Who you gonna call? “Ghostbusters,” that’s who.
Director Ivan Reitman confirmed for me yesterday what Sigourney Weaver recently alluded to an interview for her movie, “Avatar.” Reitman says a script for “G3″ is being worked on now, and all signs point to some ghost-busting for 2010. The new story combines the original characters with new ones, including Sigourney’s kid with Bill Murray, Oscar.
Reitman’s telling comments to me came about during a lunch at the legendary ‘21 Club’ for his son, Jason, whose own movie, “Up in the Air,” is up in the awards stratosphere. Dad Ivan produced for son Jason, which led to an exchange of teary eyed speeches from the two guys. They each reminisced about how Jason was talked out of going to medical school by Dad.
“It was the first time a Jewish father ever told his son not to become a doctor,” Jason said. “I knew he was a storyteller,” Ivan recalled. And it’s a showbiz family: Jason’s beauteous twentysomething sister Catherine is a working actress with a lot of credits, just about ready to have her breakthough.
All this family love was expressed in front of a cool crowd, too, including “Up in the Air” costar Anna Kendrick, who’s getting a lot of awards for her work in the film, plus famed director Sidney Lumet who came with his award-winning screenwriter daughter Jenny (she wrote “Rachel Getting Married” is and working with Jason on a new film), Barry Levinson, Tony LoBianco, Tovah Feldshuh, Bob Balaban, Dan Abrams, Arianna Huffington, Jean Doumanian, Johnnie Planco, and Forbes magazine editor Tim Ferguson, who’s also the uncle of “Nine” and Black Eyed Peas star Stacey “Fergie” Ferguson.
“She never shied away from performing as kid,” said Uncle Tim.
And there was maybe a ‘21′ first: a Kosher meal served to Orthodox Jewish rapper and recording star Matisyahu, aka Matthew Miller of White Plains, New York. Producer Bonnie Timmerman is working on a film project with him, and brought the extremely tall performer with her. They may have to rename ‘21′ ‘ ‘18′.
P.S. Lumet ‘ director of so many classics from “Serpico” and “Prince of the City” to “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” ‘ has just finished the screenplay for his next film, called “Getting Out.” He’s got Russell Crowe in mind, he says, for the lead. Sidney Lumet and Russell Crowe is a combo everyone would love to see happen. Russell, give Sidney a call!
