Ghostbusters star Dan Aykroyd confirms role in 2020 film
Director Jason Reitman is getting the team back together for his upcoming Ghostbusters sequel, set for release in 2020.
Sigourney Weaver said during an interview earlier this year that the original cast would be reuniting for this new movie, but Sony Pictures, the studio releasing the film, wouldn’t comment at the time. Dan Aykroyd, who played Ray Stantz and co-wrote the screenplay for the original film, has since confirmed he, at least, is returning.
“I’m not in the pictures so much anymore. We’ve got the Ghostbusters movie that we’re working on now and I will have to be performing in that,” Aykroyd said during a lengthy interview on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
“Ivan Reitman’s son Jason has written a new movie called, well, it’s gonna be Ghostbusters, the third movie. It will be all, most of the original people and then young stars,” he added.
Ivan Reitman directed both Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. His son has developed the new story for the next film, which continues the story of those two films and not the 2016 entry.
Weaver, whose Dana Barrett got hitched to Bill Murray‘s Peter Venkman by the events of Ghostbusters II, told Parade for an article published in June that she would come back for the new movie with “the guys again.” Aykroyd confirmed, however, that they’re currently “hoping” Murray will return.
The 2020 film features The Leftovers star Carrie Coon as a single mother and Captain Marvel‘s Mckenna Grace and Stranger Things‘ Finn Wolfhard as her two children. Ant-Man‘s Paul Rudd will play a teacher living in a small town, while additional characters will be portrayed by Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim.
“I’ve always thought of myself as the first Ghostbusters fan, when I was a 6-year-old visiting the set. I wanted to make a movie for all the other fans,” Reitman previously told EW. “This is the next chapter in the original franchise. It is not a reboot. What happened in the ‘80s happened in the ‘80s, and this is set in the present day.”
Weaver, Murray, Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson all appeared in 2016’s Ghostbusters, which starred Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. The film also featured a tribute to the late Harold Ramis, who also starred in and developed the original movies.
“Those girls were superb,” Aykroyd said on the podcast. “But, I should’ve been sitting there as a producer watching costs a little bit more. [Director] Paul Feig and I and Ivan had our little conflicts and things that we didn’t think would work. Why shoot it? Why spend the money? But, you know, he’s a director. We have to have faith. So, there was a little conflict there, I’ve spoken about it before, but all that’s in the past. I think he made a great picture with the girls.”
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