Ivan Reitmen will not direct Ghostbusters 3
Today yet another twist as been announced in what is becoming the tragic tale of the Ghostbusters 3 release. In an interview with Deadline Ivan Reitmen has stated that he will not be directing the third film and will be working with Sony Pictures to hand the reins to another director. Rietmen will still be attached to the project but only in a producing role.
In the interview Rietmen said that there were many reasons for his decision to move away from the project not the least of which was the recent death of his friend and co-writer Harold Ramis.
“When I came back from Harold’s funeral, it was really moving and it made me think about a lot of things. I’d just finished directing Draft Day, which I’m really happy with and proud of. Working on a film that is smaller and more dramatic was so much fun and satisfying. I just finally met with Amy and Doug Belgrad when I got back. I said I’d been thinking about it for weeks, that I’d rather just produce this Ghostbusters”
Sony has been promising us a third installment for years, and fans have suffered through the teasing “will he wont he” by Billy Murray, re-writes of the script, and pages of Internet rumors. But this latest announcement may be the straw that broke it for me. There is very little of what made the first two films great left. We have lost the perfect chemistry of Ramis, Murray, and Aykroyd, the script has been handed off to two new writers, and now we are losing Rietmen. On top of all of those things Sony is now referring to the movie as a reboot of the franchise.
I am scared to say that one of my main fears of Ghostbusters 3 may be coming true. I have always had a small thought in the back of my mind that this movie was a push by the studio to capitalize on the wave of 80s nostalgia that has been seen in movies over the last few years. Studios remaking movies like Footloose, and Robocop in the hopes of recycling the story to a new audience. I hoped that this was not going to be the case with this film; I had placed my trust in Rietmen to ensure that the soul of the first two films carried through to the third film. But now I think all we are going to get is a re-done over-commercialized piece Hollywood fluff. It may still surprise me but unless something changes I feel that I have to wash my hands of the whole thing.
