Photo: Courtesy of Columbia Pictures. The recent string of sudden celebrity deaths has put a number of projects in crisis mode, first with Paul Walker and the latest installment of The Fast and The Furious franchise, and then with Philip Seymour Hoffman and the upcoming Hunger Games finale. Both projects have moved forward despite the tragedies, because the cold hard truth is that Hollywood is a business first and foremost.
This week's tragic death of Harold Ramis has cast a pall over another project in development, this time the long-awaited Ghostbusters 3. According to sources, Sony plans on moving ahead without Ramis, who starred in and cowrote the originals, and was set to make an appearance in the third installment. Director Ivan Reitman will reportedly meet with the studio in the near future to discuss how to proceed.
Because Ramis' involvement in the film was said to be minimal at best, his passing shouldn't hold up production in any major way. However, it does raise questions about how studios operate after the death of a public figure with whom they were collaborating. Perhaps a longer mourning period, so to speak, should be required before the business of filmmaking becomes a priority. Or, perhaps it's on the media to allow the appropriate parties to grieve before working a story. Either way, Mr. Ramis will be deeply missed. We're going to go watch Ghostbusters now. (Indiewire)