I loved Ghostbusters, it was one of the funniest films ever made. Ghostbusters II was ok. It wasn’t close to the original, but it was ok. Ghostbusters III has been a rumor for nearly two decades.
The big problem with Ghostbusters 3 is that Dan Aykroyd is the only person still pushing for it. Bill Murray has said that he’s not interested and Harold Ramis, sadly, is not with us any longer – which kills the chemistry that made the first one so good.
The other big problem with Ghostbusters is that no one knows what it’s about. According to io9 and many others, the best pitch to date was from Max Landis and has to do with a rehash of the original plot, combined with the origins of Slimer. Read the details here.
But, 30 years after the original, does anyone really want to see Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and (maybe) Harold Ramis investigate the origins of Slimer?
Here is what I would do instead, if I had the rights (this is not so much a plot as a business plan):
1) Do the movie as a reboot of the franchise and a pilot for a TV series
2) Remember what happened with Zombieland and get a cast that people will accept. Have Aykroyd reprise his original role but as a kind of head-of-the-organization / senior advisor type. Then call Neil Patrick Harris (now that How I Met Your Mother is done) and raid the casts of the recently cancelled Community and Warehouse 13. Make sure the actors who do the movie are also ready to do the series.
3) Do the series as a sort of The Office meets Ghost Hunters/Blair Witch mockumentary – with 1 hour episodes instead of the traditional sit-com format (even if that means a short 10-13 episode season).
Pretty much anything supernatural/occult is hot on TV right now, and Ghostbusters has an almost infinite number of stories to tell. With modern special effects and CGI (combined with good writing obviously) it could be bigger than ever but it needs a complete overhaul instead of an obvious grab at past glory.