This weekend I had the opportunity to interview director Ivan Reitman for his upcoming sports movie Draft Day. We’ll bring you the full interview when the movie opens April 11, but many of Reitman’s classic comedies are being sequelized, so as Franchise Fred I had a forum to inquire about my own take on those sequels.
With the box office disappointment of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s third comeback film (after The Last Stand and Escape Plan, not counting Expendableses), I wondered if Triplets, the sequel to Twins was still in play. Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito have spoken enthusiastically about doing it, and including Eddie Murphy as the long lost third triplet. Reitman will serve as producer and he says the studio is still contemplating making the film.
“I never wanted to direct it,” Reitman said. “I told them that right from the beginning but I thought there was a viable commercial idea in it. It sounds a little constructed and I think there was a fair amount of suspicion about it but people are also tickled by it somehow, especially if we get the appropriate third person in, like Eddie Murphy who seems to be interested. I’m not sure where the studio is. There’s a draft of the script that’s pretty good. Universal’s thinking about it.”
I asked if Universal would wait to see how Terminator: Genesis did to see if Schwarzenegger’s ‘80s franchises are still viable. Reitman felt they were unrelated. “I’m not sure one speaks to the other, so I don’t have an answer to that,” he said.
Just last week Reitman decided not to direct the long gestating Ghostbusters 3, but will remain a producer of the film. With me, he shared the possibilities for 3D and a non numerical title.
“Certainly there’s been a lot of talk about doing Ghostbusters 3 in 3D as well, and I don’t think we’ll call it Ghostbusters 3 either,” he said.
Reitman also dispelled reports that called the third Ghostbusters a reboot, clarifying how it would focus on new Ghostbusting characters. “It’s not a reboot,” he said. “It just lives in a world where the first two movies did occur and those characters were there and at least some of them will be in this film, but it’s really a different story.”
With a simple “yes,” Reitman confirmed that there would have been a cameo for the late Harold Ramis. He would not confirm rumors of female Ghostbuster characters. “I have no comment,” Reitman said.
Though Ghostbusters was a standard for old school optical visual effects in 1984, Reitman said the new world of CGI VFX is not foreign to the world of Ghostbusters. “Well, the second one actually had CGI in it,” Reitman corrected me when I suggested 3 would be the first to include CGI. “The first one didn’t, was all old school stuff. I think the opportunities are great because the world of special effects keeps evolving and greater things are possible.”
In late February, rumors of LeBron James signing on for a Space Jam 2 flourished for about 12 hours before James’ camp refuted them. Reitman was also a producer on Space Jam so I asked how close that sequel actually got.
“There was some interest I think with LeBron, but nothing much happened,” Reitman said. “I’m not involved in development. Even though I have a producer’s credit on it, I haven’t been involved in the development of that script so I don’t quite know where it is yet.”
Reitman confirmed he is still attached to a Michael Jackson biopic, but had no news other than the screenplay was being written. When it comes time for casting, Reitman admitted he was ready for anyone he chooses to be highly scrutinized. “It’s not going to be easy, I can tell you that.”
We’ll have more on Ghostbusters 3 and Triplets after we meet the keymaster.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
