Ghostbusters 3 has been scheduled to start so many times it’s nearly a joke in and of itself. As far back as the mid-90’s Akyroyd had a script about a younger group of busters teaming up with the old crew to eradicate Manhattan’s spectral population, but it obviously never made it into production (and a lot had to do with Bill Murray’s reluctance at doing sequels).

Yesterday Production Weekly tweeted that Sony Pictures is “planning to put Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters 3 into production in May 2011″.

This is great news for fans of the franchise, but I’d suggest to freak out with caution: the news states “planning”, so that gives Sony a huge loophole if they get cold feet and pull the plug at the last minute. It wouldn’t be a surprising move, especially if Murray decides he wants nothing to do with this. Akyroyd, who wrote the script with the help of Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg (both from the American version of The Office), says Murray would be crazy not to participate, as Gene and Lee wrote him “the comic role of a lifetime”.

With May right around the corner expect official word regarding this to start appearing any minute now.