You have to hand it to Dan Aykroyd, the man is tenacious. Just when you thought the Ghostbusters 3 info-grapevine had shrivelled again, up he pops with some new details and a hint that the movie might finally have its cameras cranking by next spring.
Talking on Dennis Miller’s radio show, Aykroyd admitted that the big sticking point (the world knows him as Bill Murray) might have to be sacrificed if the new GB outing is to move forward. Unless he can be convinced, of course...
“Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray,” he said. “That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that Ghostbusters is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold (Ramis), myself and Sigourney (Weaver). The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of **Ghostbusters 3 **is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood."
And he wasn’t just talking about the apparently active status of development. He also dropped a few extra details about the storyline, though admittedly nothing you couldn’t have figured out from all the talk of a new generation. "My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the Cadillac," he says, "He's got a bad knee and can't carry the packs... Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation."
So, given how many rumours have floated out there about possible new recruits, does he have anyone in mind? "I like this guy Matthew Gray Gubler from the Criminal Minds show. But there's going to be a casting. We're going to see everyone that wants to do it. We're going to need... three guys and a young woman."
Though Aykroyd is a man in a position to know more about the movie’s status than many others, there’s still the small matter of zero official announcements and few other rumblings having turned out to be anywhere near accurate. And until there’s actually a press release out there confirming that the Ghostbusters really are back, we’ll leave all this locked up in the Rumour Containment Facility for now, and hope Walter Peck doesn’t happen along to make us turn the power off…