Ghostbusters 3 To Begin Production: With Or Without Bill Murray

Ghostbusters 3 is likely to begin production later this year, but star and co-producer DAN AKYROYD has hinted Bill Murray may not be involved. During an interview with Empire Magazine, Akyroyd suggested he could re-cast Murray's character Dr Peter Venkman.

The actor told Empire there was absolutely no truth in rumors that Murray had hated the idea of a third movie so much that he had sent back a shredded script. Akroyd said, "Bill Murray is not capable of such behaviour. This is simply something that would not be in his nature. We have a deep, private personal relationship that transcends business". On whether Murray would be reprising his role as Venkman, Akyroyd all-but confirmed the movie would go ahead without him, saying, "We communicate frequently and his position on the involvement in Ghostbusters 3 has been made clear and I respect that. But Bill has too much positive estimation of my writing skills to shred the work". In their piece accompanying the interview, Empire added, "Even more intriguingly, Aykroyd hinted that Bill Murray may not return as Peter Venkman, and that the character could be played by a different actor, a la Jack Ryan".

Murray - one of Hollywood's most popular actors - has previously distanced himself from the project, though speaking to Absolute Radio at the Fantastic Mr Fox premiere in 2009, he said "I'll believe it when I see it. I saw a guy talking about the end of the world a couple of years ago, I didn't see that either.I don't wanna do it yet, there's no script, it's just a wish-list for someone, and until there's a really good script I'll stay home and play snooker".