” type sequel.

The internet has been in a bit of a fervor over this – the nerd/movie buff community being left confused, torn, feeling naked, cold and vulnerable at reading such news, myself included. I will be frank in saying that I think it is a terrible idea. But obviously somebody thinks it is a great idea, one of them being Ghostbusters co-creator Harold Ramis who shot an e-mail over to the Chicago Tribune to explain a few things:

yes, columbia is developing a script for GB3 with my year one writing partners, gene stupnitsky and lee eisenberg. judd apatow is co-producing year one and has made several other films for sony, so of course the studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. aykroyd, ivan reitman and i are consulting at this point, and according to dan, bill murray is willing to be involved on some level. he did record his dialogue for the new ghostbusters video game, as did danny and i, and ernie hudson. the concept is that the old ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity. not much else to say at this point. everyone is confident a decent script can be written and i guess we’ll take it from there.
best,
harold

This has and will divide Ghostbusters fans, but I am yet to see any die-harders that are 100% gung-ho excited for this. Myself, I think it is unnecessary and I have trouble finding the words to describe how I feel about this, but it is a similar feeling to those rumors of Harrison Ford passing on the Indiana Jones torch to Shia LaBeouf. Even if they get Murray on board “on some level” and “in some mentor capacity,” that will not be enough. Isn’t the video game enough of a sequel?

Ghostbusters is probably my favorite comedy, so maybe it just hits a little close to home. I’ve seen what they’ve done with reviving other favorite franchises of mine lately (Indiana Jones, Star Wars, etc.) and this does not inspire much faith.

I feel like somewhat of a betrayer since I am a big fan of Apatow and crew (and I’d want to trust Ramis, Akyroyd, Murray and Co. if they signed on) – but then again, maybe it is them that are betraying us! Is it safe to say that we can we expect Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Jason Segel to be donning the jumpsuits? Maybe Bill Hader? James Franco? Steve Carrell? John C. Reilly (hey, this one actually isn’t a bad idea)?

I guess we will know before long. Sound off on your thoughts!