Ghostbusters 3 Happening No Matter What?

Cinemablend.com reported last week that the Ghostbusters 3 movie was moving ahead with or without Bill Murray, or any other hurdles, in Spring 2012.

Here's their report:


The veteran comedian (Dan Aykroyd) was recently a guest on Denis Miller Radio where he said that the project hopes to begin production in the spring and talked both about the film's plot and what's going on behind the scenes. One aspect that Aykroyd confirmed is that the film will indeed see the older Ghostbusters passing the torch to a group of youngsters, but the reason is because the original group is not doing so great. Said Aykroyd, "My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the cadillac. He's got a bad knee and can't pick up the pack. Harold [Ramis], Egon, is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the premise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation. Production in the spring, I hope."

So with that aspect of the story confirmed, who might we see in the new group? One actor that has caught Aykroyd's eye is Matthew Gray Gubler, who plays Dr. Spencer Reid on Criminal Minds and was Joseph Gordon-Levitt's friend Paul in (500) Days of Summer, but Aykroyd didn't say if they've approached him yet or if he's just on a list somewhere. He then continued by saying that they will be casting and that the new group will include three guys and one woman. "We're going to see everyone that wants to do it," said Aykroyd.

The most interesting thing the comedian said on the program, however, was about the development of the project and the involvement of Bill Murray. For as long as the project has been around Murray has been the lone hold-out and the solely responsible for holding up production. At the start of the audio Aykroyd said, "Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray. That is our hope." He then continued by saying that while Murray is the lead character and "contributive to it in a massive way," he alone does not make up the entire picture. "The concept is much larger than each individual role and the premise of Ghostbusters 3 is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood."

Is Aykroyd suggesting that they Ghostbusters 3 could move forward without Murray? While it's entirely speculative at this point, it almost sounds like Aykroyd is trying to butter us up so that when it's announced that the sequel won't have Dr. Peter Venkman the blow will be softened. I know there's thousands of fans out there who want to see another Ghostbusters, but will they go see it without Murray?