Just days after Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman decided, in the wake of the death of his friend and Ghostbusters writer/star Harold Ramis, to step down from the directing chair, it appears that Phil Lord and Chris Miller, the team behind the hugely successful LEGO Movie (and the big screen adaptation of 21 Jump Street) will take over the long gestating third Ghostbusters film.
 
Reitman will remain as a producer on the package, and he told Deadline: "We now have a draft that is very good, that the studio is very excited about."
 
In addition to breaking the news of Reitman’s departure from the director’s chair, Deadline also broke the news that Lord and Miller were the top choices to replace Reitman and at last shepherd the third Ghostbusters film to the silver screen.
 
It has now been 25 years since Ghostbusters 2 debuted in 1989, but the property remains popular enough to have spawned a recent comic book adaptation from IDW Publishing (see "New Ongoing 'Ghostbusters' Title").  According to Reitman, Ghostbusters 3 will focus largely on a new group of ghost hunters, and it still appears likely that Bill Murray will not be in the film (see "No Bill Murray in 'Ghostbusters 3'").