A few years back, a video game was released and based on the hype, a third installment of the franchise was rumored to begin. Since then, we've heard a lot of back and forth statements from Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, two of the stars of the franchise and more importantly, property right holders. As it seems, Aykroyd is pushing for a new film with him, Harold Ramis, and Ivan Reitman writing the script, but officially Bill Murray has stated that he will not be involved in the project. In the battle of Venkman vs. Stantz, it seems as if nobody, especially the fans, will get to win as Ghostbusters 3 remains in limbo. Since Murray is a property rights holder, one can only hope that Aykroyd can convince him to sign off on a script.
Once they get passed the property rights issue, there is a few ways to handle the making of this film. The first is a complete reboot with new cast playing the same characters but in today's setting. Yawn, boring. I don't want that. The second is to make a sequel with the originals by recasting Murray's Venkman character or by writing him out and including a character to replace him like Louis Tully (getting Rick Moranis out of retirement). But honestly, who wants to see that film...Aykroyd, Moranis, Ramis, and Hudson are too old to be believable ghost-chasing scientists (those proton packs look heavy). If it came down between sequel or reboot, I'd go with reboot. Luckily, we have another choice. The obvious decision is to make a retooling sequel or "requel" like J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek or this summer's G.I. Joe: Retaliation. This type of remake allows the torch to be passed to new actors/actresses and the originals remain somewhat involved as their characters become either mentors or some other aspect in the story. I came up with an idea about Ghostbusters 3 last December when it was rumored that Murray shredded the script that Aykroyd, Ramis, and Reitman wrote. Now, I'm going to expand on that idea for Mr. Aykroyd and company, so this film can be made. I'm offering free initial script writing ideas and casting ideas in exchange for this film being made properly.
Open the movie with Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) walking towards a small banquet hall. Outside the door, he greets Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), Janine Melnitz-Tully (Annie Potts), and Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) who were waiting for him. Dana Barrett (Sigorney Weaver) approaches and she mentions how Venkman wished he could be here but he was enjoying his retirement and busy with a golf tournament. This discussion happens as they walk inside to find a new character played by Mr. Park's and Recreations himself...Ron Swanson (Nick Offerman) along with a banner stating that this is Stantz's retirement gathering. Offerman's character is introduced to Dana. During this time it is explained that the most senior agent (Offerman) is taking over for Stantz as head of the New York branch and Louis/Janine are still the heads of the Los Angeles branch (this is homage to the video game when they mentioned franchising the Ghostbusters). Egon introduces another new character to Louis, Janine, and Dana. This character is Egon's protégé played by Kal Penn. Egon explains how he is no longer in the field and just works in the laboratory with Penn to develop new equipment. Penn explains how occasionally he goes out to test equipment, but usually he leaves the field-testing to another field agent (a new Ray-type character). Egon says soon enough Penn will take over for me. Winston Zeddmore (Ernie Hudson) walks up to congratulate Ray, and Ray calls him "Mr. Mayor." Ray, Egon, Dana, Louis, Janine, Winston Offerman's character, and Penn's character sit down for dinner and a slideshow begins explaining the growth of the Ghostbusters since the last film...AKA opening credits' scene.What I've done here is not kill Venkman and make a comment about Murray's true life perspective of playing golf and being semi-retired. I've also grown the Ghostbusters into something unexpected with an East Coast Office and a West Coast one. We've had cameos of most of the originals. Winston is the only Ghostbuster that I could see moving on to a public role such as mayor. I read on IMDB that the Mayor of the original movies is rumored to be President in #3...President Lenny (David Margulies) and I could support that idea...I could see a scene when Mayor Winston, Egon, and Ray are in the Oval office and President Lenny is saying "I can't get away from you yahoos!" Also with this introduction, I've started introducing the new recruits and expanded their roles beyond just the four original guys with new characters (Penn's character is comparable to Q in James Bond).
Ecto-5 pulls up to the Firehouse and on the building is a re-elect Zeddmore for Mayor sign. The guys get out of the car...it's Dan Fogler (covered in protoplasmic slime), Chris Pratt (with a strange looking Proton pack), Melissa McCarthy, and Bret Harrison. Emma Stone is sitting at Janine's old desk. This is the the New York Branch Office of the Ghostbusters under leader ship of Nick Offerman. Mayor Zeddmore, Ray, Egon, Dana, Janine, and Louis all come in and the team apologizes for missing Ray's retirement banquet. Dana gets overly excited to see her son, Oscar (Bret Harrison is my choice, but I'm guessing the studio would go with Michael Cera, Jesse Eisenberg, or Christopher Mintz-Passe).
After this scene which is 15 to 20 minutes into the movie, we barely see the originals except for Egon in the lab with Penn on occasion. Louis and Janine return to L.A. Mayor Winston goes back to his office and is busy with reelection so he can't provide much help throughout the movie. Ray goes home to rest for his retirement. And Dana may be used once or twice in scenes with her son. So, the new Ghostbusters (East Coast branch) has been established:
Harrison is Oscar (the baby from Ghostbusters 2) the nube/rookie...Pratt is our new Stantz-like character....Penn is the Egon-like researcher....Fogler is Venkman-ishly with his attitude....Offerman is the
boss/leader...McCarthy is a grounded-type character like Winston....and
lastly, Emma Stone will be the new receptionist. I've created an
interesting beginning for the next installment of the Ghostbusters franchise and now I'll lay the ground work for a plot...and someone else can fill in the additional story details later.
Of
course, a strong spectral enemy will definitely be the villain, but how
this creature comes about is key to the plot of this story. That's why
I've created the anti-ghostbusters or spectral terrorists. They are
lead by two individuals who the Ghostbusters have wronged and are
seeking revenge. Walter Peck (William Aterton) and Jack Hardemeyer (Kurt
Fuller) who lead a rag-tag bunch of humans (Adam Baldwin, Alan Tudyk,
Tyler Labine, Horatio Sanz, Eliza Dushku) who all have personal reasons
to want to destroy the ghostbusters, but one of them is psychotic enough
to want to destroy life as we know it. The goal of the group is to
summon some sort of monster to defeat the Ghostbusters, and the secret
goal of one is to bring back a demon or a demi-God or some other
creature with plans to take control of the world.Yadda, Yadda, Yadda...things happen, ghosts are busted. Jokes, humor, CGI ghosts...and perhaps this time the entire United States (instead of just NYC) is in peril, therefore the originals can do that scene with President Lenny. And then final confrontation...the twist is that both the East Coast and West Coast team's combine to eliminate this threat. So, Tully's West Coast team arrives to help and we finally meet them at the end (surprise everyone with these...don't use them in promos). Bruce Campbell, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, Damon Wayans Jr., and Paul Rudd make their "end of the movie" entrance to help save the day. And who knows...maybe the west coast branch will be featured in the fourth chapter of this franchise...along with the return of Bill Murray who just may change his mind after the success of #3.
I've come up with this idea to run with, and what is still needed is character names and personalities, all the dialogue, a sub-plot, and a great design to an awesome monster to fight at the end. So Mr. Aykroyd, the ball is now in your court. And in case you aren't Mr. Aykroyd or involved on the writing staff of Ghostbusters 3, then just let me know in the comments what you think of my casting ideas and story.
IMAGES COURTESY OF: PINTEREST & WIKIPEDIA
You sir are brilliant,i almost fell out my chair when you said Dan Fogler & Mellisa MaCarthy.Im a fan of Fogler since he was in Fanboys but that was the last thing i saw him in,oh yea that ping pong flick which i still haven't seen.The part were Winston is mayor is also genius and they have a scene with the former mayor who is now president saying "i can't get rid of you yahoos"classic material.But when you brought up who should play oscar it got me thinking,some of those same young actors could be the kids of the Ghostbusters and they're trying to live their own lives and escape the shadows of their celebrity fathers, but it is their destiny to follow in the same footsteps.Chris Mintz-Passe would be perfect for Egon's son & Brandon T Jackson would be perfect for Winston's son.I haven't thought out the rest just somthing i came up with while reading your ideas.But yea great article and i see your a wwe fan as i am,no matter what i do i get pulled right back to those silly basterds in tights.I'll get back with you soon to discuss it.
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked my ideas. Fogler was on a sitcom on ABC last fall called Man Up. It was so hilarious that the network was forced to cancel it before it finished airing all 13 episodes. If you liked Fanboys, then you'd probably enjoy that show. I saw all the episodes on Hulu and it just kept getting better and better. But I think Fogler is perfect fit for the Ghostbusters legacy...and Melissa McCarthy and Chris Pratt are pretty good fits too.
DeleteI actually thought about writing McLovin as Egon's son at one point, but then I realized that they never mentioned any of the Ghostbusters' lives outside of work (other than Venkman). I think that Ray and Egon were married to their work. And Winston, like I said, seemed like he was grounded enough to move on to other things such as a public office. I'm sure he probably did get married and have kids, but as of the film in 1989, they hadn't mentioned that, so his kids would be under 22 years in age. Whereas Oscar was a baby in the 1989 film, so he'd be either graduating college or been working for a few years. My idea was for him to have graduated college while working part-time as the Ghostbusters assistant without Dana knowing this...so when she sees him at the Firehouse, she freaks out a bit (sub-plot). I was already getting long winded in my post, so I eliminated writing that idea.
As for the WWE, in my blog prior to this one, I mentioned the CM Punk - Chris Brown twitter rumble. I think its a ploy by the WWE to get Chris Brown to appear at Wrestlemania and thought if it was, Brown should face Beth Phoenix. I think this is a dream celebrity match-up just as big as HHH v. Undertaker in Hell in a Cell, Y2J v. CM Punk, and Cena v. the Rock.
Hello there,
ReplyDeleteI think anything is possible, but the new movie's gotta have a little bit of everything, (but not too much) from movies like the Matrix style (a little bit of slow-motion 360 degrees like in the movie Swordfish), and maybe some major zooming scenes to the tiniest of particles, and last but not least it's gotta have some kind of a major explosion, or implosion (like in the movie Star Trek of the core detonation)...The gadgets too they gotta look hip like the weapons in Men in Black, (all very shinny)...All of this mixed with some humor, action, adventure, and a little bit of some suspense whenever the villain is plotting his demise...
Any major sequel, the best part in the movie has to be the villain...this time the villain's gotta be more intelligent and be able to morph into some kind of a huge monster for the ending...because what's a Ghostbusters's movie without something huge moving about on a rampage...He should also have many different kinds of abilities like those of the Sith(star wars) like lightning force, telekinesis and be able to walk on walls, and ceilings like Dracula...The most electrifying villain of all time...brand new...And where does he come from?....perhaps this villain is one of the fallen angels cast out of heaven by God, to walk on Earth forever, but was trapped in a tomb for over three thousand years that was uncovered and sent to New York to a museum that was suddenly awakened by some archaeologists studying the tomb as they opened it without knowing what lurked inside.
I don't know, but this next Ghostbusters movie ought to be very fancy, like jaw opening scenes in it...to surpass all expectations...
Truly,
Erasmus
I really hope that they go big with the villain in this film. I agree that they need to have some great special effects and awesome camera work. My issue would be making things shiny and hip like Men in Black. That's what made the proton packs awesome, they look like someone built them in their basement. I think that their equipment will have a lot of improvements based on how modern day technology has improved, but I don't want it to look like iPhone gadgetry. I was going to write that the Firehouse looked the same on the outside but inside it was drastically improved, but then I thought if anything, they'd build a lab and containment unit that was offsite. That's what I was trying to convey with Egon and Kal Penn working together...I wanted them to be a separate entity outside of the field agents office. I feel as if the Ghostbusters company has grown in 20 years to expand to two offices and a laboratory/containment area, but hadn't grown enough to make them look like futuristic spectral ghost chasers.
DeleteI do hope this film gets made and it is an adventure unlike the original two films. And I agree completely about some sort of giant monster reigning terror at the end (that's why both offices combine forces). I was thinking the creature would go after Washington D.C. or something like that. Who knows. I just hope this movie gets made! Thanks for reading!
I really like your ideas. Winston as mayor, President Lenny and the cameos at the end. One thing tough, I think Emma Stone and Melissa McCarthy should switch roles.
ReplyDeleteI´d totally watch that.
Thanks Scapegoat, glad you liked it. Initially, I thought of Stone in the role of a Ghostbuster, but then I thought Stone would be a better fit as the receptionist with her sarcastic and snide yet witty (dare I say, snarky?) commentary like Janine (Ghostbusters...what do you want?). McCarthy could have that more manly, fart-joke loving humor ala Bridesmaids as a Ghostbuster. commentary. But either way, it would be a great movie.
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