Shortly after Ramis' death, Sony acknowledged that there had to be rewrites to respectfully acknowledge Egon's absence, but that the film would move forward. But Reitman tells Deadline that, following Ramis' funeral, he'd decided to step down from directing duties and help Sony head Amy Pascal find a suitable replacement, while remaining on board as a producer.
In Reitman's words:
"There has been all kinds of stuff, unofficially written about 'Ghostbusters' ... I’ve been reading things online for about four years, speculation on who’s writing, what they’re writing, who’s in it, who we will use, and who’s directing. We’d decided not to comment up till now, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, and it was never clear what Bill was going to do. A lot of things happened in the last few months, the most significant of which was the passing of Harold, who was a very good friend who was extraordinarily influential in my career. We did five movies together including both 'Ghostbusters'."Reitman, as well as Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, has been a pretty sure bet as a returning director during the "GB3" saga -- which he confirms -- that's involved a couple scripts, and Bill Murray being in, then out, then ... who is keeping count? The director also confirms the script was to involve the original gang in a "very minor role" as they pass the torch to a new team.
As for when we might see the "Ghostbusters" reboot, set again in New York, Reitman says he and Sony already are working from a short list of directors and points to "the beginning of 2015" as the start of production.
-Aaron Sagers