Nothing we haven't heard before, but two new articles have been posted online, and so I've added them to the bottom of the GB3 Progress page.

The short version is this: Dan Aykroyd is still interested, but nobody else is. He can't move forward with his ideas (such as a younger cast) because those people who own the rights won't allow the project to happen.

Personally, I think he's been going about it all wrong. Instead of trying to get a live-action movie made, which obviously ain't gonna happen in MY lifetime, try making it into a PG or PG-13 rated, full-length, theatrical Real Ghostbusters movie. Since Sony was able to make another animated series in recent years (EGB), I think it's safe to say that the rights problems don't extend to the animated universe.

After seeing how pathetic GB2 turned out, in terms of totally disregarding the continuity from the first film, I think it's best that Dan NOT write another film with Harold. It would just be a stale rehash of GB1. He should team with J. Michael Straczynski, who is responsible for the high quality of writing on the first season RGB eps. I like the whole Hellbent idea of Dan's first draft (Hell is the flip side of reality and you can flip the switch anytime ... or something like that). It would definitely be a more adult cartoon, and not some watered down kiddie crap. I'm sure JMS can tailor Dan's script to fit the RGB personalities. Heck, they could have some fun and even throw in a gag of seeing the EGB gang when they were kids, since this would take place during the RGB's prime. That way the movie would even be connected to EGB, too.

Bringing back all of the original RGB first season cast is a MUST! I'm sure they'd all be interested. (Arsenio is no longer busy with his talk show, so he has no reason to say No.) Since Lorenzo is no longer alive, perhaps they could persuade Bill Murray to provide the voice of Peter. Even though he hates the idea of a GB3, he did take over for Lorenzo as the voice of Garfield in the recent live-action film. If he could lower himself to doing that (no offense, Garfield), surely he'd doing something of a much higher caliber. As a last resort I'd have them bring back Dave Coulier as Peter. I like Dave, but he was just wrong for the part (same as Kath Soucie). His performance was simply his Bill Murray imitation, in which case, you might as well get the real thing.

They could still have Lorenzo in the film in a different role. Take an archive recording of him and use it for Man #1 or some other small role that they might already have dialogue recorded to fit. Worst case, throw in a visual reference to him as an homage.

Dan could provide the voice of one of the characters, maybe even the villain. Heck, if you could convince them, maybe other members of the live-action cast could provided voices.

The visuals definitely need to be in the same quasi-Japanese animation style as the first season RGB. I don't know if the same animation studio is still in business (whoever DiC used in Japan), but surely there must still be some company that can do a similar, if not better job. As long as they don't do that crappy Americanized Anime style seen in Teen Titans, or 2-D or 3-D computer animation style (it's too clean), I'll be happy.

In short, the possibilities are limitless because you're no longer relying on live-action visuals.

I've been so busy this month that I completely forgot to even put up anything to commemorate the 8 year anniversary of this site. It was in August 1996 (I wish I had kept track of the exact day) that I put up an ugly yellow page with one picture on it: a screen capture of the library ghost from the long-gone GB1 illustrated script project (raise your hand if you remember that site). I think I also had one link to Bill's site and one to Sheila's RGB page, and that was it. There were only a handful of GB sites back then. I really wish that I, or the Internet Archive, had kept a copy of that original page. It would be cool to see the difference between then and now.

That little page grew and grew and eventually got too big for Geocities whopping 2 megabyte size limit (any one remember Geocities arcane, and insane, FTP upload system?). So, the site moved somewhere else ... grew larger ... moved again ... grew some more ... repeat until you get to 1998. By that point the site got so large that I couldn't use any free web hosting services anymore (plus they were all getting to be very unreliable, causing major downtime for the site and headaches for all those who were trying to access it ... including myself!). So I had to start paying for a hosting service. That wasn't much of a problem (I found some good deals), until I ran into financial difficulties. I was able to keep this site online thanks to financial assistance from Tamara Yollick, "ElctroWolf", Ellen MacIsaac, Norman Gagnon, Adam Bertocci, and Art Chacon. To them I will always be forever grateful.

You could literally fill a couple pages in a book with a list of all of the places/hosts/servers that this site has resided on. Names like Dragonfire, Interspeed, and Hispeed spring instantly to mind (though there are MANY more). Plus there were forwarding addresses like PoBoxes.com and CJB.net. And let's not forget about the free urls I got from the lame (read: rip-off) NameZero service: realghostbusters.com and therealghostbusters.com (plus one of my name: paulrudoff.com).

We're now more than halfway through 2004 and, thanks to Raffaele Ruffaldi, it seems that Spook Central has a stable home where it can sit in semi-retirement for the foreseeable future. Would I like to do a major update again? Of course! Do I have enough new material to keep this site fresh. Oh, hell yeah! I have stuff that nobody knows about and would make lots of people drool if I even hinted at it, but right now it would require more work than I want to give it to take everything I have in print and in video/audio and get it into the computer. Plus some of my equipment isn't as good as it used to, which would make some things harder to do than they should be, if not impossible.

I started this little journal as a way of giving visitors to this site a reason to come back every so often. Although it isn't updated as frequently as GBHQ & Proton Charging (mainly because I never get any news at all, much less before they do), I hope that the odd things I've posted have been enjoyable, and will continue to be so. I've noticed that some of you have posted feedback comments on a few of these posts. Even if I don't reply to them (which I don't feel I should, since that's meant to be YOUR space, not mine to carry on a conversation), rest assured that I do check for them and read them, and I appreciate it.

In putting together this last minute 8th anniversary entry, I was really racked as to what to include. I wanted to upload something special, and not just type up a bunch of words (and I didn't even know what to type when I started), but I have nothing on my computer that you haven't already seen elsewhere. So, I decided to give you a look at an unfinished project that I started a few years ago: Ghostbusters - The Complete Illustrated Screenplay [link deleted] for Windows. As you'll see if you download it, I tried to mimic the format of the Making Ghostbusters book, but with images within the script and the margins, and soundbytes that play when you run your mouse over the colored dialogue. (Ignore the placeholder text on the splash page.) The problem is that if I actually did the ENTIRE script like that, the exe file would be extremely large, and most people would not want to download it. Heck, I may not even want to upload it. Then there's the whole issue of it being only compatible with Windows. I don't want to punish all those Mac users simply because they bought a crappy system (just kidding). I wouldn't want to do something that requires that much work if it couldn't be enjoyed by everyone. I tried to do it online, but every time I finally got the words in the margin aligned just right with the script text in one browser, the word wrap in the other would be off-line and mess it all up. That's why I never bothered any more with it.

On 5/20/2002, I started a conversation on the old Spook Central MSN Group about a mysterious GB DVD box set image I found in a Google image search (the image shown above). What made it so mysterious is that it looked nothing like the set that was released here in the United States in 2000 or 2001. That set, which looked like this ...


... consisted of the 1999 GB1 & GB2 DVDs in a slipsleeve with the same cover artwork on the outside (according to "Ectoman", and from what I've seen of it wrapped up in the store).

I asked if any one knew what DVD box set the mysterious photo is the packaging of? The picture clearly has the DVD & CTHV logos on it.

Raffaele "BiggBoss" Ruffaldi replied: "I was browsing the web looking for a DVD when I've found on a site the item you refer to for sale. Unfortunately I did not bookmark the URI and lost it but I do remember that is is a GB DVD special box containing both DVDs plus a bonus CD with screensavers, backgrounds and stuff... It was an import from Japan. I don't have a full TOC of the CD unfortunately. I'll try to find the URI again"

Apparently he's not been able to find it online again, and I certainly haven't, so I thought I'd post this information here in case anyone has some information. If not, then this will be here for posterity and curiosity-seekers.

In the June 2004 issue of Premiere magazine, there's a five-page article about the GB 20th Anniversary. I still have to get my hands on a copy, but according to GBHQ the article mentions that "Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment's 20th Anniversary DVD of Ghostbusters will be available in October." GBHQ posted a follow-up to say that the DVD isn't going to come out until early 2005.

I would love if this new DVD was a re-release of the 1999 one, but with the following new features and errors corrected:

• ERROR CORRECTION: All still photos, conceptual drawings, and storyboards should be displayed full-screen, and NOT angled. If Columbia-Tristar Home Video (CTHV) wants to see how stills are done properly, they should get their hands on some Disney DVDs. Off the top of my head I recommend the Toy Story box set and the Vista Series release of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Both have pages of thumbnails, each page linked to full screen images which could be browsed back and forth in full screen mode with the left and right buttons on the remote (press Enter to go back to the thumbnail page). When you browsed to the ends of that pages images, you'd be taken back to the thumbnail page, where you could use the on screen navigation to go to the next or previous page of thumbnails (or to the main menu).


• ERROR CORRECTION: The layout of the Interactive Screenplay on the DVD-ROM should have the scene play in a tiny window on the side of the screen, the chapters could be listed below it, and the screenplay text would be displayed in the frame on the right. This is how New Line does their "Script To Screen" DVD-ROM stuff. Check out The Nightmare On Elm Street Collection box set or Freddy Vs. Jason to see how it should be done right.


• ERROR CORRECTION: Although the Filmographies on the DVD-ROM was good in theory, in execution is plainly sucks because it's really a catalog of CTHV DVD titles ... and they don't even have the good sense to put trailers for those films on the disc. Plus they have titles listed there that have a higher MPAA rating than GB1. Advertising the R-rated Booty Call on GB1 is wrong on so many levels. Just ditch the filmographies altogether as it could never be as up to date as the IMDB. I could never understand why Biographies & Filmographies have become standard DVD features, other then the fact that they're so easy to compile (the studios have the biographies done when they do the press kits, so they just copy it over to the DVD). If they want, include biographies on the main DVD portion so all can read them, but leave the filmographies out.


• ERROR CORRECTION: Another standard DVD "feature" I hate are trailers for other films or tv shows. This was especially true for the GB1 & GB2 DVDs since they included the same damn trailers on both discs! They need to give us ALL teasers, trailers, and tv spots for GB1. If they want to include other films, such as GB2, Stripes, or Groundhog Day, that's fine, as long as they completely cover the film on the disc. One trailer, which isn't even letterboxed and is cut off at the end (that's the other error they made), just won't cut it.


• ERROR CORRECTION: The video commentary should work in widescreen mode. Anyone who has a widescreen tv or a computer with DVD-ROM drive, may have experienced this error. I'm sure that the technology has improved over the past five years so that this can now be done properly.


• ERROR CORRECTION: The Tricks & Trivia option is listed in the menu without any indication as to what it really is. Would it have killed them to have added a menu screen that explains that it's trivia played over the film? I'm sure that many people got confused when they selected that option and the movie started playing.


• FEATURE: The Ray Parker Jr. "Ghostbusters" music video, with a subtitled trivia option that lists all the celebrities that make cameos in the video. Just pay the damn money to Arista Records and put it on the disc. You'll probably get people who'll buy the disc just for that. Hell, I bought The Goonies DVD simply because it had the super-cool Cyndi Lauper "Goonies R Good Enough" music video on it (gotta love those 1980's WWF wrestler cameos). If there were any other music videos made for the film, put them on there as well.


• FEATURE: VH-1's Pop-Up Video version of the Ray Parker Jr. "Ghostbusters" music video. Again, just pay money to VH-1 and slap it on the DVD.


• FEATURE: Everything from the Criterion laserdisc that you left out of the 1999 DVD.


• FEATURE: The promo video and tv spots advertising the 1999 DVD release. The promo video includes a split-screen Before & After Special Effects comparisons that was left off of the DVD: When Ray first see Slimer in the hotel hallway.


• FEATURE: This may be asking too much, but I'd love to see the entire workprint that was used for the Deleted Scenes and Before & After Special Effects Comparisons. If Disney could release Beauty & The Beast with their "Work In Progress" print, so can CTHV.


• FEATURE: Speaking of deleted scenes, how about more of them, such as the infamous Fort Detmerring scene (if it's not in the workprint, see note above).


• FEATURE: Alternate footage from the TV version (such as "Knockabout of pure fun," "Sue your funny face," and "Wally Wick").


• FEATURE: More still photos and storyboards. I'd love to see every single production photo ever taken and every single storyboard on there.


• FEATURE: When the film was originally released, the Ghostbusters commercial seen in it was shown on tv as a real commercial with a real 1-800 number superimposed at the end. When called, a message would be played featuring Dan Aykroyd in character saying that the Ghostbusters were out on a job. If Dan has a copy of this message, or it's still in the vaults, put it on there.


• FEATURE: Ditch the filmographies, fix the Interactive Screenplay, and put more usable content on the DVD-ROM portion of the disc. Give people a reason to buy a DVD-ROM drive for their computer ... or to use the one they got.


• FEATURE: A digitalized version of the original press kit.


• FEATURE: Either a music only track or an official release of the GB1 Score CD bundled with each DVD.

They should also do a new release of the Ghostbusters II DVD as their 1999 offering was pathetic. The only thing they got right was the original theatrical 2.35:1 aspect ratio - which they got wrong on the previous VHS and laserdisc releases. Here are the new features I'd like to see on a new Ghostbusters II DVD (most of which mimics features from the 1999 Ghostbusters DVD).

• The original theatrical version featuring all the deleted Slimer footage. Better yet, give the viewer the option to watch the original theatrical or home video version (for those folks who prefer the version with the least amount of Slimer). Also, ditch the unnecessary and cropped Pan & Scan (aka "Standard") version of the film ... unless you're trying to illustrate how the Pan & Scan technique ruins films that have a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.


• The Bobby Brown "On Our Own" and RUN-D.M.C. "Ghostbusters" music videos. On Our Own should come with a subtitled trivia option that lists all the celebrities that make cameos in the video. If there were any other music videos made for the film, put them on there as well.


• The Oprah Winfrey Show from June 1989 with the cast of the film. Just pay Oprah's company the money and get it on the disc. CTHV will make enough in revenue and profits from the disc to easily make back what they spent.


• The original "Making Of" featurette.


• DVD-ROM content, such as an Interactive Screenplay.


• ALL teasers, trailers, and tv spots for GB2. If they want to include other films, such as GB1, Stripes, or Groundhog Day, that's fine, as long as they completely cover the film on the disc.


• Deleted scenes.


• Still photos and storyboards. I'd love to see every single production photo ever taken and every single storyboard on there.


• Either a music only track or an official GB2 Score CD bundled with each DVD.


• This may be asking too much, but I'd love to see an entire workprint of the film, if one exists (and I'm guessing it does since they got one for GB1).


• A digitalized version of the original press kit.


• Audio commentary would be nice, but I could live without it if all of the other features I suggested were added.


• Oh, and correct the title error on the packaging.  It's "Ghostbusters II" not "Ghostbusters 2" for crying out loud

For the past couple of years (maybe longer) magazine, book, and comic book publishers have used variant/alternate covers to increase sales. These issues all have the same content, but different covers. Not much work has to be done by the publisher, and yet they get to sell two times as many copies of their publication (or more depending on how many different covers there are). These are targeted not to the general public, but to the fans of the publication or of the subject matter depicted on the cover. The problem is that if you have too many alternate covers, and you print alternate covers of your publication too often, you start to lose and/or alienate your intended audience. I believe this is why TV Guide, who has had numerous alternate covers over the past ten years ranging from X-Files to Wrestling (which itself had numerous issues with alternates), has slowed down on the amount of "Collector's Edition" issues it publishes (there certainly aren't as many per year as there used to be). This is something I wish 88MPH Studios would learn.

In current circulation is part 1 of a 4 part story (mini-series) entitled "Legion." Issue #2 isn't even out yet and there are already SIX different versions of issue #1 (see images above)! Think about it. There are more versions of issue #1 than there are parts to the story. In addition to this, each of the other three parts will have a variant cover each. So there will be a total of 12 different comics for a 4 part story. After the Legion story concludes, the comics will restart at #1 as a regular monthly series. Issue #1 of the ongoing series already has a variant cover!

Legion issue #1 hit stores in mid-April, two months after it's intended release date of February 2004. We have yet to see issue #2, or even the 2nd printing of #1 (which contains the 6th alternate cover, featuring the Ecto-1). 88MPH is run by one man, and I'm starting to think that the GB comic may be too much for him to handle. I think we may be lucky if we get the last three parts of Legion by the end of the year, much less the first issue of the ongoing series in June (it's current target release date, if you believe that!).

Personally, I think the series should stop after Legion concludes and NOT go on to be a regular series. Of course, with all these damn variant covers, I'm tempted to stop buying altogether.

BUY COMICS:
• Graham Crackers - NOW RGB & 88MPH GB
• 88MPH GB #1 Toyzz.com Exclusive
• Mile High - 88MPH GB

BUY 88 MPH GB: LEGION #1 UV INCENTIVE COVER
(also available at Graham Crackers for $40.00)
[prices listed are as of this writing, item may not be in stock]
• $9.45 - Click And Carry (I bought my copy from them)
• $9.95 - Comic Central
• $25.00 - Mile High
• $29.99 - Rupps World

Welcome to a new feature here at Spook Central - the web journal. I will use this to post site update information, news, and my thoughts. This will allow me to give this site some freshness, since all other parts of this site will not be updated very often.  I'll even post stuff on here that will never be on the site or may not appear on the site for a long time to come.

You can even post replies/comments to my postings, though if people abuse this privilege by spamming it, then I'll turn this feature off. (Keep in mind that I won't read the replies on a regular basis, so e-mail is still the best way to contact me.)