Ghostbusters fans around the world can now rejoice, as Bill Murray has finally read the Ghostbusters 3 script. But before any celebrating, you should probably know that he didn’t really like the script… at all.
In fact, the National Enquirer is reporting that Murray disliked the script so much that he decided to shred the script and send it back to his fellow paranormal exterminators, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, with a note attached: “No one wants to pay money to see fat, old men chasing ghosts!â€
Before any of you jump to conclusions regarding the National Enquirer and start making references to “Bat Boy†headlines, be aware that the Pulitzer Prize Board has stated that the National Enquirer is eligible for consideration for their investigative journalism and national news reporting. Plus, Bat Boy is from the Weekly World News, which doesn’t have the Pulitzer Prize Board backing them up.
Additionally, this is not the first time that Murray has acted, well, quirky with scripts. In fact, it initially took Murray months to agree to read the script for the iconic Groundhog’s Day. When Murray finally agreed to read the script, he would only read 10 pages every two weeks. According to Murray, he didn’t want to read the entire thing if it was going to suck. To his credit, he did tell Ramis that the script didn’t suck after reading 30 pages, but he also noted that there’s a possibility that it still could in what’s left of it.
Another Murray script story comes straight from Ghostbusters itself. When initially signing on to do Ghostbusters, Murray wanted to do it because he thought it would be fun to do a movie with Ramis, Aykroyd and Ivan Reitman. Murray didn’t actually read the script to Ghostbusters until his first day on set. Fortunately, Reitman only made Murray run around New York City in full gear on the first day, so he had time to learn his lines… and then change them to make them his own.
But now what happens with Ghostbusters 3? As we’ve stated numerous times in the past, Bill Murray is one of the five rights holders to Ghostbusters, so any movie would need his sign-off. And, from the looks of it, they don’t have it.
As it currently stands, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd, Ivan Reitman, and Sony Pictures (they also hold rights, along with aforementioned folks) have all signed off on the threequel. Unfortunately, Murray’s most recent response to the film has thrown a wrench into things… even more than it already did.
According to those close to Ramis and Aykroyd, receiving the shredded script from Murray upset the two. In fact, it appears that they’re going to attempt to move forward without Murray involved in the movie. Considering it’s likely that they’ll still need some type of sign-off from Murray (even though he’s not in the film), it’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
