Not to diminish the article, but I find Bloody Disgusting and other movie sites tend to do a lot of this “someone in the know, but whom we cannot name” thing, which is fair enough, when you have a source that is regarded as solid, but cannot to named or it will be bad for them, but it remains one step away from made-up at that point. And in this case, the reported scoop is that Oscar is actually Venkman’s son, which creates major plot meat for the reluctant Ghostbuster, Bill Murray. Which is cool. Only, everybody pretty much guessed – ages back – that if Venkman wasn’t dead, he was going to be a father to Oscar in the film, as soon as Reitman confirmed Oscar would BE in the third movie. That it’s literal versus figurative is a small detail.
Much like Steven Spielberg did with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (where Mutt Williams is Indy and Marion’s love-child), Ivan Reitman is looking to kick-start a new franchise with a ghost bustin’ love-child of their own.
Early word from an insider is that the (hinted at) love affair between Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) has a much bigger impact on the franchise than just an angry Vigo (Wilhelm von Homburg).
From what we’re told, it will be revealed that Dana’s son Oscar is in fact Peter’s child as well. Furthermore, Oscar is now 21-ish and ready to take the reigns of his father’s ghost busting business!
It’s an important plot point as it gives a lot of weight to the actual story, and takes it from being “just another sequel” to having a real purpose (so long as they don’t pull an Indiana Jones IV).
So, kudos to Bloody Disgusting for the thought exercise we all played out last year. We’ll be genuinely excited when we can confirm it. Please enjoy the web traffic. I’m more interested in their continued mention that Rick Moranis is coming out of retirement for this – THAT would be a scoop.
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I gotta be honest, something like this actually makes me hopeful that Ghostbusters 3 could actually be an interesting and/or good film. I will remain cautiously optimistic.
i call major BS. it felt like the people at bloody disusting.com seen superman returns and decided “hey why don’t we make up a story that says oscar is really peter venkman’s love child”.so until we hear from sony that this film will be greenlit nothing is concrete.just rumour.
Proton-charging loves to bash any other site that reports Ghostbusters news.
No, just the ones that do it badly…
Isn’t that every site? I don’t think I’ve ever read you repost a scoop from another site and not turn around at the end and say they don’t know what they are talking about. I love proton-charging, but damn.
How likely does that sound to you? That EVERY post gets torn apart by me? Or do you just remember the ones I do tear apart (because, it is always clear that’s what I’m doing)?
This… is not a scoop. This is a) something we half-knew already from b) an unverifiable source. Meaning, it’s useless. And as much as I’d love to let useless go uncommented (I don’t dislike the BD guys – I’ve reposted a number of cool items from them), commented means I end up with a flurry of emails from people reporting the item. Then I have to either comment on it and thank everyone for sending it in, or tell a lot of people via email that it’s useless, and I never like doing that, because they took the time to send me a link and I always appreciate that, even if I don’t appreciate what the link holds.
So, better to cut it off at the pass, leaving me, apparently, an ogre. This isn’t true, since I know for a fact I’ve reposted more scoops as scoops than I’ve torn them apart (and it doesn’t take a lot of checking to see that.) But damned if I do, damned if I don’t. I’ll go with do – after all, it is a) not a scoop and b) less of a drain on my soul.
Y’know, I always just took it that Oscar was the child of Timothy Carhart’s character from the first movie (“The Stiff”). Harold Ramis even said that’s how he saw it during the commentary on the DVD. Of course, none of that was set in stone…
I saw Ain’t It Cool News “reporting” on this earlier today and my first thought was “Didn’t we already know this?”. Honestly, people do a really terrible job at reporting about GB3 news because frankly, there really isn’t any. Don’t believe a word until you see it in a trailer, folks.
There are still sites out there claiming scoops from unnameable sources like “Murray will play a ghost”, and I, for one, am glad that PC is here to bitch-slap them for this nonsense.
I second everything that Brian says.
The nice thing about what Chris does here at PC is that he cuts through the bullshit. Go over to GBFans right now and look at the news feed on the left of the main page. Here’s what it currently shows:
* New Plot Details About Ghostbusters III Revealed from Inside Pulse
* Peter Venkman’s Son is the Lead in “Ghostbusters 3″ from WorstPreviews.com
* Ghostbusters 3 Update: Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman Has a Kid? from ScreenCrave.com
* Ghostbusters 3 to Feature Peter Venkman’s Love Child? Rick Moranis To Come Out … from /FILM
* New ‘Ghostbusters 3′ Twist Leaves Everyone In A Tizzy from Latino Review
* Plot Update for GHOSTBUSTERS 3 from Collider.com
* Bloody Disgusting super excited about un-sourced no-brainer, “Venkman is Oscar’s Dad!” from Proton Charging
* Ghostbusters 3 to Feature Peter Venkman’s Love Child? from MovieWeb
* Venkman’s Love Child To Be The Main Character In Ghostbusters III? from Cinema Blend
* More Ghostbusters 3 Chatter from Dread Central
Notice how all TEN of those items, which were all posted on the same day, are about the same GB3 bullshit. PC is the only one that ISN’T reporting it as big news.
So when it comes to GB3 “news”, I’ll always go first to Proton Charging, because Chris will sort fact from fiction… and FYI: it’s ALL fiction until Sony puts out a trailer or press release.
I realize this, but sometimes rumors are true. I was told by PC not to believe that Venkman is a ghost in the GB3 script, and then pretty much everyone and their Grandma confirmed it, including Bill Murray. But then according to PC, I’m not supposed to take anything Murray says seriously. He’s always yanking our crank apparently. Just saying, even the most retarded rumors turn out to be legit more than half the time. Plus do we know if BD is throwing out their own speculation, which us fans did, or confirming from a source?
Considering that five years are supposed to have passed between GB1 and GB2 and Oscar is only a few months old, doesn’t that not work out chronologically?
(And PC is my favourite GB news site, so neener.)
My heart jumps of happiness! Ghostbusters 3 comes closer and closer. Yaaaaay! =D
So… I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again- children ruin EVERYTHING.
Oscar as Venkman’s adopted/spiritual child, that he’s raised since Oscar was eight months old? Certainly.
A retcon to Oscar somehow being Venkman’s biological child? Epic, steaming pile of fail.
Tomorrow’s Bloody Disgusting headline:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Will Smith CONFIRMED for GB3.
Source: http://protoncharging.com/gb/1999/03/17/ramis-pokes-fun-at-internet-rumour-mill/
Chris is the man- I decided! Nuff said
If Venkman is confirmed as Oscar’s biological father, then my wicked username is useless!
I have a hard time believing the BD scoop. No reliable source, just rumors that have been circulating the internet for a decade that anyone could form into “truth”.
I guess I’m just repeating what Brian Reilly said. He knows his shit.
As stated before it doesn’t make sense that Venkman is Oscar’s father. Guess what the first frame of ghostbusters 2 states “5 years later”. Well it could be possible if Dana and Peter broke up only a year and a half before GB2, but even than wouldn’t Venkman have said or asked something? He had that whole dialogue about how he “could’ve I mean should’ve been your father” with Oscar but never asked Dana if it was his.
This doesn’t seem like a scoop for bloodydisgusting. The venkman as a ghost thing was a scoop. I’d bet this was a real source because its simply not worth typing out if its simply a bs story.
This is turning into Indy 4 and please to god someone stop it. Please keep Jonah Hill and michael cera away from the Oscar role. If Oscar was raised by Venkman or even related to Venkman he’d be funny and good with the ladies. Cera and Hill are neither. I hope Murray stops this nonsense before it starts.
See…
http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/08/31/ghostbusters-3-news-rick-moranis-oscar/
Bloody Disgusting makes an emphatic statement, based around another, older, un-sourced post they made, and now it’s turned into fact. Rick Moranis is coming back. Or thinking about coming back, depending on the reposted article you read. And I’m not saying it’s not the case, but they’re saying they heard it from an un-named source, whereas I got to talk to Rick directly and he wasn’t keen to return. So, until a NAMED source says otherwise, I have to go by Rick’s stance. Could chance. Hopefully it will, but as far as I know, he doesn’t want to.
Now, if you ask MTV, who read Bloody Disgusting…
And I’m mean when I point out that this is the Internet’s greatest failing and the reason why academics and journalists hate what it’s done to the concept of hard fact.
But whatever. This is how it has always been at Proton Charging and so it shall remain.
Anyone can write anything on the internet. I could say that Venkman goes back in time and dies, becomes slimer and then goes on to slime himself at the sedgewick, the ultimate paradox. Its all untrue ofcourse but if i was a journalist saying that you can bet that every forum in the ghostbusters world would be typing like crazy just like now.
Castewar, I love your site. I come to it regularly. It’s one of my favorites and is the only place I go to keep up with Ghostbuster stuff.
In a phrase, I find it to be Awesome.
Having said all that, Damn him.
People, no matter what, will complain.
Don’t let it get to you.
I think Venkman being Oscars father is unecessary and does not honour Ghostbusters II.
Personally I don’t even think Oscar or Dana should be in Ghostbusters III. Ghostbusters II already made the mistake of being to similar to the original.