Dan Aykroyd recently revealed that he wants to extend the Ghostbusters franchise beyond another sequel.
Aykroyd, one of the brains behind the third installation of the series, said that he hopes to branch out the series, possibly even taking the ghost fighting men back to their younger years.
“It’s beyond just another sequel, a prequel, another TV show. I’m thinking what does the whole brand mean to Sony?” he told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. “[The franchise has the potential to be] not just another movie or another TV show, but what’s the totality of it? The whole mythology from the beginning of their lives, the end of their lives. Ghostbusters at nine years old, Ghostbusters in high school.”
There is currently no talk about the Ghostbusters universe that Aykroyd is suggesting, however the third movie is moving forward.
Ivan Reitman, the director of the first two films and the producer of the third, recently revealed in an interview for Toronto Life that the writers are currently working on the script.
“The studio is in, and we have writers working on it as we speak,” Reitman said when he was asked about the much anticipated sequel. “We’re hoping to film at the beginning of next year. Dan Aykroyd and I meet about once a month to talk about it.”
Bill Murray has so far refused to commit to reprising his role, however Reitman says that he believes Murray will come around. “He’s [Murray] publicly said no, but Bill and I have done six movies together, and he never says yes until literally just before the shoot,” Reitman said of Murray.
“Two TIFFs ago, we had a late dinner at Sotto Sotto, and we ate and talked until 4:30 in the morning. I told him, ‘I don’t care if you do Ghostbusters—I mean, I’d love it if you did—but why aren’t you doing leading parts for big studio films?’ He said he didn’t want that responsibility. He wanted to be a character actor.”
