Reitman’s ‘Ghostbusters’ Scares Columbia

Who ya gonna call?  Columbia says not Ivan Reitman

Columbia’s plan for a 2011 “Ghostbusters” reboot is beginning to look scary.  The studio was all set to revamp the series with a younger crew being trained by the original guys.  And along with that younger crew, Columbia was hoping for a younger director as well.

However, as part of the early 80s deal Mike Ovitz made with the films’ original director and producer, Ivan Reitman, the 63 year old has “exceptional creative control over the series, including director approval.”

In addition to that, according to one source, the original three lead actors–Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis–all share veto power with Reitman.  If there’s something in the film one of the four doesn’t like, each has the power to single-handedly end the project.  The main difference is that Columbia wants the actors around, but not the aging director whose last film was “My Super Ex-Girlfriend.”

Reitman is also directing “Friends With Benefits,” a film whose current biggest claim to fame is not stars Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman, but the fact that the original script was called “Fuckbuddies.” (And Kevin Smith had to change the title of “A Couple of Dicks?”)  The film is being called “an inverse ‘Harry Met Sally,’” in which a pair of, well, friends with benefits, begin to have feelings for each other.

Sony, the parent company of Columbia, hoped that “Friends With Benefits” would distract Reitman from “Ghostbusters III,” but so far the director plans to stay on both projects.

Columbia is expecting “The Office’s” writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky to turn in the script’s second draft in May, and this is the only franchise the studio has planned for 2011, so a decision on the project will have to be made this spring.