Well, that was fast. Yesterday we learned that Jason Reitman, the son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, will direct the next movie in the supernatural comedy franchise. This installment will continue the story of the first two movies, and ignore Paul Feig's underwhelming 2016 all-female reboot. Few people thought another Ghostbusters movie would be greenlit so quickly, let alone return to the original universe, where dogs and cats live together in mass hysteria.
Now a haunting teaser trailer has dropped, proving that Jason Reitman's 'Ghostbusters 3' is actually a thing. (You just got slimed, skeptics!) In the fifty second clip, the camera crawls across a moonlit field toward a creepy old barn, where the iconic Ecto-1 car sits rusting beneath a tarp. A gust of wind blows up the sheet, revealing the Ghostbusters logo as the music swells. Then the coruscating words "Summer 2020" appear on screen.
The teaser was originally released by Entertainment Weekly, and has since spread around the internet. Details are scarce on what Ghostbusters 3 will be about, or if it will even be called that. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project has been under a veil of secrecy, with the code name of "Rust City." Sources say that Reitman's story revolves around four teenagers, two boys and two girls. (Gender equality in Ghostbusters at last!)
There's no word on if the movie will feature the original cast members. You'd assume Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver would be down. Bill Murray was reticent about doing a third Ghostbusters for decades, but maybe Jason Reitman could persuade him? Aside from being Ivan's son, he's directed several critically acclaimed films, like Thank You For Smoking, Juno and Up In The Air.
Rick Moranis is a question mark, since he's on a lengthy hiatus from acting. However, he did come out of retirement to voice his old Spaceballs character, Dark Helmet , on the sitcom The Goldbergs last year. So maybe? Sadly, Harold Ramis died in 2014, but perhaps the film could pay tribute to him in some way. This movie will take place thirty years after Ghostbusters 2 - maybe these teenagers are the original Ghostbusters' kids? (Or grandkids?)
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jason Reitman explained how much it means to follow in his father's footsteps. "I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set," said Reitman. "I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans. This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day... This is very early, and I want the film to unwrap like a present. We have a lot of wonderful surprises and new characters for the audience to meet."
The 2016 all-female reboot starred a talented cast, but disappointed at the box office, and stirred up a lot of nastiness on the internet. When the trailer become one of YouTube's most disliked videos, crusading bloggers blamed the hate on misogynistic, sexist incel trolls. Sure, there was some of that in the comment section, but many critics just didn't think the improvisational humor was funny, and hated that the reboot pretended the original films didn't exist. Several OG cast members made cameos in the reboot, but as other characters - why? Why not do a 'passing of the torch' movie?
Well, maybe Ghostbusters 3 will be a successful sequel, like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Jurassic World. Or maybe it will be another tepid failure, in which case, you still have the real Ghostbusters 3, in video game form!
