Dan Aykroyd says he has a 'Ghostbusters High' teen prequel script
May 20, 2019, 6:58 PM ET
Credit: Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
It looks like Bill Murray's not the only original Ghostbuster who ain't afraid of paying more visits to his old, comically spectral stomping grounds. Dan Aykroyd apparently has worked up a script for a new Ghostbusters idea of his own — and it could warp the gang all the way back to their far-out 1960s teen years.
Aykroyd, who first played Dr. Ray Stantz in the 1984 classic and has helped back this century's new crop of Ghostbusters movies, recently told The Canadian Press that he's already got a story on paper for a project called Ghostbusters High — a prequel that, as its name suggests, explores how the gang first met, way back when they were just brainy and goofy New Jersey teens.
The idea for Ghostbusters High, Aykroyd said, is to go back in time to "where they meet in New Jersey in 1969," and he hopes the timing would be right to involve director Jason Reitman, who's currently working on the next Ghostbusters movie. Interestingly, Aykroyd said he envisions giving the idea the feature treatment for its debut — but he hopes to spin that into an ongoing TV series.
"[W]e're looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years," he explained, adding that "it would lead to a television project" that he's hoping Reitman can take charge of. "It's on his [Reitman's] desk, but that's years away from the current project," he cautioned. "But it's a neat idea for a prequel. Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers!"
Imagine indeed. Already cast for next year's revival are series newcomers Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, IT) and Mckenna Grace (Captain Marvel, The Haunting of Hill House) as a young brother-sister duo, with Carrie Coon (The Leftovers) in the role of their single mom.
With the new Ghostbusters movie slotted to haunt theaters next summer, Ghostbusters High would likely have to wait its turn in line behind other projects that Aykroyd hinted are already further along — though we haven't heard any details on what those might be. The priority for Ghostbusters High is "way, way down" the list, he explained, because "we have other stuff after the Jason Reitman-helmed movie. We have at least one or two other concepts for the Ghostbusters, and then we'll look at doing the prequel, which will be a perfect button on all we've done up to that point."
Hey, it took close to three decades for Ghostbusters to materialize from the phantom shadows with 2016's eponymous reboot, so we can wait a while longer to see the direction that next year's movie points the resurgent franchise. All we ask is that nobody mess with Ray Parker Jr.'s sweet 1980s theme.
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