Michael Keaton and Tim Burton is a combination one can’t have enough of and rightfully so. The two first collaborated on the 1988 feature Beetlejuice which left the audience in awe and wanting more. Despite Beetlejuice 2 being co-written by Burton with Jonathan Gems following the success of the original feature, the movie stayed in development hell for decades only getting an official announcement this year in May with the acclaimed director helming a script co-written by Wednesday scribes Alfred Gough and Miles Millar and Keton returning to his iconic role. In a recent chat with Empire Magazine, the actor praised the "handmade" nature of the project.
All the details about the project are being tightly kept under wraps but the return of cast members like Winona Ryder confirms it’s going to be a direct sequel set in contemporary times. "Beetlejuice is the most f--kin’ fun you can have working. It’s so fun, it’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie," Keaton revealed, before adding a small visual tease of the highly-anticipated sequel, saying:
"There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move."
Michael Keaton and Tim Burton’s Long Journey To Bring Beetlejuice 2 to Big Screen
A sequel was always in the works for the actor and director it was only a matter of time before all the right aspects come together. "[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody. I said, ‘if it happens, first of all, we’ve both said we’re doing it many times. We both agreed, if it happens, it has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time,” Keaton said.
The movie is currently in production and Keaton dished out some details of the director’s vision who often loves to construct the world the movie is set in. He said like the original feature they’re “Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. F--kin’ great. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long."
The sequel has a delicious cast lined up with Wednesday star Jenna Ortega set to play Lydia's daughter, Catherine O'Hara reprising her role as Delia Deetz, Monica Bellucci joining the cast as Beetlejuice's wife, as well as Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe, are cast in undisclosed roles.
Beetlejuice 2 will be in cinemas on September 6, 2024. Watch out this space for further developments.