For a moment, allow your mind to drift back to 1984. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis, the three actors who played the iconic Ghostbusters, defended the city against grotesque creatures.
Unbelievably, the legendary film, which turns 40 this year, has spawned innumerable reboots and sequels, including the recently released Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. If you share our nostalgia for the original Ghostbusters flick, let us take a trip down memory lane and learn some fascinating facts about Ivan Reitman’s 1984 movie.
Even now, audiences are intrigued by this timeless masterpiece, distributed by Columbia Pictures. What many fans might not know, though, is that Ghostbusters’ original title and abandoned futuristic plot could have severely damaged this beloved classic.
Before being released in theaters, the movie underwent a major makeover from its initial concept. And this started with the title. The original title of Ghostbusters may be catchy, but it lacked the charm and mystery that the film ultimately offered.
The Untold Story of Ghostbusters: What Could Have Been?
Originally, Dan Aykroyd, the screenwriter behind the first movie Ghostbusters, planned for the acclaimed film to be a futuristic epic featuring teams of Ghostbusters battling dozens of massive monsters. The original plan was estimated to have cost about $300 million at the time (per Telegraph).
Aykroyd’s original draft was so long that director Ivan Reitman dubbed it ‘the phone book’. To bring the story back to the present day, Harold Ramis was brought in to complete a shorter, less expensive draft. Because there was already a running, unrelated Filmation TV series named Ghostbusters, the filmmakers were hesitant to commit to Ghostbusters as a title and considered ‘Ghoststoppers’ as an alternative. The copyright problems were, fortunately, fixed.
As mentioned above, the original story also takes place in a futuristic New York City where teams of famous Ghostbusters could be found all over the world in addition to multiple enormous supernatural entities, as Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis reveal in the DVD commentary (per Inside the Magic).
The studio would have lost about $300 million at the time, which is why Ramis was hired to rewrite a few crucial scenes. We can only hope that the original script for Ghostbusters will not be referenced in any upcoming Ghostbusters films!
The Future of Ghostbusters: Is a New Film on the Horizon?
Following the success of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), the popular 1980s franchise returned with a bang. It is the fifth film in the Ghostbusters film series and the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021).
There has been no word on a potential Ghostbusters 6 release. Also, note that the fifth film received mixed reviews. Still, while critical acclaim is always welcome, box office receipts are the lifeblood of Hollywood films, and the Ghostbusters franchise has proven to be a reliable source of revenue when handled correctly.
Although Dan Aykroyd had previously stated that he would like to work on Ghostbusters sequels with the original cast, Afterlife sequels seemed more likely. In an interview with USA Today, the actor implied that the original cast may appear in Ghostbusters 4, 5, and 6 until their actual deaths:
“I’d like to die. I think Bill and I should be killed in the next one. Or, maybe we wait. Why not use the living Ghostbusters – Ernie, Billy and myself – for four, five, and six? Go until we’re gone. Then there will be time for the tributes. Death is going to take us soon enough.”
Will the supernatural comedy action return triumphantly in Ghostbusters 6? Possibly one of the most beloved movies of the 1980s, Ghostbusters follows a group of depressed paranormal scientists who come up with a way to trap ghosts and go out to serve New York City as supernatural exterminators.
A multimedia empire spanning video games, toys, TV series, and sequels was born out of the critically and commercially successful film. The sixth potential film may mark a hard or soft reboot of the venerable franchise, but given the unsolved issues in the Ghostbusters universe, it is not out of the question that a new group will emerge.
Ghostbusters is streaming on Hulu, while Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is available in theaters.
