Bill Murray says he was tricked into starring 'Ghostbusters II'

Bill Murray. Pic/AFP

Hollywood star Bill Murray says he was reluctant to do another "Ghostbusters" movie but was tricked into starring its sequel. "Ghostbusters", a 1984 classic comedy about three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City, featured Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis in key roles. Murray and the cast members were pitched an idea by the studio that never materialised in the 1989 sequel, the actor said during a panel at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, reported Collider. "I thought that the only reason anyone would want another one was just to make money. And I was probably the most reluctant. Someone outfoxed me anyway.

"I don't know if Ivan (Reitman, director) set it up but they got us all back together in a room, and really, we hadn't been together in a room since the movie came out and it was just really, really fun to be together. We were really funny together...They got us all together and they pitched a story idea that was really great. I thought, 'Holy cow, we could make that work," Murray recalled. Based on that pitch, Murray agreed to star in the film but the sequel was very different from the story they were initially given. "It ended up not being the story they wrote. They got us in the sequel under false pretenses. Harold (Ramis, Murray's co-star) had this great idea, but by the time we got to shooting it, I showed up on set and went, 'What the hell is this? What is this thing?' But we were already shooting it, so we had to figure out how to make it work."

The experience of working on the film remained memorable for Murray as it marked his reunion with his co-stars but the actor is not a fan of the sequel. Murray is now all set to make an appearance in the new "Ghostbusters" movie, "Ghostbusters: Afterlife", directed by Jason Reitman. The film is currently set for release on November 11. "We were just in it for a little while, but it was physically painful," Murray said explaining that wearing the ghostbuster gear was "extremely uncomfortable" though they now "batteries the size of earrings". "It's still a really heavy thing to wear, all the time. The special effects in this one are a lot of wind and dirt in your face, and there was a lot of going down and getting back up. I was like, 'What is this? What am I doing? These are like Bulgarian deadlifts, or a Russian kettlebell, getting up and down with this thing on my back.' It was very uncomfortable."

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