Ivan Reitman Out as Ghostbusters Reboot Director
Ivan Reitman has officially backed out of his proposed directing role of a new Ghostbusters movie. Reitman, 67, directed 1984’s original Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel, but he has agreed to let the film live on with a new director. According to sources, the new director hasn’t been chosen yet but a search is underway. There has been talk about a new Ghostbusters movie for years now and this news is just another twist in the effort to remake this film.
Back in February it was reported that Reitman and writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnisky were finalizing the latest draft of the script but the death of Harold Ramis held up the process. Ramis starred in the first two movies with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. The script required more work as Ramis’s character would have to be written out of the new movie.
Reitman will still remain on the project as a producer and he and the studio hope production on the new film will begin in early 2015. Bill Murray is not expected to reprise his role.
Sony has been trying to mount a third Ghostbusters movie for numerous years and has had several versions of the script. But the stickler in the process has always been Murray, who hemmed and hawed about participating and had a strained relationship with Ramis.
Early on the script was tailored to feature both the original Ghostbusters and a new crop of characters. However, the more recent scripts shifted the movie into more of a reboot than a sequel and featured the original members only in cameos. We’ll keep you posted as to what’s coming next.
(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)