RichardLess wrote: ↑November 7th, 2022, 3:23 pm I saw your name among the “acknowledgments” and even tho I’m very very mixed on the book(I had too high expectations on the some things. And some of it is probably because, again, I have a vision for a GB book and it looks like something the great J.W Rinzler would make, and everytime a GB book comes out, part of me feels disappointment that Sony just doesn’t give it a shit enough to give it shot), I’m glad this fandom has a fan like you out there. You’ve done more behind the scenes with these sorts of endeavours than probably anybody. Add in names like Paul Rudoff & Alex Newborn(with his 1989 YouTube videos of everytime Ghostbusters 2 was mentioned! What a fan! I love it!). So a huge thank you. Without fans like you we wouldn’t get books like these or documentaries like Cleaning Up the Town Parts 1 and 2.
Thanks for the kind words, man! I’m just a curious fan like you.
Agreed on Alex, he's one of my absolute favorite fans! “The Summer of 89” Youtube series was a huge gift and I loved his segments on the Ghostheads doc. If I could sneak onto the GB: Firehouse set and leave any sort of set dressing behind, I would have a framed photo of Alex and his sons on Janine's desk.
RichardLess wrote: ↑November 7th, 2022, 10:54 pm My favourite bit in the whole book tho? Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis personally calling the wife of the maker of the game to tell her they wouldn’t let Activision fire him after the games originally maker was bought. Over and over again the book just confirms that Harold & Dan are exactly the type of people we think they are.
Agreed! That was a very cool gesture from the guys. Outside of a few articles, I never really dug into the history of the game much. What a roller coaster! I was a little freaked out to be nostalgic about 2008.
mrmichaelt wrote: ↑November 8th, 2022, 9:36 pm I'm intrigued about Chevy Chase. When Enriquez says he was brought in, he was asked to board a scene of "in which a ghost seduces Chase." That was June 1983. Were they considering Chase for Ray or Peter?
This has bugged me for a while, as well. Michael Gross was working with the concept artists early on. My guess is that he just had a slip of the tongue in a meeting with Enriquez. Thom’s notes from the meeting are printed in the Visual History book. An interesting bit, Enriquez was the only artist in the production office. All others worked remotely.
mrmichaelt wrote: ↑November 8th, 2022, 9:36 pm It was intriguing to learn Bill brought in Elaine May to consult on the GBII script. Would have loved to learn more about that. Or man, they wanted Dustin Hoffman for the character that became Janosz. Or Bill's fight in the courtroom set? Geez.
To be a fly on the wall of the Elaine May meeting!
Dustin Hoffman would’ve been great as Justin. I’ve wondered if Ivan offered Vigo to Schwarzenegger, considering they had just released Twins. Arnold may have been shooting Total Recall by that point. Imagine GB2, filmed by Kovacs, scored by Bernstein, with Hoffman and Arnold. Wild!
The fight on the courtroom set is interesting. In the grand scheme of Hollywood’s seedy underbelly, it’s a relatively quaint story, I guess. Par for course—it’s no lie Bill hated the proton packs! Bummer they weren’t rolling camera. Imagine a shot of Venkman flipping the equipment table before battling the Scoleris!
RichardLess wrote: ↑November 18th, 2022, 9:08 am Or Gilbert Gottfried playing the dude who causes spontaneous combustion in the GB2 script. Oddly enough I could never imagined the right actor in the role of the business man but I gotta say, Gilbert is kinda perfect casting. That voice of his? Lol. I was always under the impression that scene never filmed.
It wasn’t filmed, but the role was cast prior to the scene being nixed. Gottfried would’ve been PERFECT. I’m guessing this scene was a release schedule casualty, as it think it really would’ve really helped the story. Imagine Gilbert hanging with the GBs in the firehouse lab? Did Gilbert ever mention the GB2 thing in media?
I’ve recently discovered Gottfried’s podcast. DUDE WAS A GENIUS!!!!!! Caesar Romero and the orange slices?
RichardLess wrote: ↑November 18th, 2022, 9:08 am On a serious note. Was one the scripts you read the version that’s partly been seen online? Where Egon & Ray seem to be doing some sort of experiment with a tiny glowing ball. I wanna say a “gluon” or some such thing?
Also years ago IGN did a script review of GB3, a dude named “Stax”. Some of it sounds familiar. Do you know if that was one of the versions you read?
Going back to the Stax and Proton Charging reviews/pages, they all cover the March ’99 first draft.
James Greene’s research unearthed the 1997 treatment details, which was all new (AWESOME) information.
RichardLess wrote: ↑November 18th, 2022, 9:08 am Hellbent…I know Harold said he wasn’t 100% invested in it and that they were writing it on spec(which means no one was getting paid). I guess my ideal imagined scenario is Dan calls up Harold and, being buddies and a great writing duo, they both get together and write Ghostbusters 3. They do it for the passion of it. Because they are friends. But maybe they were just work related friends, ya know? Nothing wrong with that it’s just…I duno. Not how I imagined it,
I'd say more like really, really good work-related friends that went through a crazy, life/cultural-changing project together.
I think you kind of answered your own question there. That process was happening! They got together, apparently had a lot of conversations about it. Even though it was on spec, Harold still worked with Dan trying to develop it, offering his ideas, the tintype hell idea, considering directing etc. It just never happened progressed any further. If there wasn't a friendliness and respect there, I don't think they would've collaborated at all on it.
Another interesting bit here, Ramis was also developing Bedazzled in the late-90s. The devil-centric comedy with Elizabeth Hurley and Brendan Fraser. Were the projects being so closely related in subject play a part in Hellbent never moving forward as a Ramis-directed movie? I guess we’ll never know.