Making a surprise appearance at Fantastic Fest 2008 to promote City of Amber (in which he plays the Mayor), Bill Murray got questioned (by Ain’t It Cool News, if I understand correctly) about doing a Ghostbusters 3. His answer was funny, but guarded. But not as guarded as I would have expected. He also talks favorably about the upcoming game. It’s not any real new information, unless you count the fact that he isn’t totally against the idea of a third movie, but it rare commentary from Bill Murray on the matter. We hear from Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, and even Ivan Reitman all the time, but it’s a treat to get to hear from Bill.
I’m using the official, full clip from Fantastic Fest, but if you want to skip through, the GB parts start at 5 minutes.
Thanks to Daryn (who got it in first) and and the dozens of others of you that sent in the YouTube, MySpace, and AICN links – great stuff!
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Fantastic, Bill seems like such a nice guy! I mean, i’ve heard that he can be difficult, but i think that we all have those days!
Great to hear such open, honest answers to fans questions!
And to admit to singing the song! Ace, I’d love to have seen him doing that!
Brilliant!
Castewar,
How come you often file things like this under ‘misc’ and not GB3? Just curious.
I got most of it , I’d like a transcription, tough
Small correction Cas, it’s City of Ember.
Awesome. He seems into the Office dudes writing it.
I wonder if he meant the wounds of moviegoers disappointed with GB2, or the wounds among the creative talent (particularly between Murray and Ramis)? Hmm….
Well its a hell of a lot better than him saying No. No “no”s is good news…
I think the “wounds” comment says a lot about his frame of mind on the project now.
Definitely awesome to get some retrospective on why he thinks Ghostbusters II ultimately fails, more than what we usually hear at least.
what he meant by wounds is that he didnt like how ghostbusters was beat out by batman and that he never liked the script because he wanted it to be more about the character story, and less about the special fx. this isnt the first interview ive seen about him talking about ghostbusters 3, him and ramis are fine…they were in plenty of movies togeather that ramis directed following gb2. I think GB3 is more of a reality now than it ever was.
I don’t know that they are fine, last I had heard (pre-video game) they hadn’t spoke since Groundhog Day.
It’s pretty obviously from what I see here that if the script is good enough Murray will agree to do it.
It’s all down to the scriptwriters now! Let’s see what they can come up with!
“How come you often file things like this under ‘misc’ and not GB3? Just curious.”
Usually because I’m posting quickly and forget – misc is the default category for all posts.
*Hell.Has.Just.Officially.Frozen.Over. ;P…
*Cheers.
His honesty and optimism here warm my heart… and I got my alice pack straps in today, so I’m in an extra GB happified mood.
When he talked about the wounds of GB2, I got the impression that he meant physical wounds, as a result of the strenuous making of the film. Of course, he could have meant it in MANY different ways – and perhaps he did.
For those people who wanted a transcript.
——————–
Question: I heard about this a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to know how Bill felt about the possibility of strapping on another proton pack and kicking some ghost ass.
Bill’s Answer: Well, I think the wounds from Ghostbusters II have healed. [audience laughs] And, supposedly they’ve hired two guys from The Office to write a script. So, that could work. I think that’s a good idea to get a fresh look at it. I always liked the characters; the characters are funny. And we did have a lot of fun making the movie. The first one was really a lot of fun to make. I think the first 45 minutes of Ghostbusters, or 40 minutes, are about as funny as the movie gets. We didn’t have a lot of special effects then; it was just a couple. It was just the funny characters in that world, and I liked that movie because of that. I think the first movie had something like 60 plate shots, or something like that. The second one had hundreds. The specialist guys got their hands on the script early and it was just gone. It went away. The script went away. It was harder to wrangle because it was tied all around the effects, without the story coming first or the characters moving through it. You know, they’re hard movies to write, and Dan really caught it with that first one; he really caught it the way it was set up. Well, the character’s are fun to do. We did the video game this Summer and it was fun to do it again. I found myself walking down Fifth avenue singing the song. People were like, ‘God, that guy’s really full of himself.’
Well someone was in a good mood that night! Who knew Bill could be so nostalgic, I mean singing the theme while walking the street?
Anyway it is true that Bill and Harold had a falling out after the making of Groundhog Day and have not spoken since. They clashed on the direction of the film. Bill wanted it to be more philosophical while Harold wanted to go for the comedy more. In the end their feud was what was best for the picture because Groundhog Day is indeed both philosophical and comedic, but unfortunately caused a 15 year rift in their relationship.
But, Chris, has that rift been healed? If so, when and how–during the making of the videogame?
MovieHole suggests that Ramis and AYKROYD have also had a falling out–this is the first I’ve heard of a possible rift between them (the Murray-Ramis rift is well-known).
Sounds like rumor, but here’s the link:
“The cast aren’t friendly any more. Harold Ramis has had a falling out with Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray, and the only reason the video-game got done is because none of the guys had to be in the same room at the same time.”
http://www.moviehole.net/200814891-caffeinated-clint-16808
Well they probably weren’t in the same room but what about the writing of the game’s script? Look this is the first I’ve ever heard about Aykroyd and Ramis not being friends so I’m not really sure it’s actually true. Has this been reported elswhere?
i love bill… and i love dan… i love harold… and i really d‘ love ernie. just wonder if they love me. i want to be in gb3 too. rick
I kno that this is off topic sorta..but i just wish that someone asked if Murray knew the final fate of the game..I would love to see another movie but I’m more a video game guy I it has been killing me knowing that next month we would have been playing the game..*sob*..but Bill Murray was very optomistic about it..he didn’t say the game was cancelled so that’s good i guess.
The Game. Isn’t. Cancelled.
This is getting really old, guys.
Ben..i wasn’t saying it was cancelled..i was just saying i wish Murray had said when the game was do in 2009
MURRAY SPEAKS AGAIN!!!
http://www.okmagazine.com/news/view/9415
http://io9.com/5058857/bill-murray-i-am-evil-venkman
This has got to be the most uplifting news yet especially coming from the mouth of mr murray himself. Fingers crossed peeps
Murray to talk GB3 on Fox this Friday?
“ON WHETHER THERE WILL BE A GHOSTBUSTERS THREE
“It’s promising… it’s never been promising before. (on whether the writers of “The Office” will be behind the next movie.) The idea of having a fresh look at it is a great idea. To see it through someone else’s eyes…I think a new idea would be great.” ”
http://www.iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5575&Itemid=99
More from Murray’s upcoming FOX appearance:
“On the rumor that “Ghostbusters 3″ is being penned by a couple of writers from “The Office”:
“It’s promising, it’s never been promising before…. [The unnamed writers] are probably pretty funny. And the idea of having a new, fresh look at it is a great idea, you know, to see it through someone else’s eyes. I think a new idea would be great, I think it’d be fun.””
http://suburbarazzi.lohudblogs.com/2008/10/07/bill-murray-tells-mike-juliet-rep-about-ghostbusters-3-stealing-stuff-at-snl/