Jason Reitman is crossing the streams. The son of original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman will direct a sequel that he has been keeping secret from everyone but his dad, according to Entertainemt Weekly. The Ghostbusters sequel will be a continuation of the original 1984 film, which starred Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, the late Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver, and Ernie Hudson. There is no word yet on whether anyone from the original movie will put in appearances.
Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno, Up In The Air, Young Adult, The Front Runner), who appeared in the original film as a child actor, co-wrote the screenplay with Gil Kenan (Monster House).
“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 told Entertainemt Weekly. “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.”
No plot details have been have been revealed yet. “This is very early, and I want the film to unwrap like a present. We have a lot of wonderful surprises and new characters for the audience to meet,” Reitman told EW.
Dan Ackroyd said he was holding out hope for a Ghostbusters sequel in November 2018, but while Ivan Reitman said in June 2017 that he’d like to see a Ghostbusters crossover movie, the Ghostbusters sequel is not attached to Paul Feig’s 2016 reboot, Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, which starred Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon.
Production on the film begins this summer. It’s being produced by Sony Pictures and Ivan Reitman’s production company, Montecito Pictures.
“It will be a passing of the torch both inside and out,” Ivan told EW. “It was a decision he had to come to himself. He worked really hard to be independent and developed a wonderful career on his own. So I was quite surprised when he came to me with Gil and said, ‘I know I’ve been saying for 10 years I’m the last person who should make a Ghostbusters movie, but…I have this idea.’ Literally, I was crying by the end of it, it was so emotional and funny.”
The original film spawned the animated series The Real Ghostbusters, and a sequel, Ghostbusters II, which Columbia Pictures released in 1989.
Ghostbusters III is due out summer 2020.