Kingpin- Thanks, I actually do screenwrite a bit and in high school 2 plays I came up with and co-wrote won 1st place in an annual competition we had. I've had a few ideas for GB3, but nothing to actually get past treatment form, although its a good excercise.
I also agree with you on the latest addition with Peck opening his own ‘busting business. . .just when you think the guy can’t be anymore of a weasle, he steals the idea of a business from the very people he tried to get locked up. . .how poetic, devlish, and a great build to a climax involving Peck's ultimate demise (financially I assume).
We're lucky to have such talented people on the boards sharing their ideas and having fun with it.

Great ideas venky. I too am working on a script for a third Ghostbusters movie. Its kind of hard to think of an original storyline for another movie seeing as though alot of ideas have been already used in the first two movies.

I have a few questions though.

Apart from the original Ghostbusters and Peck, who are the other main characters. Are Dana, Luis, Janine or the Mayor featured in the story?

How do the Ghostbusters overcome their rivals? Does Egon invent some radical kind of new equipment? or maybe the Ghostbusters find out that this new company is just a bunch of conmen who release ghosts in places and charge people to catch them again and then expose them to the public. Maybe Peck enters the Ghostbusters headquarters and secretly tampers with their equpment to cause an accident.

Does slimer make an appearance?
is there a new logo?
New equpment?
New vehicle?

Maybe the Ghostbusters are down to their last pennies and just about to close down and venkman buys a lottery ticket and wins the jackpot. Theres an idea. With this money they redo the whole company from top to bottom.

ProtonDefender
-While I understand this is rough and just summarizes the beginning, don't reveal ALL of the story in one scene. . .Ray and Winston don't need to spell out everything that has happened in the last few years. . . they know what has happened, and when they begin to narrate to the audience, it becomes fluffy (a la GB2 after the birthday party, Ray and Winston almost pushed it too far with the whole quick “here's what happened since GB1”). Use action; show how it changed by maybe a radio commercial with Peter for GB Int., Egon saying he's too busy at HQ because he's filling out Nobel forms and is always seen surrounded by books/forms/whatever, etc. If you tell all in the very first scene, people will lose interest in the rest of the movie.

-The boys feeling their age I assume leads into hiring younger members. However, Winston states that ‘busting has become boring and that most the calls end up being something else (such as old ladies and their cats), so I’m thinking why do they need to hire help if nothing is going on for the most part? I'd suggest having the job be even harder than we've seen before. . . perhaps there are less ghosts, but when there are, they are somehow more powerful, and therefore they truly need to hire more help. This is small, but struck me when reading.

All in all a great start and covers subplots nicely.

Thanks for the advice, but I wasn't planning to actually write this. What I was trying to highlight though was that as GB was now truly international the original four are really just directors of the company - with so many other people busting ghosts for them they just get the minor stuff. This is why Winston is bored and thinking of leaving. With so much spare time, Egon has been working on something scientific, and this has gradually taken over more and more of his time. And Peter is so busy jetting around the world, setting up new branches, teaching people to bust ghosts etc. that he's never in New York.

I have a few questions though.

Apart from the original Ghostbusters and Peck, who are the other main characters. Are Dana, Luis, Janine or the Mayor featured in the story?

How do the Ghostbusters overcome their rivals? Does Egon invent some radical kind of new equipment? or maybe the Ghostbusters find out that this new company is just a bunch of conmen who release ghosts in places and charge people to catch them again and then expose them to the public. Maybe Peck enters the Ghostbusters headquarters and secretly tampers with their equpment to cause an accident.

Does slimer make an appearance?
is there a new logo?
New equpment?
New vehicle?

to answer, i havent finished writing my story yet, on the computer or off. but im leaning toward not bringing slimer back as a friend, janine will be back. if you read, louis is already in the story. im not sure about the mayor yet either. also, your asking the questions as if i had put the entire story out on the boards, which i havent even come close to yet.
and i plan on instituting new everything else.

Maybe the Ghostbusters are down to their last pennies and just about to close down and venkman buys a lottery ticket and wins the jackpot. Theres an idea. With this money they redo the whole company from top to bottom.

to answer, i already killed venkman, if you read.

thanks to all you guys for the comments and criticism. im kinda grounded from the computer and wont be back for a while, im not even home now. im averaging a written page a night, so when i do get back, there will be a lot to put on. but keep on leaving me notes and stuff, i appreciate them all.

Although everyone's ideas are remarkably well-written, they aren't as well though-out as they should be. Think about it. If you make too many references to past GB movies, only the fans will get it. The majority of the audience will either be left puzzled or uninterested in the movie's plot. If you have Venkman creating GBI, the fans will understand it, but the audience won't. And as for the opening scenes, you can't have excessive dialogue in the scenes or the audience will zone out. Look back at GB1 and GB2: In GB1, the liberarian was only making slight moans and screams. In GB2, Dana started the movie with a carefree touch by using the casual dialogue with the landlord, and then eventually progressed into the chase after Oscar. She only made slight screams and yelled out Oscar's name. If you overstuff the movie with dialogue or information, the fans will be happy but the majority of the viewing audience will become bored or disappointed, and that means low ratings and low box office grosses. However, these stories would be great as fanfics or fanfilms to be released among the GB community. Make sure to keep up the great work, though!

That's actually a really good point about the beginning of the films. Writing an introduction to any film is difficult, because it's easy to use too much exposition. The intros to GB's I and II are a good guideline to how to do it correctly.

if you guys go back and read my first post, i pretty much recreated the beginings to those two movies with the girl in the hallway: no dialogue, explosions, scary images, bright lights, the whole shabang.
also, i apologize for the confusion that might occur from the title, it seems to be the entire story that is coming out, with the begining basically being my first post. anyway,
Next Scene:
Dana Barrett (sp?) is walking her son Oscar down the sidewalk. She is taking him to High School. As they pass the front of the school, he mumbles good-bye and hurries into school.
Dana sighs, “I’ll see you after school.” After Oscar is off-screen and Dana begins walking again, her cell phone begins ringing. She knows this ring, and her face lights up with excitement as she whips her phone out of her purse. “Hello?”
“Dana, it’s Janine.”
“Oh, hi Janine, how are you?” Dana replies, expecting someone else to be on the line.
“Something’s happened to Peter,” Dana’s face falls and her eyes widen. “You should get over here right away.”
“Sure, I’ll be right there,” Dana slowly hangs up her phone, stunned. She quickly walks to the edge of the sidewalk and begins to hail a cab.

Exterior view of a cab. Inside is Carlos Vargalos (Jon Leguizamo). He is listening to his music, driving and dancing along with it. He does not even notice Dana, who can be clearly seen through the windshield. All of a sudden, steering wheel begins to turn on its own.
“What the hell?!?” Carlos’ hands fly away from the wheel and a perplexed look crosses his face. The pedals are shown moving on their own, and Carlos seriously begins to freak out. The doors lock as he reaches to open them, and the cab screeches to a stop on the curb in front of Dana. The door flies open before Dana is even close to it.
“Some service,” Dana remarks, nodding her head.
“You can get it, Lady, but I won’t be responsible for what happens. This thing has a mind of its own,” Carlos warns her.
Dana shakes it off, “Just get me to the Ghostbusters’ headquarters as soon as possible.” She gets into the car and sits down.
“You heard the lady, now do your stuff!” Carlos orders the car. With that, the doors slam shut and the car rips out into traffic. Carlos sits, still dumbfounded by the car, but learning to cope. He isn’t touching anything, and the car continues to swerve in and out of different lanes extremely swiftly. Dana still hasn’t noticed; she is fiddling around in her bag.
Carlos turns around, one arm hangs over the back of the seat, “Hey lady, you close to the Ghostbusters?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I’m dating one of them at the mo- WATCH OUT!” Dana cuts herself off as a Mack Truck can be seen through the windshield. She realizes Carlos is not in control and gasps. Just then, the cab corrects itself, and all before Carlos turns around.
“What. What happened?” Carlos casually asks. “Anyway, you think you could get them to take a look at my cab?”
The cab pulls up to the front of the firehouse. Dana jumps out of the cab and runs into the door, closely followed by Carlos.
Inside the firehouse, Ray, Egon, Winston, and Louis are shown sitting around a table. At the center of the table is the trap, inside of which is Peter Venkmen. Each of there faces is sullen, and Louis is looking around, waiting for someone to say something.
“So what are our options?” Ray breaks the silence.
“Honestly, there is not one fathomable option,” Egon answers.
“Why can’t we just open the trap and let him out? What’s the worst that could happen?” Asks Winston. As Egon moves to answer, Winston cuts him off, “You know what, changed my mind, what’s the best that could happen?”
“Well, despite the fact that NO ONE has ever successfully attempted to release a spirit, I believe that reopening the trap could suck everything within a 100 meter radius into the trap. Or if we chose to reverse the polarity of the trap in an attempt to “push” Peter out, the energy that is contained in the trap would be released with the intensity of a nuclear bomb. This explosion would flatten all of Manhattan in nanoseconds, send radiation into 5 different states, and could inadvertently cause a Nuclear World War.” Egon finally finishes his speech.
“Then what happens?” Louis asks eagerly, as if being told a scary story.
“Then the bacteria that is left will slowly die out from the lack of good food,” Egon’s loving it.
“Okay Egon, I specifically asked you for the best that could happen,” Winston says, annoyed. Egon tilts his head forward slowly and looks over the top of his glasses. He is about to answer, but Dana walks in.

few more characters. let me know if im losing anything from the other posts, if its going downhill or something. more to come!

Wow, very good! Especially Egon's explanation of a reversal of the traps polarity. My only suggestion would be to leave out Janine's side of the conversation while she's on the phone with Dana. Unless they are absolutely nessessary, phone conversations on film are not a good idea. However, showing only Dana's side of the conversation (and her subsequent reactions) would be more interesting.

wow, ive seen so many movies, and yet never realized how right you are. one sided phone conversations do work much better on film, and in the situation presented, it will help with a little suspense as well. thanks for the comment mike.

You're welcome! I hope you keep writing it!

And you can call me Mal. Mike is my middle name.