If a big name is needed, a protege of Elmer's seems like a great idea.
I'd still prefer Peter Bernstein of course, even though I know he hasn't had a big project in a while. But he collaborated with his dad on multiple occasions...writing additional music for Wild Wild West (which had the ondes martenot, used in Ghostbusters) and having his dad write additional music for the even better score to Rough Riders....
I'm still amazed they don't understand that the reason people love the original (and tolerate the sequel) is because of the main cast members and how they interact, not because people want to see a scifi-ghost-comedy genre mash-up.
You're assuming cluelessness where none exists. But it's one thing to say you'd like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd to star in your movie, and quite another to have that. And to have that at a price that makes sense. And Murray and Aykroyd are in their late sixties, and Harold Ramis is dead, and Ernie Hudson is in his mid-seventies. There's not a lot any studio can do about that.
But getting people to notice a movie at all these days is increasingly hard, so the studios are relying on proven pieces of intellectual property. Sure, a new "Ghostbusters" will get as much disdain on the internet as praise, but people notice it. You can't say that for "Mortal Engines" or "A Wrinkle in Time" or "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms."
Studios know the risk of reviving a franchise minus the beloved casts. Sometimes it works – there was a time when the lack of Sean Connery seemed like the end for James Bond – and often it doesn't. But all they're doing is putting things out there that they're hoping people will want to spend the money to see.
