So is Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) going to cement his feminist comedy cred with an all-female Ghostbusters 3?

Original Ghostbuster director and now producer Ivan Reitman doesn’t deny it, but the question gives him a pained expression.

“Dan Aykroyd’s been talking on a continuous basis, and I keep telling him, please stop talking about it and let people create their own rumours,” Reitman said in an interview to celebrate the 30th anniversary re-release of Ghostbusters into theatres and a new, upcoming Blu-ray of Ghostbusters I and II.

The theatrical run has been so successful, it’s been renewed for another week nationwide. The new Blu-ray double-bill, meanwhile, is due for release Sept. 16

The closest Reitman would come to admitting the rumour was to say, “We’ve always talked about having a very strong female presence in whatever Ghostbusters version we’re going to tell.”

More importantly, the project may take a giant leap forward this weekend when Reitman and Aykroyd meet with officials from Sony (which has a first-look deal on the project) in Toronto. “I do believe there will be a Ghostbusters 3. The studio is extremely interested and we’re having a meeting about it at my restaurant Montecito.”

Reitman opened the restaurant earlier this year near the TIFF Bell Lightbox that was built on a lot donated from the Reitman family.

“We’ve never thought about it personally as Ghostbusters 3, just a new kind of Ghostbusters. And I think Paul’s an appropriate director for what we’re talking about.”

Naturally there’s nothing to say at this point of any role the original Ghostbusters would play, least of all Bill Murray – the guest of honour yesterday on what the Toronto International Film Festival declared Bill Murray Day.

“I love the guy, he changed my life,” Reitman said of Murray, who also worked for Reitman in Meatballs. “I don’t think I ever would have achieved the success I achieved without connecting with him very early in my life.

“I managed to snag Bill for Meatballs, which was really conceived here (Toronto) and shot in Haliburton like right now 35 years ago. We started shooting a week after Animal House opened and finished at the end of September.”

And if there’s anything to suggest Murray might take part in the Ghostbusters reboot in some form, it’s the respect Murray had for Aykroyd. “When (Aykroyd) sent the script to me, he’d already talked to Bill. And the result was this was one time I didn’t have to track Bill down and beg him to be in my movie.”

Twitter: @jimslotek

jim.slotek@sunmedia.ca