The sad death of ‘Ghostbuster’s’ star Harold Remis on Monday has seen his friends and colleagues pay tribute to the much loved comedy writer, director and actor, but what does it mean for the much delayed ‘Ghostbusters III’ movie?

GhostbustersWill we ever get a 'Ghostbusters III'?

Real talk of a third ‘Ghostbusters’ movie started in 1996 when Ramis’s co writer and co-star Dan Akroyd said he had written a draft of the script and said that the studio wanted to make it. Akroyd’s script was set to transport the ‘Ghostbusters’ to an alternate version of Manhattan called Manhellton, where the people and places are "hellish" versions of their originals and where the Ghostbusters meet the devil.

The problem was that two of the franchise’s principle players, Bill Murray and Ivan Reitman the director didn't seem to want any part of the sequel. Ideas bounced around for ‘Ghostbuster’ replacements which included Will Smith and Chris Farley, however Farley died in 1997. However with no further developments it seemed the plans had been shelved.

Nearly a decade later in 2006, rumors started again that Aykroyd’s script was in the making, this time with Ben Stiller tipped to join the cast. Once again things never moved forward and in 2008 Variety reported that ‘The Office’ co-exec producers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky had been recruited to write a whole new script to reboot the franchise. It was now thought that the original three Ghostbusters would ‘pass the torch’ to a new generation of actors to take the roles. Once again nothing happened, but things started looking up a year later when Ramis told MTV that the orignal cast would take part and they were just waiting on Eisenberg and Stupnitsky’s script.

Bill MurrayBill Murray Be Be Out of Ghostbusters III For Good.

 

Then, despite originally declining, director Ivan Reitman seemed to be back on board by 2009, but a year later he seemed to be out again. For the next few years most of the rumors focused on whether Bill Murray would really come back again. Aykroyd and Murray seemed to be conflicted on whether or not Peter Venkman would make an appearance but Aykroyd seemed to confirm in August 2012 that it would be a new cast taking over the franchise, telling London’s Metro newspaper, "it's sad but we're passing it on to a new generation. 'Ghostbusters III' can be a successful movie without Bill. My preference would be to have him involved but at this point he doesn't seem to be coming and we have to move on. It's time to make the third one."

More: check out Harold Ramis' top movies. 

Aykroyd went further in May 2013 when he revealed details of the Ghostbuster’s III plot by telling Larry King "We’re going to have to cast. We need four new Ghostbusters. We need four new Columbia students. It’s based upon new research that’s being done in particle physics by the young men and women at Columbia University. Basically there’s research being done that...I can say that the world or our dimension that we live in, our four planes of existence, length, height, width, and time, become threatened by some of the research that is being done. And Ghostbusters, new Ghostbusters have to come and solve the problem.” But then in October he said the script was being re-written once again when he appeared on an Australian talk show.

harold ramisOriginal 'Ghostbuster' Harold Ramis, who passed away on Monday

Now that Harold Ramis has sadly passed away, the third ‘Ghostbuster’s’ film could be thrown into more turmoil. Though it seems to have spent forever in development, Eisenberg and Stupnitsky’s script did seem to be getting close to being made. The Hollywood Reporter has today said that the script will now be tweaked again due to Remis’s death. Sadly now we know for sure that the original Ghostbusters will not appear on screen together in the third movie, no matter what form the movie takes. Fans will have to make due with the 2009 ‘Ghostbusters: The Video Game’ which Aykroyd had previously said was' essentially the third movie.’