With the man who directed both Ghostbusters and its sequel starting to hit the publicity trail for his latest cinematic comedy, No Strings Attached, the countdown had already begun as to when someone would interrogate Ivan Reitman about the various stories circling Ghostbusters 3. And so it has come to pass: Coming Soon has him chatting about the rumours, shooting down most of the reporting that has wafted across the web so far.

“There is almost nothing that is accurate online about that film. There is nothing… I mean, all these stories… there has been a ton of stuff about casting, about who’s in… None of it is true,” says the director, who is involved in developing the third instalment as its director.

While some of his talk sounds like possible damage control, there’s no denying that this is someone who really would have a lot of say over what is real and what’s not where the ‘Busters are concerned. Even over a certain cranky cast member. “We have a really good script, but Bill Murray has to read it. He hasn’t read it. There has been all kinds of chatter online about him reading it and not liking it. He has not read a thing. He’s never read anything. And I just sent it to him. So we’ll see. God knows how long that will take. But we’ll see.”

So what can he say for sure? Mostly, it’s, er, what has been reported so far. “Sigourney Weaver has a role in this movie. All the original characters have parts. As well as a whole bunch of new characters.” And, somewhat naturally, he’s quick to turn things around to a more positive bent. “It’s got a really good story, this one. Maybe the best of the whole series. I hope we get to do it.” Big talk, considering the first film is a bona fide classic and the third has a burden heavier than the average proton pack to shoulder, and a studio hoping to get this one up and running as soon as humanly possible. Our fingers remain crossed for quality, but our brains are also still sceptical.