It would just take so much time…

I don't know, though. If there was enough interest from folks, then maybe.

Earlyman75: Just wanna say great stuff, i enjoyed reading your concept.
There are links between your ideas and the thoughts of the ghostbusters themselves ( The characters anyway) . but there are a few things that probably wouldn't fly. (ie. An Army of international ghostbusters)

Matthew wrote
I personally have always thought that the Ghostbusters buisiness should stay small and concentrate on just a few characters. I don't know, there's just something special about that.

Man i couldn't agree more

lets consider the characters thoughts

The idea of going into the ghostbusting business came from Dr. Venkman. (*peter) “The franchise rights alone, will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams”. So we know what he was thinking. But Venkman had no idea what brainstorming Spengler and Stanz were thinking. They were thinking, (*egon) scientifically proving the occurances of spirts both human and non, and other supernatural phenomena. (*ray) Ray considers this could be the chance to Change history and win the noble piece prize. Egons just facinated by the possibilities. but i cant see him speaking his mind on his true feelings.

Basically people what im saying here is. One of the key ingredients to
GB3 is The Characters. Who they were, what they were about. and what they really wanted to do. where they had been and the lessons they learned, after all they were No Professionals. If anything I think what made the “story so far” as good as it was, is the simple fact that the Ghostbusters were not really hero's (in the traditional sense) they were just a bunch of paranormal superfreaks with PHD's (except Zeddemore, (*winston) who was just a simple applicant for the Job). Think about it, how many times did they just wing their way through the job at hand. with no practical knowledge of what really to do for those big cases. Lets not forget they WOULD get afraid sometimes. Between the first movie and the Cartoon series, they frequenly Ran away in terror from their opponents. not saying they weren't brave, they were, and this foolish yet confident courage is what makes them funny.
(*rant) (*rant)

As far a a Prequel goes I think the Comic by the 88mph staff pretty much covered that. (if you haven't read them, do it now) Anything else prequel-wise in my opinion would just be dumb.

I would love to see Dr Spengler become a university professor, teaching young adults about the things he learned and discovered while studing as a ghostbuster. I can see one student, A Girl, who is haunted by the memory of something that happened to a close friend years ago. missing, never seen again, possibly a snatching by what she remembers as something not of this world ( insert scarey supernatural being here). Consider this girl an outcast from others. But through chance circumstances she finds others who are haunted by memories from childhood in professor Splenger's class. These are the would be ghostbusters. (Not Professional, Hardened Ghost busting fiends, but amateurs.) (no big, established actors Please)
Things start happening, strange things, signs of supernatural keep appearing all over New York. The Ghostbusters being “has been” celebrities of new york at this point are no longer in business. Each have gone on to pursue their own interests due to a lack of supernatural activity in the past decade.
(After all how hard would it be to convince an audience that Ghosts are STILL running rampant in New York.)

Like where this is going let me know, These are just thoughts ive been playing with for a while now.

Just remember. all the key essentials of the ghostbusters when thinking of a third movie

And Yes Earlyman we would be interested in seeing your story in its entirety.

Damn there is soo much this post is missing , i apologize , but im getting hungry.

Wow, what an entrace to the board!
earlyman, I too love your idea. It smacks of originality and also modern-ness with what Kingpin said about today's heightened distrust in the government. If you ever get a chance to write the full story we'd all love to read it.

When talking about the ‘ghost army’ I couldn't help but picture the army of ghost pirates walking underwater from The Pirates of the Carribean.

Thanks to you there is more proof that a GB3 CAN work, with the right story, elements and the original characters a must.

fusi0n
with the right story, elements and the original characters a must.

As much as everyone would love to see the origional actors play in a 3rd movie (I know i would). Does it really seem a must?

look at “Ghostbusters Extreme” . Its not even as though the guys could age in a cartoon. Why did the remake of the Ghostbuster cartoon not involve 3 of the origional characters?
Why not new Ghostbusters and just cameo appearances by the origionals somewhere in it?

What does everyone think?

When I was younger, I always thought that Ghostbusters 3 would probably center around Oscar. So here's my idea:

Oscar is now a young adult who is into science like his step father, Peter. He and his friends become interested in the same kind of paranormal stuff that the original Ghostbusters were into when they were in University. Paranormal occurrences begin to build up, like in the first film, and Oscar decides that he wants to resurrect the Ghostbusters. He asks Peter to help him, but Peter is against this…Dana could be against it too, because of their entire past ghost related experiences. Eventually Oscar and his friends become Ghostbusters there own way. Maybe Egon & Ray aren’t against Oscar, and help him out. Ultimately, Peter could come out of retirement, in order to help his stepson. The story could go anywhere from this.

Here’s an idea that could go along with the above, for the paranormal aspect:

Maybe there were more Gozer temples built around the world. Similar keymaster/gate keeper/terror dog events could be taking place around a temple at a new location. I assume Gozer wasn’t destroyed, so maybe there’s the possibility of his/her return. I think the keymaster speaks of past attempts of Gozer in the first film, so I think he’d try to come back again, as he always did.

I think the above would all work because people love seeing cherished characters & ideas return in sequels. Especially if the connections make sense. I think the Oscar thing makes sense as a logical direction. I think the Gozer idea would wrap it up as a trilogy by going back to the first film. All of the cast from the first two films wouldn’t necessarily have to have major parts. This would probably solve the issue of paying them all too much. Peter would remain a very important character as the Father & Mentor of Oscar, which might just change Bill Murray’s mind about being involved. As well, I don’t think it matters that it’s been about 17 years since the last film. It would make sense for it to be, with the Oscar idea. Therefore the cast wouldn’t be too old now. They would be the perfect age. Another very important thing is that this is a comedy. The first two films were comedies, so this one should be just the same. If anyone feared that these ideas would make the film too similar to the first film, there is something to think about: People want a sequel to the ideas from the first film. It wouldn’t be like making the same film again, it would just be truly a sequel.
One more thing: If Gozer was in it, they should re-record certain parts of the score that went along with all of the paranormal scenes from the first film. People love musical references.

I hope that the people who own the rights to Ghostbusters watch these message boards. Maybe the ideas I’ve mentioned can make a lot of people very happy. Maybe these ideas can be the right stuff to make a blockbuster once more.

I had Oscar in my GB3 idea too! He was part of the new team of Ghostbusters, and had some aspects from the original Ghostbusters. Such as Ray's passion, his step-dad Peter's sarcasm etc. He had a natural knack for ghostbusting, not like his other counter-parts on his team.
But since his semi-possession by Vigo, it actually made him vulnerable to any ghost possessions, making him prone to any ghost taking over his body. This eventually created a ghost-phobia for him, one that he had to overcome at the end of the movie.

I would love to see Gozer return, it could be a nice way to tie in the 3 movies, while transversing back to the original story to tie it all up as trilogies seem to do these days.

I'd much rather see an original story. A film that doesn't copy the original almost scene for scene as Ghostbusters II did. I certainly wouldn't want Gozer returning for the third. Why? When we can have something new which we havn't seen before. “The possibities are unlimitless” as Ray said.

I'd like an interesting and original story with a few new characters thrown in (not necessarily Ghostbusters characters). I'd also like it to try and be be both funnier and scarier than it's predecessors. Interesting and memerable enemies are also a must.

Id also like to see it become a Scarey comedy. Although the first movie gave me nightmares when i was 4. Im 22 and not as easily scared. Itd be cool if a third movie could give me nightmares. :-)

Keele I
As much as everyone would love to see the origional actors play in a 3rd movie (I know i would). Does it really seem a must?

I never said they are the main characters, but they should play a minor part in the movie. I would prefer more than just cameos, I want a proper setup for the new characters, not just have them appear straight off the bat.

fusi0n
This eventually created a ghost-phobia for him, one that he had to overcome at the end of the movie.

Ectophobia?