This weekend, while in the UK to promote No Strings Attached, Ivan Reitman provided Ghostbusters fans with a glimmer of hope by suggesting that Bill Murray has, in fact, read the script for Ghostbusters 3. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

While appearing on The Howard Stern Show today to promote the DVD release of Get Low, Bill Murray set all of the Ghostbusters 3 rumors to rest and explained to all those listening exactly where he stands on the highly-anticipated return of everyone’s favorite paranormal exterminators.

Revealing that he has not yet read the script (and feels bad about it), Murray talked in-depth about how Ghostbusters 2 turned him off to sequels (although, he forgot about Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties); how doing Ghostbusters 3 isn’t even on his mind and explained that the only reason why Sony Pictures wants to make another movie is to recreate the franchise.

The interview lasted around an hour and was completely captivating for both fans of Murray and Ghostbusters. Considering Howard Stern is dubbed “The King of All Media” for a reason and nobody else has been able to get Murray to speak this much about Ghostbusters 3 before, I left the transcription complete:

Howard Stern: Is it true that there is a Ghostbusters 3 and that you’re the problem and you will not sign off on this? Do you know about this?

Bill Murray: Yeah, I guess I’m the problem. Before I was an asset, [but] now I’m a problem. There’s a script somewhere [on my desk], but I haven’t read it yet.

Ghostbusters 3 - Billy Murray

Why haven’t you read it? Is it because you think it’s a bullsh*t idea? In other words, Ghostbusters has had its time and you did a remarkable job with that and you’ve moved on?

BM: There’s a little bit of that. I only made one sequel and it was Ghostbusters 2 and it didn’t end up the way it was presented.

About five years after we did the first one, the clever agents got us all together in a room and… we really are funny together, I mean they are funny people – Harold [Ramis] and Danny [Aykroyd] and myself, with Ivan [Reitman] and maybe one or two other people. We were just blindingly funny for about an hour or so and the agents, there was just foam coming off of them.

They had this pitch and Danny and Harold had concocted some story ideas… and it was a story, it was good story. I think I had even read one or two [scripts for Ghostbusters 2] that Danny had rolled out beforehand, but this one was a good one. I said, “Ok, we can do that one.”

It was just kind of fun to have all of us together... I mean [Rick] Moranis, Annie [Potts] – these people are just sterling people to begin with.

HS: So how do you go back and really make another? Does Ivan want to make [Ghostbusters 3]?

BM: Yeah, Ivan wants to make it and I… I owe him, ya know. He’s puzzled that I haven’t gotten to this one.

HS: How long has it been sitting on your desk, this script for Ghostbusters?

BM: Well, it may not be on the desk – it’s over there somewhere. How long? I don’t know.

Ghosbusters 3 to begin filming in 2012

Robin Quivers: So you have no interest?

BM: Well, I’ll get to it… I gotta get to it – I feel bad. I got a message and I think people – I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings – it’s not the foremost thing in my mind, so I don’t think about it.

You know, the studio gets excited every 10 years or so. What they’d really like to do is recreate the franchise. I remember when the new Ghostbusters was going to be Chris Rock, Chris Farley and Chris Crane... Kris Kringle... someone [laughs] – they had it together.

HS: Is that a threat to you? In other words, did they try to threaten you by saying we’re going to put together a new Ghostbusters and therefore you guys will have to go do it?

BM: It’s not a threat, it’s sort of businesslike – they’d like to keep it going.  There are still kids today that watch this movie and love it, it’s still very popular. They still sell a lot of toys and everything.

If you found the Ghostbusters excerpt from Murray’s Howard Stern interview interesting, you should check out today’s interview in its entirety. Aside from Ghostbusters 3, Murray also talked about working on Saturday Night Live, how Andie MacDowell’s hair annoyed him while filming Groundhog Day, why he decided to fire his agent and so much more.

Today’s interview will be available all day on Sirius-XM channel 100 and will likely be included in Friday’s “Best of the Week” replay. For more geek news and insider info, check out GEEKTIME! Radio, Saturdays from 2-5pm, on SIRIUS-XM channel 101.

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Source: The Howard Stern Show