“Ghostbusters 3” has been in talks for a while now, and fans have been both anticipating and dreading the new installment for years. With the tragic loss of Harold Ramis earlier this year came the news that the film would probably never see the light of day, but Ivan Reitman–who directed the first two films–says it’s still on. It just won’t be helmed by him.

“The first [script] was done by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, and me, Harold and Dan [Aykroyd] helped them on it,” he said. “It was a really good script, but then it became clear that Bill really didn’t want to do another Ghostbusters and that it was literally impossible to find him to speak to for the year or two we tried to get it going. When Bill finally…well, he never actually said no, but he never said yes, so there was no way to make that film.”

But the film holds a special significance for Reitman–not to mention memories–and so he will reportedly stay on as a producer.

“It’s a version of Ghostbusters that has the originals in a very minor role,” he said. “When I came back from Harold’s funeral, it was really moving and it made me think about a lot of things. I’d just finished directing Draft Day, which I’m really happy with and proud of. Working on a film that is smaller and more dramatic was so much fun and satisfying. I just finally met with Amy and Doug Belgrad when I got back. I said I’d been thinking about it for weeks, that I’d rather just produce this Ghostbusters. I told them I thought I could help but let’s find a really good director and make it with him. So that’s what we’ve agreed will happen. I didn’t want all kinds of speculation about what happened with me, that is the real story.”

The premise of the film is rumored to be centered on the Ghostbusters handing over their business to a younger generation, but now only Dan Akroyd is involved out of the original members (although Rick Moranis may make a cameo appearance). Now that Reitman has dropped out as director, however, and with the death of key member Ramis, the film has been delayed with no release date in sight.

Image via Wikimedia Commons