Harold Ramis, whose career as a comedian, writer, actor, and director endeared him to the masses and created such memorably hilarious works such as Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, the first Vacation film and Groundhog Day, died today from complications of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis, a rare disease that involves swelling of the blood vessels, according to the Chicago Tribune, who confirmed the news with Ramis’s wife Erica Mann Ramis. He was 69.

The work of Harold Ramis is like a meshing of Second City and National Lampoon (he’d been a part of both), a kind of zany art of comedy styles that lied somewhere between the chaos of a John Belushi and the down-to-earth, yet fully mired in the deadpan musings of a Bill Murray. Murray, in fact, was one of Ramis’s top bananas and cinematic cohorts: Ramis worked alongside Murray on the big screen in Stripes as his reluctant best buddy when they got themselves signed up for the Army by way of life proxy, and in Ghostbusters, as the geek-scientist-raised-to-the-highest-level Egon. Ramis also directed Murray in films like the incomparable raunchy screwball comedy on the golf links Caddyshack and the repetitive and that’s the point Groundhog Day. He also co-wrote the legendary frat comedy Animal House, which to this day, continues to inspire (albeit mostly lackluster) imitations.

No matter how hard we try, we can’t get away from any news about Ghostbusters 3. A couple of weeks back Ghostbusters star we reported that Dan Aykroyd was saying that they were bringing in a new writer for the film. Now we didn’t know if this was lip service to an always nagging question or if it was true. And if it was true, would they start with a fresh story or would they use the script written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.

Now we can confirm a couple of things. First, yes, they are bringing in a new writer. Men In Black III and Tropic Thunder scribe Etan Cohen (not to be confused with Ethan Coen) has been brought in to do a couple of rewrites on the script that Eisenberg and Stupnitsky wrote back in 2008.

Much like the R-rated Spawn movie Todd McFarlane keeps saying is going to happen but most likely never will, Ghostbusters 3 is a movie that is now apparently being kept barely alive through the sheer force of will belonging to the most vocal of its proponents, Dan Aykroyd. Ivan Reitman, the director of the first two Ghostbusters movies, and Harold Ramis, Aykroyd’s co-star and co-writer on the original 1984 comedy blockbuster and its less-successful 1989 sequel, have openly expressed interest in doing a third movie, while Bad Teacher scribes Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg have written a screenplay that would feature the original Ghostbusters passing their proton packs on to successors who would be younger and more accessible to modern movie comedy audiences.

For as long as we’ve known about the possibility of Ghostbusters 3 happening, we’ve wondered whether original director Ivan Reitman would return to helm the trilogy maker. It’s been loosely confirmed many times that all of the original cast members would be returning though people like Rick Moranis and Annie Potts are still unknowns. And on top of that, writer/star Harold Ramis has already claimed that a 2011 release was happening.

Well folks, it wasn’t in any type of big or flashy unveiling, but while speaking to MTV on the red carpet for the National Board of Review in NYC, Reitman confirmed that he would indeed be directing the movie. Reitman explained that a draft was in the bank and that a second was being worked on right now, but didn’t say much when asked if he was in fact directing; he simply said “Yes” and that he “hopes to start shooting in this next year,” which is more than enough for us to be excited. Ivan hasn’t had the best of films recently, and he needs to slam dunk one here to keep up with his son Jason Reitman, who at the moment can do no wrong in the eyes of many.

We’ve been hearing things like this for a while now, so it is a little difficult to embrace this quote with open arms, but nonetheless: Ghostbusters writer and original star Harold Ramis sat down and had a little chat with Heeb, where he discuss everything from Animal House to Groundhog Day to the status of a one Ghostbusters 3.

We’ve heard rumors of a new younger and prettier cast replacing the originals. We’ve heard Ramis and Dan Aykroyd make multiple claims that the movie would be coming soon and that almost the entire cast would be back, including Ramis, Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson (Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, and Rick Moranis are unknowns). And now comes word from Ramis that the film will in fact be shooting in he Summer of 2010 and will be released sometime in 2011.

Continue reading to read a quote from Ramis and follow the link above for the full interview.