Yesterday, "Ghostbusters" fans seemingly got the news they've been waiting to hear for years, as, according to several outlets, Bill Murray finally signed on for "Ghostbusters 3." However, these outlets were all citing Super Official News, a parody site that managed to dupe them into spreading this false news like wildfire across the internet.
As the title might suggest, Super Official News is a site that deals in joke stories, sort of like The Onion. Unlike stories found on The Onion, however, this doesn't play as satire as much as a badly timed April Fools joke dropped into December.
The report features a fake quote from Harold Ramis, who claims to have received a phone call in the middle of the night from Murray indicating the latter's willingness to sign on. Given Murray's oddball behavior in the past, this might be a little easy to swallow (ignoring the obvious joke of a source, anyway).
However, things get downright silly later in the article when it quotes a "fan" named Kaiser Solzie (an obvious play on Keyser Soze, the trickster played by Kevin Spacey in "The Usual Suspects"). This fan says he recently spoke to Murray, and the actor jokingly agreed to give Solzie a part in the film if it were ever made.
While this isn't a particularly funny joke, it is an obvious one, and it speaks to the ridiculous nature of this particular project. At this point, one would assume that any outlets would be beyond hesitant to post any news about Murray's involvement without some sort of official confirmation; instead, this episode has simply served as another tease for a movie that isn't likely to happen.
The only facts are these: Sony has attached Etan Cohen to write a new script, and Murray indicated as recently as October that he would leave the door open if that script is up to his standards.
In other words, "Ghostbusters 3" is stuck in the same place it's been for over a decade: in a containment unit somewhere in development hell.
