It was tragic enough losing former Ghostbuster Harold Ramis last month to complications from an infection, but now Ivan Reitman has announced that he will no longer be directing Ghostbusters 3. Understandably, he just doesn’t feel up to it (though he will stay on as producer).

“When I came back from Harold’s funeral, it was really moving and it made me think about a lot of things,” Reitman told Deadline.

So where does that leave the next film, which Reitman promises is still happening?

We do know that the recent script is written by Etan Cohan – and, interestingly enough, one that doesn’t need the cast of the first two original films. That works out since Bill Murray, a staple to Ghostbusters fame, never really wanted to do another one in the first place.

“The first [script] was done by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, and me, Harold and Dan [Aykroyd] helped them on it,” Reitman said. “It was a really good script, but then it became clear that Bill really didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters and that it was literally impossible to find him to speak to for the year or two we tried to get it going. When Bill finally…well, he never actually said no, but he never said yes, so there was no way to make that film.”

Reitman added, “I kept pushing forward on the Etan Cohen [script] and we now have a draft that is very good, that the studio is very excited about…It’s a version of Ghostbusters that has the originals in a very minor role.”

Along with Murray, Ernie Hudson is also not interested in the new film. That leaves Dan Aykroyd, who has always been enthusiastic about another. But pairing him with newer, younger actors taking on the famous pop-culture roles? That’s up to Sony to make that work. But this isn’t their first rodeo.

In the past, Sony has been known for revamping old franchises such as James Bond, and Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, Reitman is helping Sony “find a really good director.”

“I’m not going to say how many Ghostbusters there will be in the new cast, but we are determined to retain the spirit of the original film, and I am pleased that all of this seems to have happened organically,” Reitman said.

Once the director and cast are lined up, shooting for Ghostbusters 3 will begin in early 2015.

Image via Wikimedia Commons