-

If you’ve been eagerly anticipating Ghostbusters 3, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.

Columbia Pictures tried to oust director Ivan Reitman so they could find someone younger. But Reitman, along with fellow franchise founders Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis hold veto power for most of the creative decisions that are to be made for any upcoming project.

Everyone in the original crew would like to start on the project, but Bill Murray is still hesitant. Murray has consistently dragged his feet on the project ever since it was first announced in the planning stages.

Murray told David Letterman earlier this year that the thought of a third movie was a “nightmare,” and that he only agreed to appear in it if they promised to kill him off during the first reel, to come back as a ghost, a statement he has assured fans was just a joke.

At the Tribeca Film Festival, Murray made it clear that he believes the hype has come from the movie studio trying to milk more money out of the cash-cow franchise, and that he won’t agree to the project until a great script comes along. He doesn’t believe in just re-hashing.

So all that talk about the studio having hired writers and picking a release date of summer 2011? Just talk. Unless a quality script miraculously appears. The first script, written by The Office writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky (who wrote the not-so-good film Year One) seems to be the reason for Murray’s arguments. However, they are due to turn in a new draft in May, so maybe there is hope yet.