Steve Johnson, the man behind Slimer and a lot of the special FX in Ghostbusters is releasing a series of YouTube videos with exclusive behind the scenes footage. Below is the first episode, “Get Slimed”:

New York Entertainment Magazine met up with Bill Murray at the premiere of the Fantastic Mr. Fox. Bill Murray provides his voice for Clive Badget, Mr. Fox’s lawyer and adviser. While talking with Murray about his role in the movie, some Ghostbusters 3 questions came up:

I heard you weren’t happy with plans for Ghostbusters 3.
I haven’t seen the script, so it’s not a matter of being happy or not.

Do you want to do the movie?
I don’t know. It’s all about the script. If the script’s not good, I’m not going to get excited. They’ve been talking about it for a long time. So, you know, I don’t get all excited about it, you know.

Dan Aykroyd told me it’s going to be two guys and two girls.
That sounds like a weekend, but I don’t know if it’s a movie.

What age do you think the new Ghostbusters should be?
Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s just talk. No one’s sent me a script. I haven’t seen anything. [Dan Aykroyd] is more out there. He’s a much more active guy than I am. I’m sluggish.

You don’t want to do it?
I mean, I like those guys. But it’s all about if the stuff is good. The stuff’s got to be great.

The Huffington Post has a fascinating article written by Dan Aykroyd. Here pretty soon Dan will be traveling with his father to promote his book A History of Ghosts. Below is a blurb from the article:

Hard-line skeptics such as my writing partner on Ghostbusters, Harold Ramis, believe that the invisible world can not reasonably encompass these lingering presences, their occasional appearances to us and their subsequent actions. However it is reported that General George Patton who fervently believed that he was a Roman Legionary in a previous life, appeared to one of his sisters in New York at the exact moment he died in an American military hospital in Germany. She described him as sitting casually inside her apartment window sill in full uniform. His other sister said that the General telephoned her in Boston as well to say good-bye at the time of his passing.

Toy News International broke the news today. Art Asylum is going to put out a Series 3 of Ghostbusters Minimates. This set will include a marshmallow-covered Egon and Winston as well as Janine Melnitz (Ghostbusters 2 style) and Walter Peck. Keep your eyes peeled for these next year.

It was disclosed that Ivan Reitman would be attached to the upcoming Ghostbusters 3 project, but in what capacity? IMDB is listing him as a producer, but with no director attached yet, might he take up the mantle?

His involvement was first revealed by MTV in an interview here. Is this exciting news? Should Ivan Reitman take up the reigns and direct the third one? Or should he stick to crap (as opposed to crap sticking to him.) like My Super Ex-Girlfriend?

Personally I don’t  think they should give him another chance, in fact I wish that he weren’t even going to be attached as a producer. He is a no talent hack and has made far more bad films than good ones. Does everyone remember Junior? That was Ivan Reitman that did that to us.

A Big Idiot

I say the least they can do if he stays on the project, is make Megan Fox, or Angelina Jolie the new Janine.

Baltimore Magazine had the opportunity to ask Dan Aykroyd a few questions while he was on a promotional tour for the Crystal Head Vodka:

What makes this particular vodka unique?
Well it has no additives commonly associated with a lot of vodka manufacturing. A lot of vodkas today try to achieve a smoothness, a satiny, velvety feel by adding fusel oils, like raw sugar. What we did was go to the government distillery in New Foundland and said we wanted to go back to an old style country or moonshine. What you have here is the cleanest vodka in the world. We really have something to talk about here. We wanted to make a pure spirit, started out with a bottle, started out with a fading celebrity endorsement, and now I have a real thing to talk about because we really do have taste in the bottle.

Any particular cocktails you recommend for your vodka?
I like it with freshly squeezed orange juice for a Crystal Driver. I like it with 7-Up for a Heads Up. I like a Cranium, with cranberry and soda. But you know what, it’s great just in a shot glass with a little squeeze of lime. Or just in a shot glass cold. When you freeze the heads and pour it, it comes out as if it was liquid platinum, it comes out in dollops. I’m just so pleased with the result.

Your two major passions in life seem to be blues and comedy. They seem like opposites, but to you, they’re probably not so different.
Well there’s a lot of humor in blues. Willie Dixon wrote that song “Dead Presidents” and it was about money. Johnny Taylor, “Who’s making love to your old lady, while you‘re out making love?” The blues is full of humor, all the lyrics, they’re double entendres.

Will Slimer be making a cameo in the upcoming Ghostbusters movie?
I’m going to see the script in the next few hours, I’m about to read the third script, I’ve been submitted it and we’ll see what happens.

As you can see, not a lot was said about the script, but he has it. And that’s a big step in the right direction. Hopefully we’ll here soon what he thought of it.

Recently on gbfans.com I stumbled upon a thread about adding sound to your Proton Pack. Up until this point, the best option was through a site Hypderdyne Labs. There, they have some amazing all in one kits, but they are pricey. Their sound kits range from $280 – $525. Depending on your Proton Pack build, this could cost more than half of what you already have into it.

Robert from Replica Props has an inexpensive alternative that requires very little ingenuity on the users end. On Robert’s site, you simply provide the sound files you would like to have included onto the soundboard model. With shipping and all that jazz, the chip cost me roughly $60.

Shortly after ordering the chip, Robert informed me that I didn’t need the larger chip that I had ordered. He was calling to confirm a $10 refund to my PayPal account. Seriously nice guy. Two days later I received the chip and a simple map of the chip’s pins. Some spare wire, a few switches, an old speaker… let there be sounds.

Robert has been around in the industry for a long time. He currently is working on Smallville. You can buy some of the props from the film on his site. I highly recommend Replica Parts.

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Making Of interviewed Ramis this week. Like many interviews recently… the conversation turned to Ghostbusters 3:

The Ghostbusters logo is the number two most recognized logo in the world. Just under Coca Cola. That’s pretty incredible considering Ghostbusters is a movie and not a brand. On the subject of the logo, I always thought the logo in the second movie was odd.

Sure, we (the viewers) all understand it’s a sequel. Thus, having the ghost hold up two fingers makes sense. But, why would the Ghostbusters uniforms sport this logo on a their patches. Or even the Ecto-1A. They aren’t aware they’re in a movie sequel. The only reason I’ve heard that’s anywhere close to making sense involves the “peace” theme of the movie. Fucking hippies anyway.

With our without that explanation, I’m glad they changed it back to the original logo for the game. Which comes out in seven days. Awesome.