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Ghost Smashers[1][2] was the first script for what would become "Ghostbusters". It was conceived by Dan Aykroyd as a vehicle for himself and for his friend and fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus John Belushi, similar to Blues Brothers.[3] After leaving Saturday Night Live in 1979, Aykroyd read an article about quantum physics and parapsychology. He began thinking about classic ghost comedies by the Bowery Boys, Bob Hope, and Abbott and Costello.[4] In late 1981, Dan Aykroyd began writing his first draft.[5] Work on the script was slow and steady over the next few years due to other projects Aykroyd worked on. On March 5, 1982, while he was writing one of Venkman's lines, Aykroyd heard Belushi had passed away.[6]

Differences[]

The Ghost Smashers as written by Dan Aykroyd was very different than what would be eventually be filmed as "Ghostbusters". The story took place in the future, in the year 2012, Ghost Smashers was an already established business with many different teams competing with each other.[7][8][9] In this version a group of ghost hunters would travel through time, space and other dimensions taking on ghosts. There was a prologue stating a electric and magnetic field waves ripped the fabric of our dimension and "random mesh of microwave transmission had a torn a hole in our reality envelope, and spirits and entities from the other side were entering our reality through these holes."[10][11][12][13] As a result, new profession called ghostbusting was founded.[14]

The story began with the Ghost Smashers busting ghosts right away. The first frame was literally the Ectomobile leaving the Firehouse into the night.[15][16]

There were three characters - Stantz, Venkman, and Ramsey - but the draft didn't differentiate them.[17][18]

The tone of the movie would have been darker and Slimer wasn't as cute as he later became.[19]

Some of the teams of Ghostbusters were good, and some were bad.[20]

The Ghost Smashers respond to a call from the Greenville Guest House regarding the discovery in the kitchen of gluttonous yellow mist or grotesquely altered human form --'free-repeating vaporous phantasm'. After chasing the apparition -- described as 'onion-headed' at one point -- through the rustic guest home, the Ghost Smashers corner it in the basement, encircle it with nutrona beams and maneuver it into a small collapsible trap.[21] They charged $500, to which the Greenville Guest House proprietor balked at.[22]

The Containment Unit was kept at a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey purchased by the Ghost Smashers.[23] When the ghosts are released, a 25 acre sinkhole is triggered around the gas station. The sinkhole then disrupts a long inactive fault line that somehow turns northern New Jersey into a giant inferno.[24]

Zuul was the working term that became Terror Dogs. Somehow the Zuul was held captive by the Ghost Smasher's employer Shandor. But the Zuul was Gozer's favored pet and all-powerful ruler of the sixth dimension. Gozer would stop at nothing to recover the Zuul.[25]

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man appeared slightly past the midway point in the script and was only one of many of Gozer's manifestations.[26]

The finale involved the Ghost Smashers being whisked away into alternate dimensions.[27]

Equipment[]

GhostHunters1999dvd

The Ghost Smashers adjusting their Wands.

Note, most of this is taken directly from the 2005 DVD box set booklet and 1999 DVD section on Storyboards, which both featured storyboards based on this version of the movie. The designs were present in the storyboards, but the script had already been revised at this point.

  • Uniform- The outfits were lightweight normal janitor type pants and shirt. The name tags are on their left side upper-chest. Just like later in film.
  • Helmet- Looks like a Riot gear type of helmet with a transparent visor that can be lifted up.
  • Gloves- Much like the Electrical Gloves seen in the film, except with built in Wands.
  • Proton Pack- In the first script it was a back mounted power source with thick black cords going to the wands.[28]
  • Equipment Belt- The belt had a compartment on the left side that would release the ghost trap when the wearer jerked his right leg.
  • 2 Wands (one for each hand)- The wands are extendable like antennas, and could be adjusted from the palm area of the gloves. They functioned much like the particle throwers in the films. The wands were activated by an elbow toggle switch on the backpack. The wands emitted phosphorescent beams of red and green light.[29]
  • Ghost Trap- The ghost trap, much like the movie version, is a pedal connected by cord to the box. The foot pedal looked more like one from a piano. The metal box is a bit more like a metal box than what the ghost trap became. The trap also had a chain link-like handle to pick it up and 3 indicators.
  • Inter-Dimensional Interceptor - a device that allowed the Ghost Smashers to go back and forth between dimensions.[36]

Items[]

Cast Planned[]

More about casting can be found here.

In some instances, the original trio of Ghostbusters was said to always going to have been Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, and Bill Murray. Other times, the original trio was going to be Aykroyd, Belushi, and Eddie Murphy.[38]

Character Actor It was for Who Got Role
Peter Venkman John Belushi Bill Murray
Ray Stantz Dan Aykroyd Dan Aykroyd
Winston Zeddemore Eddie Murphy[39][40][41] Ernie Hudson
Egon Spengler unknown Harold Ramis
Louis Tully John Candy[42] Rick Moranis
Gozer (in the form of Ivo Shandor) Paul Reubens Slavitzva Jovan
  • Shandor[43] was originally in the script as the Ghost Smashers' interdimensional employer, an decidedly eccentric individual.

Ghosts[]

Onionhead1999dvd

Onionhead as seen in the storyboards for a later script.

Order is unknown, so they are listed as they appeared in final film. Note that the only ghost shown in storyboard form during "Ghost Smashers" phase is Slimer. Note that the story had already changed to the Sedgewick Hotel from the Greenville guest house.

Outcome[]

At some point after Belushi's death, Dan Aykroyd showed a half completed script to Bill Murray. Murray liked the premise.[58] Dan Aykroyd pitched his story to director/producer Ivan Reitman, who liked the basic idea but immediately saw the budgetary impossibilities demanded by Aykroyd's first draft. Aykroyd kept working on it and finished the script on January 20, 1983. The finished script was around 180 pages.[59] [60] They had another meeting over lunch at Art's Delicatessen.[61] At Reitman's suggestion, the story was given a major overhaul and what would later end up as Ghostbusters.[62][63]

Trivia[]

  • On page 15 of Ghostbusters: Get Real Issue #2, on the right side, at the top, is Venkman, Stantz and Ramsey.
  • On July 17, 2016, in an interview, Ivan Reitman admitted he and Aykroyd talked about mining some ideas for future projects but couldn't find his and Aykroyd's copy of the script. They went to CAA and spoke to a mutual lawyer who read a draft and confirmed "It was in outer space and there were lots of different Ghostbusters."[64]
  • In the Ghostbusters Annual 2017 story so far page, it is mentioned the Ghostbusters has expanded operations to other dimensions. This is in line with Aykroyd's original premise in the Ghost Smashers script.[65]
  • On page 19 of Transformers/Ghostbusters Issue #5, Ray is intrigued with the notion of ghosts in space, a nod to the Ghost Smashers script.

Also See[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. Reitman, Ivan (1999). Ghostbusters Collector's Series inlay, p. 1. Columbia TriStar Home Video.
  2. Reitman, Ivan (2005). Ghostbusters Ghostbusters Movie Scrapbook booklet, p. 2. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
  3. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Armed with a multimillion-dollar premise, Aykroyd set to work on his first draft script -- an inventive blend of fantasy and high technology, with a pair of lead roles tailored specifically for himself and long-time friend and associate John Belushi."
  4. Aykroyd, Dan (2016). Empire Magazine, p. 68. Bauer Media Group, Harborough, Leicester, United Kingdom, ISBN 1234567890. Dan Aykroyd writes: "I'd left Saturday Night Live in 1979, I was reading about quantum physics and parapsychology. I started thinking about all those old ghost comedies by the Bowery Boys, Bob Hope, Abbott and Costello."
  5. Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Restrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 05:28-05:34). Columbia Pictures. Dan says: "Uh, '81. Really was when I started to write it. In late '81."
  6. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Other films and projects interrupted the screenwriting process, and John Belushi's sudden death put a further temporary hold on the work. "I'd been working on it, on and off, for a couple of years -- always with the idea of having John involved. I was, in fact, writing one of his lines when I heard that he had died.""
  7. Ivan Reitman (2009). Ghostbusters- Slimer Mode (2009) (Blu-Ray ts. 00:51-00:56). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "It was set in the future. There were all kinds of teams of competing Ghostbusters."
  8. Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 05:50-05:52). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "And it was set in 2012, I think."
  9. Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:49-06:54). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "And the team in the movie was just one of many Ghostbusters units, and they thought of us like the Orkin men."
  10. Harold Ramis (2009). Ghostbusters- Slimer Mode (2009) (Blu-Ray ts. 01:12-01:37). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Harold Ramis says: "In Dan's original script, I remember there was a little prologue that said the random mesh of microwave transmission had a torn a hole in our reality envelope, and spirits and entities from the other side were entering our reality through these holes, which was great. Danny's script started with the Ghostbusters already being in business. Uh, paranormal events were happening all over New York, and Ghostbusters was kind of an established franchise."
  11. Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:10-06:15). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "For a variety of technical reasons, there was a hole torn in our reality envelope. This was all in a little prologue."
  12. Dan Aykroyd (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:16-06:19). Bueno Productions. Dan Aykroyd says: "We ripped the fabric of our dimension with the EMF waves."
  13. Dan Aykroyd (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:21-06:28). Bueno Productions. Dan Aykroyd says: "All this electronica around us is yielding a rift in the interdimensional veil between our dimension and the next one."
  14. Harold Ramis (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:29-06:34). Bueno Productions. Harold Ramis says: "And that ghost energy had flooded into New York City, giving rise to a new profession, ghostbusters."
  15. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Also, my original story was more eerie in tone, and it started right off with the crew busting ghosts. The first frame was the garage door opening up at the firehall, the Ectomobile roaring out into the night and the guys going on a bust.""
  16. Dan Aykroyd (2014). Ghostbusters 1 & 2 Gift Set (2014), "Who You Gonna Call: A Ghostbusters Retrospective" (2014) (DVD ts. 06:35-06:50). Sony Pictures. Dan says: "Yeah, it was hewing more towards the underworld. That type of franchise. And I think we were right to lighten it up. And well what happened when I was telling you in the first meeting, you said 'how about bringing Ramis to help to write?'."
  17. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In Dan's draft, you could not differentiate the characters."
  18. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Stantz and Venkman and Ramsey -- the character we changed to Winston -- were all essentially the same. That was fairly representative of Dan's writing at the time. He was very much concerned with story and structure and effects, but he would sort of stay on the surface of his characters."
  19. Aykroyd, Dan (2016). Empire Magazine, p. 68. Bauer Media Group, Harborough, Leicester, United Kingdom, ISBN 1234567890. Dan Aykroyd writes: "The tone was much darker. Slimer wasn't so cute."
  20. Wallace, Daniel (2015). Ghostbusters The Ultimate Visual History, p. 19. Insight Editions, San Rafael CA USA, ISBN 9781608875108. Dan Aykroyd says: "It was set in multiple dimensions. There were teams of ghostbusters: some bad, some good. But it had a lot of elements [that ended up in] the first movie."
  21. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 84 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Overall, the Onionhead entrapment follows -- with a fair degree of faithfulness -- the opening sequence in Dan Aykroyd's solo script. As originally drafted, the Ghostbusters respond to a call from the Greenville Guest House regarding the discovery in the kitchen of gluttonous yellow mist or grotesquely altered human form -- a 'FRVP' or 'free-repeating vaporous phantasm' in ghostbusting lingo. After chasing the apparition -- described as 'onion-headed' at one point -- through the rustic guest home, the Ghostbuster corner it in the basement, encircle it with nutrona beams and maneuver it into a small collapsible trap."
  22. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 86 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In the first Dan Aykroyd script, the Greenville Guest House proprietor balked at a mere $500 fee."
  23. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 102 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's first script, the spectral storage facility was not at the firehouse itself, but rather in a deserted Sunoco gas station in northern New Jersey, taken over by the Ghostbusters and surreptitiously converted into a holding cell for wayward spirits."
  24. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 165 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph says: "A sinkhole of much grander scale was included in the original Dan Aykroyd script, when the accidental release of the Ghostbusters' incarcerated spirits triggers a twenty-five acre sinkhole around their gas station storage facility. The sinkhole, in turn, disrupts a long inactive fault line which somehow transforms most of northern New Jersey into a blazing inferno."
  25. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, the root of New York's widespread psychic disturbances lay in the fact that a 'Zuul' -- a generic term for the other-dimensional creature which would later evolve into the Terror Dogs -- had somehow strayed out of its rightful time and place and was being held captive by the Ghostbusters' employer, himself a transdimensional being. Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it. When this concept was superseded in subsequent drafts, Zuul became a given name for the female Terror Dog, which -- along with her like companion Vinz Clortho -- is seeking refuge from the Gozer in New York."
  26. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations."
  27. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 9. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "One of the first things to go was the entire finale of Aykroyd's original draft -- an involved series of events which culminated with the three Ghostbusters being whisked into alternate dimensions."
  28. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 82 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though the nutrona wands employed in the film are clearly rifle-inspired firearms, the high-tech ghost-herding devices of Dan Aykroyd's original concept were indeed wand-like. Attached via thick black flex-cords to a back-mounted proton power source, the wands were strapped in place at the wrist -- one on each arm -- and extended out along the palm to a point six inches beyond the fingertips. When fired -- by means of an elbow toggle switch on the backpack -- phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth."
  29. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 82 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though the nutrona wands employed in the film are clearly rifle-inspired firearms, the high-tech ghost-herding devices of Dan Aykroyd's original concept were indeed wand-like. Attached via thick black flex-cords to a back-mounted proton power source, the wands were strapped in place at the wrist -- one on each arm -- and extended out along the palm to a point six inches beyond the fingertips. When fired -- by means of an elbow toggle switch on the backpack -- phosphorescent beams of red and green light issued forth."
  30. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 50 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In all previous drafts -- including Aykroyd's -- the basic vehicle from which the 'Ectomobile' would evolve was specified to be a 1975 Cadillac ambulance, secured for a bargain basement price of only $600. By the time the final script was written, the price had escalated to $1400 -- for an even older 1959 model. During filming, inflation struck once more, and the pricetag was upped to $4800."
  31. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 66 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "To help sell his original screenplay, Dan Aykroyd commissioned an artist friend -- John Daveikis -- to render a few preliminary design concepts. Among them was a proposal for the Ectomobile -- which, in contrast to its written description, was depicted as being white rather than black."
  32. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 66 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Working with a basic 1959 Cadillac ambulance, hardware consultant Steven Dane designed and modified the final vehicle."
  33. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 67 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd's original Ectomobile was an all-black rather sinister-looking machine with flashing white and purple strobe lights that gave it a strange, ultraviolet aura. Though kept essentially intact through all the drafts, the vehicle concept -- suggesting a hearse rather more than an ambulance -- was clearly more in keeping with the darker tone of Aykroyd's first draft than with the lighter ones that followed it. It was cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, however, who first pointed out a serious problem with it."
  34. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 67 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "Dan's script was set in the near future and there was much more fantasy in it. In that script, the Ectomobile was able to dematerialize. When we anchored the script more in reality and set the time in the present, that concept had to go. Besides, it's funnier so see them in an old ambulance that barely runs."
  35. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 95. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "The encounter between the policeman and the Ectomobile is the only scene in the final shooting script which suggested that the vehicle itself had some extranormal powers -- a carryover from Dan Aykroyd's initial draft in which the Ectomobile was equipped with an advanced dematerializing capability that allowed its operators, functioning somewhat outside the law, to readily elude police pursuit. Though the ticketing sequence was shot and cut into the film, it was ultimately removed because it slowed down the breakneck pace of the montage"
  36. Aykroyd, Dan (2016). Empire Magazine, p. 68. Bauer Media Group, Harborough, Leicester, United Kingdom, ISBN 1234567890. Dan Aykroyd writes: "One of the concepts I had was for the Ghostbusters to have an inter-dimensional interceptor, so they could go back and forth between dimensions. I have that idea in a working draft, and maybe it'll get made. We'll see..."
  37. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 138 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "A large billboard -- rendered in matte painting form by Matthew Yuricich -- appears on one of the buildings adjacent to the firehall. Featured on it is a representation of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man and the words "Stay-Puft Marshmallows -- Stays Puft, Even When Toasted -- an advertising slogan lifted from Dan Aykroyd's original script."
  38. Greene, James, Jr., (2022). A Convenient Parallel Dimension: How Ghostbusters Slimed Us Forever, p. 23. Lyons Press, Essex, CT USA, ISBN 9781493048243. Line reads: "The story regarding who Aykroyd envisioned as the third Ghost Smasher has changed throughout the years. At some points, he's said it was always meant for Bill Murray. Other junctures have found Aykroyd insisting his original third pick was Eddie Murphy, the audacious and effortlessly funny Saturday Night Live cast member credited with saving the program from cancellation during its abysmal early '80s seasons."
  39. Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Dan Aykroyd quote 11/7/14
  40. Labrecque, Jeff (2014). "Ghostbusters: An Oral History". Entertainment Weekly.
  41. Dan Aykroyd (2019). Cleanin' Up The Town: Remembering Ghostbusters (2019) (Blu-Ray ts. 06:02-06:04). Bueno Productions. Dan Aykroyd says: "Eddie Murphy, myself, and John were supposed to be the original Ghostbusters."
  42. Ivan Reitman (1999).Ghostbusters- Subtitles Production notes (1999) (DVD ts. 18:52-18:55). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "Now the part of originally written for John Candy"
  43. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 152 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, Shandor was the name of the Ghostbusters' interdimensional employer - a decided eccentric whose walls were lined with mounted trophy heads taken from such challenging big game as bats, rats and lobsters. Though Shandor was invariably to be found sequestered in his darkened office, perched on a swivel armchair and covered entirely by a near-opaque mosquito bonnet, no one seemed to suspect that there might be anything inherently out of the ordinary about him."
  44. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 84 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Overall, the Onionhead entrapment follows -- with a fair degree of faithfulness -- the opening sequence in Dan Aykroyd's solo script. As originally drafted, the Ghostbusters respond to a call from the Greenville Guest House regarding the discovery in the kitchen of gluttonous yellow mist or grotesquely altered human form -- a 'FRVP' or 'free-repeating vaporous phantasm' in ghostbusting lingo. After chasing the apparition -- described as 'onion-headed' at one point -- through the rustic guest home, the Ghostbuster corner it in the basement, encircle it with nutrona beams and maneuver it into a small collapsible trap."
  45. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 116 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "During preproduction, several artists were engaged to generate literally dozens of widely divergent proposals for the Terror Dogs' appearance, only sketchily described in the script. Among them were a spiny hammerhead creature -- designed by John Daveikis to accompany Dan Aykroyd's original script -- and a lumbering dim-witted creature conceived by Thom Enriquez."
  46. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, the root of New York's widespread psychic disturbances lay in the fact that a 'Zuul' -- a generic term for the other-dimensional creature which would later evolve into the Terror Dogs -- had somehow strayed out of its rightful time and place and was being held captive by the Ghostbusters' employer, himself a transdimensional being. Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it. When this concept was superseded in subsequent drafts, Zuul became a given name for the female Terror Dog, which -- along with her like companion Vinz Clortho -- is seeking refuge from the Gozer in New York."
  47. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "In Dan Aykroyd's original script, the root of New York's widespread psychic disturbances lay in the fact that a 'Zuul' -- a generic term for the other-dimensional creature which would later evolve into the Terror Dogs -- had somehow strayed out of its rightful time and place and was being held captive by the Ghostbusters' employer, himself a transdimensional being. Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it. When this concept was superseded in subsequent drafts, Zuul became a given name for the female Terror Dog, which -- along with her like companion Vinz Clortho -- is seeking refuge from the Gozer in New York."
  48. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 146 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "One of the many supernatural manifestations encountered in Dan Aykroyd's first script was a skeletal biker who has been terrorizing the residents of a small upstate town.'"
  49. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 125 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Unfortunately, the Zuul happened to be a favored pet of the all-powerful Gozer -- absolute ruler of the sixth dimension -- who, it seemed, would stop at nothing to recover it."
  50. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 170 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Appearing before the Ghostbusters as a kind of New Wave demon, the character of Gozer had passed through more drastic conceptual variations than any other creature in the film. Described in Dan Aykroyd's script as looking like Bert Parks, and in later collaborations with Harold Ramis as a Robert Young-type character, Gozer - in its final form - resembled neither."
  51. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 177 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "As orignally conceived, Gozer was to have been a rather nondescript, kindly-looking man. Finding the approach too conventional, Ivan Reitman opted instead for a malevolent highly-contemporary androgynous-looking female."
  52. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations."
  53. Ivan Reitman (1999).Ghostbusters- Subtitles Production notes (1999) (DVD ts. 13:40-13:48-). Columbia TriStar Home Video. Ivan Reitman says: "the Marshmallow man came on page 20, one of maybe 50 large scale monsters. "
  54. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 138 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Michael Gross says: "We wanted the audience to be at least subliminally aware of the Stay-Puft marshmallow man, to set up his appearance later in the film. We had already introduced the bag of marshmallows in Dana's apartment, and we thought the billboard would be a good way to reinforce it. It was also a way to preserve the line from Dan's script, which he really liked. I don't know if anyone ever notices the billboard, but it's the kind of detail that rounds out the film."
  55. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 189 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Harold Ramis says: "In Dan's script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man was pretty much a throwaway - just another effect. But it was such a great image that we decided to use it as the manifestation of Gozer the Destructor. We were always nervous about it, though. Would the audience find him cute, or find him stupid? Could he be both cute and terrifying? It was such a big effect - we knew if we used it, it would have to be the climax of the film. We were very worried about it."
  56. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations."
  57. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 197 annotation. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Though present in every draft of the script, the Stay-Puft marshmallow man did not become the Ghostbusters' final encounter until the July rewrite. In fact, in Dan Aykroyd's original screenplay, the Stay-Puft man appeared just slightly past the midway point as but one of several Gozer manifestations. The Stay-Puft confrontation came considerably later in the first Aykroyd-Ramis collaboration, but even in that draft, the Ghostbusters were to regroup in New Jersey for a final battle with the Gozer in its most terrifying form - a swirling psychic maelstrom topped by a disembodied sphid's head of monstrous proportions."
  58. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Aykroyd presented his half-completed script to Bill Murray -- a fellow Saturday Night Live expatriot and alumnus of the Chicago-based Second City troupe. When Murray responded favorably to the concept, Aykroyd took it to Ivan Reitman, with whom he had worked briefly -- years before in Toronto -- as a comedian and announcer for a live television variety show."
  59. Entertainment Weekly ""Ghostbusters: An Oral History" Richard Edlund quote 11/7/14
  60. Labrecque, Jeff (2014). "Ghostbusters: An Oral History". Entertainment Weekly.
  61. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Ivan Reitman says: "What I focused on, as I read the script again, was Dan's really brilliant initial concept -- the idea of a group of men who work out of an old firehall and respond to emergencies much the way firemen do. The only difference is that these emergencies are supernatural in nature -- and so what the Ghostbusters do is go out, trap ghosts and incarcerate them. Dan had come up with that concept, and had worked out the equipment and the car and all that sort of thing. He even thought out the basic idea for the Ghostbusters logo -- the little ghost inside a stop sign. That was one of the few things in the original draft that I had actually laughed at. But it seemed to me that the overall concept was diluted by setting the story in the future and then introducing fantasy elements and going off into other dimensions. So I called Dan and we had lunch at Art's Delicatessen and I told him what I thought ought to be done."
  62. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: ""Dan had written only forty or fifty pages at that point," Reitman recalled, "and frankly, I had no idea how I would go about making it into a film. For on thing, it was set in the future -- not far in the future, but far enough -- and it took place on a number of different planets or dimensional planes. And it was all action. There was very little character work in it. The Ghostbusters were catching ghosts on the very first page -- and doing it on every single page after that, without respite -- just one sort of supernatural phenomenon after another. By the tenth page, I was exhausted. By the fortieth or fiftieth page -- however many there were -- I was counting the budget in hundreds of millions of dollars. And there really weren't very many laughs. Although I could detect a comic attitude, the whole thing was written rather seriously. In the end I just kind of set it aside and forgot about it.""
  63. Shay, Don (November 1985). Making Ghostbusters, p. 7-8. New York Zoetrope, New York NY USA, ISBN 0918432685. Paragraph reads: "Dan Aykroyd, however, did not. When the script was finished some months later, he submitted it to Reitman once again -- complete with conceptual illustrations and a quickie videotape of himself in a jumpsuit-based uniform embellished with makeshift nutrona wands and a proton pack fashioned from styrofoam and old radio parts. With several projects stalled in various stages of development, Reitman -- championing at the bit to get a film into production -- decided to give Ghostbusters a closer look."
  64. Hitfix "Our epic interview with Ivan Reitman looks to the past and the future for Ghostbusters" 7/17/16 Ivan Reitman says: "We talked about it. But Aykroyd's original 70 or 80 page thing is missing...It’s sad. I was looking for it in my archives and I couldn't find it, and I said, 'Danny, I can't find it. Do you have it?' And he said, 'I got it. I got it somewhere.' He comes back a month later, and he says, 'I checked, I checked the big bin. I couldn't find it.' And I said, 'Jesus, how did we lose it?'...I went to see if CAA had it because that was the agency that represented both of us, and it'd be great to look at it again because Dan and I remember it differently now. I said to him recently, 'It took place in outer space,' and he said, 'No it didn't.' I said, 'Yes, it did. It took place in outer space and there were lots of different Ghostbusters.' And I actually brought forth a couple of different men like our mutual lawyer who had read that early draft, and he said, 'It was in outer space and there were lots of different Ghostbusters.' So you see how all great mythologies get debated as time passes. But, yes, I do think there's a remarkable opportunity. Many of the things that we sort of talked about in the going into business story of the first movie will play out sooner than you'd expect."
  65. Narrator (2017). IDW Comics- "Ghostbusters Annual 2017" (2017) (Comic Story So Far Page). Narrator says: "The team has now expanded operations to other dimensions... and who knows where THAT could lead?"

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