if other actors are going to be the ghostbusters, why can't they be a different movie?
Because it's all about the brand name. It's same reason they constantly reboot/recast Bond instead of just creating a new British secret agent series every ten years or so.
The problem is actually Ackroyd himself at this point. The guy is now the exact kind of tired hack that people like he, Belushi and Murray were satirizing back on SNL in the old days. With him involved this is probably going to end up about as "good" as "Blues Brothers 2000."
Murray obviously realizes this and doesn't want to ruin his current good rep to be part of this whole "desperate has-been SNL cast members" thing.
As for new actors...why not? I remember when a lot of people said they could never reboot Star Trek... that no one would replace Keaton as Batman (and that Keaton could never replace West)... that the public would never accept a blonde James Bond, etc.
Seems to me that the talent is the key, not the concept. For example, if they got guys like (off the top of my head) Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Paul Rudd and Craig Robinson to play Venkman, Ray, Egon and Winston, in a "Ghostbusters" reboot/sequel,
written and directed by someone with actual talent, it might be worth watching.
But the idea of Ackroyd mugging for the camera and pretending he's still relevant would be just plain sad and probably worse than seeing Ashton play "Oscar Venkman" at this point.
