Yesterday we heard some plot details for Paul Feig’s upcoming all-female Ghostbusters remake, and now the latest round of Sony leaks has given us some insight into Ivan Reitman’s original plans for Ghostbusters III, which stem from an email last year from the director, which was sent to Sony co-chariman Amy Pascal and concerned the second draft of the script.
Titled Ghostbusters: Alive Again, the film would have focussed on Ray (Dan Aykroyd), Egon (Harold Ramis) and Winston (Ernie Hudson) passing the torch to a younger team of Ghostbusters which included ‘Chris’, the son of Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman (who is assumed to be Oscar, the son of Sigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrett).
For the role of Chris, Reitman said that he had met with Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Charlie Day (Horrible Bosses) and Adam Pally (The Mindy Project) but stated that he was “unsure” about the casting. Meanwhile Jonah Hill (22 Jump Street) was Reitman’s pick for ‘Jeremy’, the leader of the new team of Ghostbusters, while Anne Hathaway (The Dark Knight Rises) and Brie Larson (21 Jump Street) had both expressed interest in the female lead, a doctor called ‘Anna’.
Other roles included comic relief ‘Dean’, which had Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) attached, as well as Rebel Wilson (Bridesmaids) as ‘Ashley’ and Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza and Aziz Ansara as ‘Joni’ and Jon’, while Reitman wanted Sacha Baron Cohen (The Dictator) for the villain ‘Gniewko’ and thought that Pascal’s choice of Will Ferrell (Anchorman: The Legend Continues) wouldn’t be a good fit for the part.
Source: CBM
Originally published December 17, 2014. Updated March 21, 2022.
