After the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot, many fans were worried that the beloved horror-comedy film franchise could never reach the iconic heights of the original. However, one person is here to let fans know that the upcoming sequel, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, will delight longtime lovers of the films – Peter Venkman himself, Bill Murray!
Collider spoke with Murray at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, where the actor received the Maltin Modern Master Award. During their conversation, he opened up about being approached about the project by filmmaker Jason Reitman, son of Ghosbusters and Ghostbusters II helmer Ivan Reitman.
“I remember [Jason] calling me and saying, ‘I’ve got an idea for another Ghostbusters. I’ve had this idea for years.’ I thought, ‘What the heck could that possibly be?’ I remember him when he was a kid. I remember his Bar Mitzvah. I was like, ‘What the heck? What does this kid know?’” explains Murray. “But he had a really, really wonderful idea that he wrote with another wonderful guy that I got to work with, Gil Kenan, who made City of Ember. The two of them wrote a Ghostbusters movie that really brings it back to life.”
“It really has the feel of the first one, more than the second one or the [2016] one. It has a different feel than two out of four,” Murray offered. “I think he’s really got something.”
From writer and director Jason Reitman, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the next chapter in the Ghostbusters universe and follows a single mother and her two children who arrive in a small town and begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is directed by Jason Reitman and stars Carrie Coon (The Leftovers), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel), Paul Rudd (Avengers: Endgame), Bokeem Woodbine (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Celeste O’Connor (Wetlands), Oliver Cooper (Mindhunter) and newcomer Logan Kim, along with returning Ghostbusters cast members Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Bill Murray (Peter Venkman), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zeddemore), Sigourney Weaver (Dana Barrett), and Annie Potts (Janine Melnitz).
