GHOSTBUSTERS Not pictured: Ecto Cooler.
  • GHOSTBUSTERS Not pictured: Ecto Cooler.

You might think the death of Harold Ramis, the fact that Bill Murray doesn't want a goddamn thing to do with it, and that Ivan Reitman has decided not to direct it would maybe indicate that the long-rumored, long-delayed Ghostbusters III really, really shouldn't happen. Nope! It's an nostalgia-filled property that can therefore be exploited, which means Sony's going to exploit the hell out if it. They're also canny enough to know that without Ramis, Murray, Reitman, they'd be left with Ghostbusters III: The Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson Show, which... yeah. Nobody wants to see.

So: The new Ghostbusters is filming in 2015, and it's sounding like a reboot, whether we want it to or not. Matt Singer at The Dissolve has what's probably the best summation of all of this:

A Ghostbusters reboot is preferable to a direct Ghostbusters sequel. (Neither is preferable to both, but that’s not going to happen.) The next step will be to see whether, with Murray and Ramis definitively gone, they actually go full reboot and redo the original movie in 2014, casting young actors as Venkman and the rest of the old Ghostbusters. I have to believe, given Ghostbusters’ fans borderline-disturbing devotion to the material, that any attempt to recast the characters would not be well-received. On the other hand, that approach worked spectacularly for Star Trek, and that could be exactly the blueprint they wind up following. I ask you: Is nothing sacred? No. Other than money, the answer is no. (Via.)

There is one upside to all of this that I can see: Maybe Ecto Cooler will come back?

It is a very small upside. Let me cling to it.