GHOSTBUSTERS 3 Refuses To Die. Etan Cohen Hired For Rewrite.
Twenty three years after Ghostbusters II left fans feeling largely disappointed Sony simply refuses to let the long rumored third installment in the franchise go.
Talk of a third film has literally been circulating for years now, any movement towards reality stopped cold by Bill Murray's blunt assessment that the script isn't any good and his subsequent refusal to consider the project. Well, Sony is no doubt hoping that hiring Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen to rewrite the script will sooth those concerns. Because that's what they've just done.
Frankly, I consider this whole drive to make a third Ghostbusters to be a misguided affair. Yes, the first film is fantastic but we're talking about a property that was last on screens before any of the current target audience was alive with a cast that - other than Murray - has been virtually invisible for well over a decade. Quick: Name the last good Dan Aykroyd movie. Name any movie with Harold Ramis in the last decade. How about the last time you paid to see something directed by Ivan Reitman and walked away satisfied? And forget any notion of Rick Moranis coming out of his self imposed seclusion because that almost certainly will not happen. This will be an expensive film to make - too expensive to make it purely for guys in their mid to late thirties who remember the first one through nostalgia tinted glasses - and if you change it to draw in a younger crowd you'll have that entire mid to late thirties audience - who dominate the online press - turn on you in a heartbeat. Barring a miracle it's a no-win proposition.
To recap: There's no point doing a sequel without Murray. Murray doesn't want to do it. The other principal players in the original films have overwhelmingly bad track records throughout the entire lifespan of the target audience for this film. They are not stars any more. The target audience for this film was not born the last time a Ghostbusters film was made. Thus the existing name value is virtually nil. And if you change any of the core elements the press is going to go wild and the older, original audience will turn on you as well. And yet people continue spending to try and make this film. Glad it's not my money ...
Talk of a third film has literally been circulating for years now, any movement towards reality stopped cold by Bill Murray's blunt assessment that the script isn't any good and his subsequent refusal to consider the project. Well, Sony is no doubt hoping that hiring Tropic Thunder writer Etan Cohen to rewrite the script will sooth those concerns. Because that's what they've just done.
Frankly, I consider this whole drive to make a third Ghostbusters to be a misguided affair. Yes, the first film is fantastic but we're talking about a property that was last on screens before any of the current target audience was alive with a cast that - other than Murray - has been virtually invisible for well over a decade. Quick: Name the last good Dan Aykroyd movie. Name any movie with Harold Ramis in the last decade. How about the last time you paid to see something directed by Ivan Reitman and walked away satisfied? And forget any notion of Rick Moranis coming out of his self imposed seclusion because that almost certainly will not happen. This will be an expensive film to make - too expensive to make it purely for guys in their mid to late thirties who remember the first one through nostalgia tinted glasses - and if you change it to draw in a younger crowd you'll have that entire mid to late thirties audience - who dominate the online press - turn on you in a heartbeat. Barring a miracle it's a no-win proposition.
To recap: There's no point doing a sequel without Murray. Murray doesn't want to do it. The other principal players in the original films have overwhelmingly bad track records throughout the entire lifespan of the target audience for this film. They are not stars any more. The target audience for this film was not born the last time a Ghostbusters film was made. Thus the existing name value is virtually nil. And if you change any of the core elements the press is going to go wild and the older, original audience will turn on you as well. And yet people continue spending to try and make this film. Glad it's not my money ...
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