We’ve been keeping you up to date on the latest for the third installment of Ghostbusters which was set to proceed without Bill Murray, but since the sad passing of Harold Ramis, not only is the movie down two Ghostbusters, but the Ghostbusters 1 and 2 director Ivan Reitman has decided to step out of the director’s chair.

According to Deadline, Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis had been extremely close friends, working on three other films together (not counting the Ghostbusters movies), and it just didn’t feel right to stay on as the director. FEAR NOT. He will be personally involved in helping to assign a replacement. He is staying on as producer and he and everyone else involved with the project is confident that the script is good.

It’s a version of Ghostbusters that has the originals in a very minor role. When I came back from Harold’s funeral, it was really moving and it made me think about a lot of things. … I’d been thinking about it for weeks, that I’d rather just produce this Ghostbusters. I told them I thought I could help but let’s find a really good director and make it with him. So that’s what we’ve agreed will happen. I didn’t want all kinds of speculation about what happened with me, that is the real story.

They plan on starting production late this year or early next year in New York City for Sony Pictures.

We’ll keep you posted on the latest for Ghostbusters 3.