Bill Murray did an interview with Dazed Digital out today, and while the whole thing is full of good stuff, the highlight was him discussing his lack of interest in Ghostbusters III. The interview seems to have been conducted prior to Harold Ramis’s passing so Murray’s opinions then on Ghostbusters III may be moot now, but here’s what he said nonetheless:
Interviewer: Talking about friendships, has not wanting to do another Ghostbusters film hurt your relationship with the other guys?Murray: Oh, that I’m not in a rush to do the Ghostbusters movie? We made the first Ghostbusters – it was one of the great movies, one of the great entertainments of all time. Then we made a second one; it was okay, right? So what are we going to do? Are we going to rush to make a third one? It would be great if you could make one that was as good as the first one. It would probably be good if you could make one that was as good as the second one. But, you know, there was The Godfather. Then there was The Godfather II. And then there was The Godfather III. So if you want Godfather III …Interviewer: Your long-time friends want you to do another one.Murray: Well, my friends. Man, do [my friends] want to do it? They kind of do. But someone with a lot more to gain than my friends wants to do it more than they want to do it. Right? And I understand, it’s business. They want to refresh the franchise. The franchise is fantastic. But I find that you don’t really lose by saying no in show business. If you say no, sometimes they come back with a better script. Or sometimes it just goes away. But I don’t know. Are you thinking of going back to high school?
Murray says that the studio is more gung-ho about the movie than Aykroyd and company are, which is interesting. The latest news on Ghostbusters III – which if Murray isn’t involved, will only include two of the four original Ghostbusters now – is that the studio is pressing on with the project despite Harold Ramis’s death but the script isn’t close enough to being ready to start filming in 2014.
