I was on the proton charging webfeed and one of the posters mentioned a bait and switch that was pulled on Bill Murray where they removed everything from the movie that was the reason he signed up for it after he had signed on or something. Can anyone give me more background on this and any info on what the things were that they removed that he liked in particular.
I had never heard of this tidbit before.
they probably promised him a decent movie. not sub par, with a rap sound track.
Charger, are you ok? you seem a bit snappy lately. 
Bass Masters. Its a fishing show.
Yeah I know Bass Masters, sure.
I was wondering about this too, it sounds like they all had a good time and pitched a completely different movie. Then Bill Murrary shows up, and is like WTF is this?
It had to have changed with all of the special effects throughout the making of the movie though - scenes and character building parts being cut.
Its hard to believe he would sign a contract around a pitch meeting without seeing the script first, who knows?
He intially refused to work on GBII unless Ernie Hudson and Rick Moranis were given bigger parts. They never increased Hudson’s role, and a lot of addtional scenes for Moranis were cut from the picture. He was ■■■■■■ about being tricked in this fashion. Hope that helped
But they did give Hudson more screen time, hell he got to save Ray and Egon from certain death and then was the pivotal character in the haunted tunnel scenes not to mention having the weapon that saved Ray in the end. Sorry, big GB II supporter and can get carried away. Murray was their ‘biggest’ actor and didn’t want to loose him. Deleting Louis’ scenes were probably done for time. If all deleted scenes were restored the movie would probably be 2 hours which is fine with me!
I don’t know. This wasn’t in that informational fact booklet that accompanies my dvd set. Probably never happened.
Actually before Bill signed on for the role Ernie had a much larger part planned. As far as Rick having a larger part I don’t know how much bigger of a part he needed really he had plenty for his character and the scenes that were out (while they be great to see) surely would stop the pacing.
Face it, Bill is a complainer
He’s definitely the biggest complainer of the group, but I really like that he was upset that other peoples’ roles were cut down. I think that’s pretty cool. 
Shane
The initial script for GBII was completely different. The only thing the film really retained was the underground motif, where as the first film was above ground with the Shandor building. Also there was to be a new love interest written as they thought Sigourney would not return for a sequel (she had gotten Oscar nods by that point). I know they went as far as screen testing other actresses. Netsolo, years ago, claimed to have read the script but gave few details… Also, I heard the initial script was really strange, like Dan’s original treament for the first film.
I kind of wish Sigourney DIDN’T do the sequel. One of the biggest problems I have with the movie is convincing myself to believe that of all the people on the planet, the Vigo painting just happens to end up in the hands of the same person who had Zuul in her fridge. I can suspend my disbelief enough to believe in 100 foot marshmallow men, but the Dana thing is a coincidence that makes me say “come on… REALLY?”
Let’s just say that first draft may be a little more odd than Dan’s idea for the original movie.
it’s been a while since i’ve read up on the subject… from what i’ve gathered, the whole bait and switch thing isn’t referring to “THE SEED” script, which was written well before all parties started talking about a second film. michael c. gross mentioned in an interview (MAYBE rolling stone?) about how the original idea had something that would have killed the comradery between venkman and the other GBs near the end of the film.
i’ve always been curious about the story ideas that swayed murray to sign on to the film…
fingers crossed for the GB2 BR to shed some light.
Ernie only got more screen time comparitively, since he didn’t exist until halfway through the first movie.
But aside from saving Ray and Egon, his character wasn’t beefed up at all.
And as far as the Louis scenes, I wish they stayed.
I love GBII.
But still, Not much Winston, hardly any Louis, So they went back on their agreement. Which is why he was mad.
some intresting info on gb2 i never knew. would love to hear more on the gb2 script that didnt happen
Here are some references to the deleted scenes:
http://www.gbfans.com/ghostbusters-2/books/storybook-jovial-bob-stein/
http://www.gbfans.com/ghostbusters-2/comics/
I was ■■■■■■ when I found out how many scenes were cut from GB2. And they weren’t half bad either…
Hopefully we’ll get them in the Blu-Ray whenever it comes out.
The way I under stand it, Bill Murray was disappointed that the special effects got more development than the jokes making Ghostbusters II. He later went on to tell Entertainment Weekly that " The film featured a lot of slime and not a lot of us"(the Ghostbusters).
i hope to see a return to more gb time and less ooo and ahhh at the special effects im with murray on this.