This film did give a feeling that there had to have been more than two films with the original cast in the first place for one to create a sufficiently large franchise.
shareThe original plan for Ghostbusters 3 was to have the original gang to visit an alternate dimension and meet their evil doppelgangers, along with the Devil himself, apparently. That idea sounds like a lot of fun. I wish it could've happened, but I think Murray was against it.
shareMurray didn't like any of the scripts for the third and even shredded one of them, he and Harold Ramis fell out during Groundhog Day and didn't speck again until Ramis fell ill ad later died.
Even though Afterlife made it's money back here's a reason it's just slightly below 200 million worldwide aside from the pandemic, if it came out just before the pandemic or ten years ago or the 2000's maybe, Spiderman No Way Home is making shit loads of money for one because Spiderman is a more established franchise in worldwide terms where not many territories know what Ghostbusters is.
I'm starting to think that had Murray not been such a curmudgeon, we could have had some pretty cool Ghostbusters films.
The video game, written by Ramis and Aykroyd, kind of gives you an idea of what the alternate dimension + devil fight would have been like. It's weird that Murray signed on for the game, which basically had the same story as what motorcycledriveb mentioned (minus the evil doppelgangers) but refused to do the movie. Maybe by that point it was already too late and there just wasn't enough interest, plus the cast was already too old?
It's a real shame because even though I hated the last half of the game for being tedious, it was obvious all the alternate-dimension stuff was originally written for a new movie.
If Ghostbusters 2 is any indication, it's probably best they didn't make anymore. The original is a brilliant film, and a classic in the comedy genre. The sequel was a trash money grab.
shareI actually rather enjoyed the second one, and while it had some annoying parts, it also had some pretty funny and awesome parts as well. The Statue of Liberty segment is still one of the best ever put to screen and quite original compared to any other film out there.
shareIf this was an alternate history right now people would be OK with a Ghostbusters 3 back in the 90's, perhaps address issues some people had with the second, but we'll never known that.
share"I'm starting to think that had Murray not been such a curmudgeon"
That's not what happened. Murray had no qualms about doing a third GB film, but he did have a stipulation--it HAD to be as good or better than the first movie. And the scripts they were giving him (and despite the cavalier way he acted about the topic in public, he read every one of them) were just not up to par.
Obviously, Murray thought this one was special enough to sign on to.
(and if you're wonder what the hell he was doing in the remake, it's because Amy Pascal was threatening to sue him if he didn't appear in it, so instead of deal with a lawsuit, he just did it)
He's the face of the franchise, we can't change who it is.
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