Efforts to produce a third movie in the Ghostbusters franchise have been going on for so long now (a quarter of a century, to be exact) that things were starting to look pretty futile. Since director Ivan Reitman quit the project in the wake of actor Harold Ramis' death, The LEGO Movie directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller along with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer were offered the chance to replace him, but turned it down.
Ghostbusters 3 has since been rejuvenated by The Heat director Paul Feig, who is interested in rebooting the series with an all-female team of Ghostbusters. Bill Murray, who was almost single-handedly responsible for the project being kept on hold for many years - due to his reluctance to sign off on any of the scripts - has said he feels "fine" about this approach and even suggested a few actors that he'd like to see in it, including Emma Stone and Kristen Wiig.
Whether you love this directing choice or hate it, it definitely looks like Feig has managed to breathe new life into the project after years of Dan Aykroyd single-handedly carrying the torch for it. THR reports that Feig has now recruited The Heat screenwriter Katie Dippold to co-write the script for the Ghostbusters reboot with him. There have been various script drafts for Ghostbusters 3 floating around over the years with numerous writers attached, but this new creative team marks a fresh start.
Dippold has previously served as a producer and writer on MADtv and Parks and Recreation, while Feig had a lengthy career directing TV shows like The Office before his hit 2011 comedy Bridesmaids. Dippold recently completed the script for a sequel to The Heat, which will focus on the characters played by Jamie Denbo and Jessica Chaffin in the first movie. In response to today's news, Feig enthusiastically confirmed his new collaboration with Dippold on Twitter.
It's official. I'm making a new Ghostbusters & writing it with @katiedippold & yes, it will star hilarious women. That's who I'm gonna call.— Paul Feig (@paulfeig) October 8, 2014
There have already been plenty of suggestions from fans regarding who should appear in the all-new, all-female Ghostbusters line-up, and there are a number of leading comedy actors with existing connections to Feig and Dippold who seem like potential candidates - Melissa McCarthy, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph among them. At this point a reboot of the franchise actually sounds like a better prospect than a sequel, since so much time has passed since Ghostbusters II and a complete reunion of the original team isn't going to happen.
With Sony planning to begin production on the Ghostbusters reboot some time in 2015, it hopefully won't be too long before we start hearing some solid casting news.
We'll keep you updated on the Ghostbusters reboot as development continues.
Source: THR