John Hodgman Teases Ghostbusters 3 Details

Release Date: TBA
Studio: Columbia Pictures (Sony)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Screenwriter: Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Gene Stupnitsky, Lee Eisenberg
Starring: Not Available
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Plot Summary: Columbia Pictures has set "The Office" co-executive producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to write a script for a "Ghostbusters" film designed to bring back together the original cast of Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson.

The studio is hoping to tap into some of the same acting talent. Aykroyd and Ramis are re-writing the script at this point, the concept is that the old Ghostbusters would appear in the film in some mentor capacity.

Aykroyd hinted at some of the plot: "Now (in Ghostbusters 3) my character’s eyesight is shot, I got a bad knee, a bad hip—I can’t drive that caddy anymore or lift that Psychotron Accelerator anymore, it’s too heavy. We need young legs, new minds—new Ghostbusters; so I’m in essence passing the torch to the new regime, and you know what? That’s totally okay with me."

John Hodgman Teases Ghostbusters 3 Details

While it's quite a ways from a solid confirmation of the plot to Ghostbusters 3, John Hodgman's comments on this week's The Best Show on WFMU are just a bit too on-the-nose to ignore. io9 took notice of the "hypothetical" scenario that the actor posed on the air, which syncs up suspciously well to what has already been revealed about the storyline of the pending sequel. "If you were hypothetically offered a role in 'Ghostbusters 3'," Hodgman posited, "... would you take the role? Let's say you're sort of the dissolute son of Egon, the Harold Ramis character, and you're kind of like John Candy in 'Splash'. You're kind of a mess. But it turns out that you're a natural ghost whisperer. A natural psychic. But here's the thing: Bill Murray's not going to be in this movie and will probably not be happy that you are. But you get to be in a major role in a major movie and in one of the greatest franchises of all time. Would you do it?" Hodgman's comments match previous reports that the film would feature children of the original Ghostbusters characters (although that story only stated that Sigourney Weaver's character's son, Oscar, would appear). It also backs up Dan Aykroyd's recent comments that the film will move forward without Murray if he fails to commit. Whatever the case may be, current statements from Aykroyd target a start date of early next year. Whether that means that we'll be seeing Hodgman or anyone else joining the cast should be revealed soon. UPDATE: Hodgman has indicated on his Twitter feed that he will not appear in Ghostbusters 3 and that the suggestion that he still might was in jest. It remains unclear whether or not the hypothetical plot details he mentioned are entirely that.