It’s no secret that this upcoming “Ghostbusters” film was a long time in the making. While actor/writer Dan Aykroyd has spent decades hard at work with some sort of successor to the successful franchise, Bill Murray has made it perfectly clear that he wasn’t interested in another follow-up. Sure, the rumors of him writing a note to Aykroyd saying, “no one wants to see a bunch of old, fat guys chasing ghosts” turned out be false, but when the time came to okay a sequel, Murray wasn’t having it.
He gave a pretty good reason why in his interview with Variety last year.
“Those guys, Danny and Harold [Ramis], were at the top of their game [for the first ‘Ghosbusters’]. They were burning nitro at that moment. Unless you have a really clear vision, you’re always trying to recreate that.”
While everyone else wanted to catch lightning in a bottle again, Murray seemed more content to move on to different things. An admirable goal, but obviously one that held up progress on the film for quite some time.
But why now, after all that, has Murray agreed to doing a cameo in the new reboot film? What was it that changed the respected actor’s mind? Well, the decision wasn’t an easy one.
“I thought about it for a very long time. Like, many, many months. No, that’s not right. I was seriously thinking about this for years, really … It kept eating at me, and I really respect those girls. And then I started to feel like if I didn’t do this movie, maybe somebody would write a bad review or something, thinking there was some sort of disapproval [on my part].â€
That definitely seems like a classy movie on Murray’s part. He was able to think beyond his own thoughts on the reboot, and see how his non-involvement could negatively affect the perception of the flick. Though, don’t think that his mind change came strictly out of pity. He also has great respect for actresses Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.
“I like those girls a lot. I mean, I really do. They are tough to say no to. And Paul [Feig] is a real nice fellow.â€
Not too bad for a guy who, for the past twenty-five years, has expressed little to no interest in revisiting the landmark franchise–though we can’t help but wonder what Dan Aykroyd thinks of all this.