Get involved, Internet: Kickstart this Ghostbusters II documentary and extended cut that's probably not going to happen

By Dennis DiClaudio | August 27, 2013 | 10:05pm

Aux Features Film

When a couple of quirky parapsychologists first decided to strap unlicensed nuclear accelerators to their backs and trap New York City's ghost population in a laser confinement grid in their office basement, not many people thought they had a chance of success. Filmmaker Bradley Bjornstad's plan seems similarly iffy. He's hoping to raise $100K through Kickstarter to create an in-depth documentary about how Ghostbusters II went off the rails, complete with interviews with "every main cast member and the main principles behind the camera." That right there seems difficult enough. But he also wants to use that money to acquire loads of never-before-seen cutting-room-floor footage from the disappointing sequel and assemble it into "a definitive Ghostbusters 2 Extended Cut" that restores many of the plot lines that were excised from the film, such as Rick Moranis' geeky character Louis trials on his way to becoming the fifth Ghostbuster.

It's not that this is an ignoble quest. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It's hard to imagine a hardcore Ghostbusters fan who wouldn't drool at the prospect of peeking behind the curtain and seeing what could have been. The problem is that it's unrealistic, bordering upon impossible. With all due respect to Mr. Bjornstad and his laudable dreams, getting Bill Murray, who refuses to associate himself with a third Ghostbusters film, to agree to sit down for a low-budget outsider documentary about a 24-year-old film he dislikes seems slightly more likely than convincing Columbia Pictures to hand over the film's negatives to an untested indie filmmaker from Eugene, Oregon. Which may explain why Bjornstad has only barely cracked $2,000 of his $100,000 goal with 17 days to go. There does not seem to be a lot of confidence in this project out there on the Internet. That said, most fans would almost certainly thrill at the thought of being proven wrong. A new and improved Ghostbusters II would surely cause Biblical levels of excitement.