Max Landis’ Hypothetical ‘Ghostbusters 3’ Story Goes Global
Posted on Wednesday, June 18th, 2014 by Germain Lussier
Tuesday night’s story about Max Landis potentially doing a polish on Ghostbusters 3 was debunked pretty fast by the screenwriter, but it also lit a fire under his ass. In the hours since since the story broke, was debunked and then deleted, Landis revealed he obviously had been thinking about Ghostbusters 3 a lot. And since he’s not going to actually be writing the screenplay, he decided to lay his ideas out on Twitter.
Landis’ Ghostbusters 3 story isn’t a simple passing of the torch we’d been hearing about for nearly a decade. Instead, it’s a global Ghostbusting affair with franchised teams from all over the globe, one of which goes bad. It’s then up to the main heroes to save the world. It would also explain who Slimer is, work in the mythology and villains of the first film, and more. In short – it sounds really awesome.
Read Max Landis’ Ghostbusters 3 story below.
First up, Landis tweeted about his pre-credits opening to the film earlier Wednesday morning. Some of you might have read this:
Haha a bunch of people asking what my Ghostbusters 3 pitch would've been. I never had a full one, just a skeleton I've goofed around with.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
My Ghostbusters 3 began in the 1920s with Ivo Shandor murdering a gluttonous associate to protect his cult after he has a moral objection.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
Shandor tells the overweight man that nothing can stop the coming of Gozer; first, the gate will open in 1984, then again twenty years later
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
The fat man, who now has all the details of Shandor's plans, threatens to go to the police, and Shandor poisons him. It's scary, but…
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
As Shandor escapes, we see that we're in the Sedgewick Hotel, and that the guy we just saw die… …Is Slimer. Cue theme. Show title.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
And then, later in the afternoon, he laid out the rest of the story:
Thanks for all the kind words on the Ghostbusters opening (and the weird amount of people who don't understand the concept of "opening")
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
My full movie concerns several new teams (focusing on one), grown from the Ghostbusters Franchise which is now global (and going bankrupt)
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
Ghostbusters have become a parody of themselves, there are barely twelve ghosts caught a year. People have forgotten what happened in NYC.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
Egon passed away, Venkman lives on an island, Winston retired rich. Only Ray Stantz is left in charge, and he's a terrible business man.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
In an effort to bring back business, an obsessed team whose station has been shut down attempts to summon a minor ghost… Mistake. Gozer.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
It's up to our hero team to stop the bad team, reunite the fractured franchises, and save our dimension from a very pissed off demigod.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
It's all very meta (creatively bankrupt Ghostbusters, no one wants the new team, the bad team are slick Michael Bay-versions of the GBs)…
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
…But you keep the action, comedy, and emotion sincere. Witty, bluecollar guys who are the last people you'd want saving the world.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014
And I think the teams would be by modern-comedy clique; a Parks/Rec team, a Rogen/Franco team, a Kroll/Key/Peele team…
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014
I don't know. I've thought a lot about Ghostbusters 3. But I'm kind of close on the Akroyd/Ramis side of things so it always felt weird.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014
So happy to see this got some people pumped, unsurprised by the usual weird amount of hate. That's enough from me about this, I think.
— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014
Now, some of you are probably thinking, “Why the hell are you posting this?” Well, it’s not every day an actual Hollywood screenwriter lays out such a well-thought out idea for a film in a public forum. If they do, it’s not for a film that’s so widely discussed, and it’s not an idea that both builds on and expands the franchise in a way that’s essential to making Ghostbusters 3 work after 30-plus years. This sounds like a Ghostbusters 3 I genuinely want to see, and that’s saying a lot.
As for the actual film, if we do ever get to see it, it’ll most likely be the script written by some combination of Etan Cohen, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, possibly with a few other cooks in the kitchen, and may well have some of the elements Landis discussed above. We won’t know until Sony finally greenlights the film, which could be tomorrow or in 10 years.
What do you think about Max Landis’ Ghostbusters 3 story?
