Dan Aykroyd originally wrote the script with John Belushi in mind to play the role of Venkman but Belushi died of a drug overdose on March 5 1982, leading Murray to get the role.
What role was John Belushi supposed to play in Ghostbusters?
Shortly before his death from a drug overdose in 1982, the actor had been cast as Dr Venkman in an upcoming supernatural comedy called Ghostbusters. Sadly, he never got to take on the role, and it went to the brilliant Bill Murray instead.
Aykroyd wrote the script, intending to star alongside Eddie Murphy and his close friend and fellow Saturday Night Live (SNL) alumnus John Belushi, before Belushi's accidental death in March 1982.
In 1997, Moranis took a hiatus from working in the film industry. He later explained, "I'm a single parent and I just found that it was too difficult to manage to raise my kids and to do the traveling involved in making movies. So I took a little bit of a break.
There were reports that it got so bad during filming that Ramis slammed Murray up against a wall at one point. “They were like two brothers who weren't getting along,” Rubin told The New Yorker.
“The studio wasn't [inclusive], and the studio continued not to be,” said Hudson. “So it made it very, very difficult because I was a part of it, but then I very selectively was pushed aside.” “When the posters came out, I'm not on the poster,” recalled Hudson. “It took a long time.
Tom Hanks and Robin Williams were considered for the role of Dr. Peter Venkman. Almost none of the scenes were filmed as scripted, most had at least one ad-lib.
In 1984's Ghostbusters, Rick Moranis played a nerdy accountant who is possessed by a Terror Dog, becoming the "Keymaster." Together with Sigourney Weaver's Dana Barrett (also possessed), they seek to bring forth Gozer the Destroyer.
Moranis turned down a cameo appearance in Paul Feig's Ghostbusters, sharing that it didn't make sense to him to “do just one day of shooting” on something he did 30 years ago.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, the eldest daughter of the late Harold Ramis — Violet Ramis Stiel — talked about how Reitman brought Egon Spengler back for one last Ghostbusters adventure. Depicted as an eccentric recluse, Spengler is killed off by Gozer at the beginning of the story.
Why did Bill Murray not want to do Ghostbusters 3?
While Murray didn't go into much detail about what had changed since the initial pitch session, he did describe the end product as "a whole different movie" with only "a few great scenes in it." A third entry centered around the OG team of professional spirit exterminators never materialized, "because the second one ...
In Ghostbusters (1984), it was Billy Murray's idea that Venkman be covered in much less marshmallow than the other characters. In contrast, Dan Aykroyd loved the shaving cream and kept asking for more to be applied to him.
With a star-studded cast featuring John Belushi (Peter Venkman), Dan Aykroyd (Ray Stantz), Jeff Goldblum (Egon Spengler), Eddie Murphy (Winston Zeddemore), John Candy (Louis), Sandra Bernhard (Janine) and Paul Reubens (Ivo Shandar/Gozer), the future-set supernatural comedy in which roving teams of ghost catchers ...
Ghostbusters has been such a huge part of our popular-culture for the last 30 years that it's easy to overlook what it represented at the time. In June 1984, when the film opened in theaters, Bill Murray was only 33 years old. Dan Aykroyd was just 31 and director Ivan Reitman was 37.
In 1989, Trump appeared in the music video for Bobby Brown's single "On Our Own", which was featured in the movie Ghostbusters II. In 1991, Trump originally made an appearance in the music video for Precious Metal's cover of Janet Robin's song, "Mr. Big Stuff".
The role was offered to Michael Keaton, Chevy Chase, and Steve Guttenberg but they all turned it down, with Chase later sharing that the script he read wasn't the one used in the film, and was dark and scary.
On September 15, 1996, Aykroyd stated he was working on the second draft, Ramis was in negotiations to reprise Egon, Murray and Weaver passed, and a role was being written for Chris Farley. On November 2, 1996, it was rumored Oscar, now an adult, would have a large role.
Hudson starred in the film opposite Bill Murray, Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd as fellow ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore, but he was not featured on the film's theatrical poster. “The studio wasn't [inclusive], and the studio continued not to be,” Hudson said.
"They had a few arguments on set, including one in which my dad uncharacteristically lost his temper, grabbed Bill by the collar, and shoved him up against a wall,” she reveals. “Eventually, Bill just completely shut my dad out… for the next twenty years.”
Dan Aykroyd, who co-wrote and co-starred in "Ghostbusters" with Ramis, was at North Shore Congregation Israel with wife Donna Dixon, as were Chevy Chase, star of Ramis' "Caddyshack" and "National Lampoon's Vacation," with his wife, Jayni; "SCTV" co-stars Eugene Levy and Dave Thomas; Second City co-owner/CEO Andrew ...
Many people have this odd belief that the two were instant friends from childhood. Close but no cigar. Harold Ramis' connection to Bill Murray is through Murray's older brother, Brian Doyle-Murray. Bill was at their first meeting just Brian's younger brother (Bill is 6 years younger than Harold).
