Max Landis’ Ghostbusters 3 Idea? It’s Awesome!

We really are living in a new world.  The speed of social media can not only debunk a false rumor almost immediately, it can also pump enough positive communal energy into the idea to not only make what wasn’t real at breakfast into a possibility by lunch, but, if enough breaks fall the right way, you might even get a look at some finished product by dinner.

Case in point: Max Landis and his link to the long-gestating Ghostbusters 3 project.

Considering the Chronicle screenwriter’s nearly life-long connection to the GB franchise via dad John, it wasn’t a huge surprise when Hollywood journalist Nikki Finke reported Tuesday that Landis was doing a script polish on the current Ghostbusters 3 idea.

Problem is, it wasn’t true.  Landis almost immediately took to his Twitter handle to debunk the rumor.

Hey guys, it pains me to say this, but you know I pride myself on being straight up person. Zero truth to the Ghostbusters report.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

But that didn’t mean Landis didn’t have ideas on what Ghostbusters 3 should look like.  So the next day, he was so jazzed about his concept that he had to share his pre-titles sequence…on Twitter, of course.

Haha a bunch of people asking what my Ghostbusters 3 pitch would’ve been. I never had a full one, just a skeleton I’ve goofed around with.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

My Ghostbusters 3 began in the 1920s with Ivo Shandor murdering a gluttonous associate to protect his cult after he has a moral objection.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

Shandor tells the overweight man that nothing can stop the coming of Gozer; first, the gate will open in 1984, then again twenty years later

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

The fat man, who now has all the details of Shandor’s plans, threatens to go to the police, and Shandor poisons him. It’s scary, but…

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

As Shandor escapes, we see that we’re in the Sedgewick Hotel, and that the guy we just saw die… …Is Slimer. Cue theme. Show title.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

The tease got so much positive response that Landis came back a few hours later to lay out the rest of his movie.

Thanks for all the kind words on the Ghostbusters opening (and the weird amount of people who don’t understand the concept of “opening”)

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

My full movie concerns several new teams (focusing on one), grown from the Ghostbusters Franchise which is now global (and going bankrupt)

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

Ghostbusters have become a parody of themselves, there are barely twelve ghosts caught a year. People have forgotten what happened in NYC.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

Egon passed away, Venkman lives on an island, Winston retired rich. Only Ray Stantz is left in charge, and he’s a terrible business man.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

In an effort to bring back business, an obsessed team whose station has been shut down attempts to summon a minor ghost… Mistake. Gozer.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

It’s up to our hero team to stop the bad team, reunite the fractured franchises, and save our dimension from a very pissed off demigod.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

It’s all very meta (creatively bankrupt Ghostbusters, no one wants the new team, the bad team are slick Michael Bay-versions of the GBs)…

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

…But you keep the action, comedy, and emotion sincere. Witty, bluecollar guys who are the last people you’d want saving the world.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 18, 2014

And I think the teams would be by modern-comedy clique; a Parks/Rec team, a Rogen/Franco team, a Kroll/Key/Peele team…

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014

I don’t know. I’ve thought a lot about Ghostbusters 3. But I’m kind of close on the Akroyd/Ramis side of things so it always felt weird.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014

So happy to see this got some people pumped, unsurprised by the usual weird amount of hate. That’s enough from me about this, I think.

— Max Landis (@Uptomyknees) June 19, 2014

So, a respected screenwriter essentially threw his fairly cohesive film idea out into the universe…what does it all mean?  Probably not much.  As pointed out by Crave movie site /Film, the script Sony will eventually greenlight for GB3 will probably be some Frankenstein version of takes already written by screenwriters Etan Cohen, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.

But there’s something to be said for just having some good ideas.  And with Ghostbusters fans already geeking out on concepts like a Slimer origin, the return of Gozer and bloated Bay-ified international Ghostbuster squads bursting with meta-possibilities, just having those ideas out in the ether could help them find their way into the script that eventually gets filmed.

Either way, nice work, Max…

This Week in Film News – Week Ending 06/20/14