Dan Aykroyd has written a 'Ghostbusters' prequel set in high school
Jason Reitman might be heading up a new Ghostbusters sequel but original star Dan Aykroyd has penned a prequel.
The actor, who played Raymond Stantz in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, has revealed that he has written a script for a movie or TV show focused on Ray, Peter Venkman,and Egon Spengler when they were in high school.
“I’ve written Ghostbusters High where they meet in New Jersey in 1969 and we’re looking to do that as probably a glorified feature or pilot within the next maybe five years,” Aykroyd told 660 City News.
“And it would lead to a television project and I thought of [Jason Reitman] immediately for that. It’s on his desk but that’s years away from the current project.
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“But it’s a neat idea for a prequel,” he continued. “Imagine casting the three characters as teenagers.
“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.”
This would mean that one Ghostbuster would not appear in the prequel - Winston Zeddemore, who was played by Ernie Hudson in both films.
According to Hudson, he agreed to appear in the 1984 film for half his normal salary because the script he saw had his character in a larger role as an Air Force demolitions expert.
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However, the night before shooting, the new script featured a vastly reduced role for Winston because apparently the studio wanted more screen-time for Bill Murray’s Peter.
“Instead of coming in at the very beginning of the movie, like page 8, the character came in on page 68 after the Ghostbusters were established,” Hudson wrote in 2014.
“His elaborate background was all gone, replaced by me walking in and saying, ‘If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.’ So that was pretty devastating.”
The upcoming Ghostbusters sequel from Reitman, son of the 1984 film’s director Ivan Reitman, will centre on a single mother and her two children, to be played by Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace.
Reitman has co-written the screenplay with Gil Kenan and the shoot will begin this summer ahead of a July 2020 release date.
