Posted in: Movies, Warner Bros | Tagged: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, tim burton

The Questions Tim Burton Wants To Answer In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice director Tim Burton had a list of questions he wanted to answer when planning out the long-awaited sequel.

People have been asking for a sequel to Beetlejuice for a very long time, and those involved with the film dodged the question or said "they'd be interested" or some variation of those words if the right people were involved with the project. These days, there is no middle ground for sequels to films made in the 1980s that became cult classics. You're either a massive hit, or you're so bad you might stain the original with your mere presence, and if you've forgotten, then that is the best you can hope for. It seems that studios are finally starting to realize that they can't half-ass this, and if they want actual box office success, they need to hire the right people and give them a budget they can work with — gone are the day's audiences will show up to a film based on the IP alone. We're all too damn broke to waste our money like that.

So Beetlejuice Beetlejuice wouldn't become a reality until everyone who needed or wanted to be involved was in it, and things finally came together for the sequel. The film is now set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and it's another attempt for Warner Bros. to pull itself out of this box office slump it has been in since Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. There were rumors for years that the film was in the works. Still, director Tim Burton revealed in an interview with Variety that this film couldn't have happened earlier "because, first of all, I had no idea to do a sequel — again, this is before the time where those things were talked about."

Burton spoke about returning to the world he created in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and what questions he wanted to answer heading into the film. "But to revisit it now was nice because Lydia was a character that I always felt strongly about," Burton explained. "What happens to people 35 years later? Where do they go? What's their journey? And what happened to the Deetz family? This feeling about it was quite simple for me and emotional. That became the anchor of where it goes from there. When you go from being a cool teenager to an adult, what journey do you take? And then with all these people I love working with — Michael Keaton and Catherine O'Hara and Winona Ryder — it was just very strange but beautiful. And with the new cast, it felt emotional, but it also felt new. And I didn't watch the original again, mostly because I never knew why it was successful, to begin with. So I just treated it as something that I could not think about anything more than that. Just dive in and do it quickly — like we did in the past."

All signs seem to point toward the fact that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is only happening because Burton, Michael Keaton, and other cast members want it to and not because Warner Bros. is bullying them into it. If Burton and Keaton could have been bullied into making this film, they would have made it during the height of the animated television show to try and pull in new fans. There's always the worry in the back of your mind that this is a cynical cash grab, and considering the track record of Hollywood, healthy skepticism is important. However, one of the advantages to being in the industry as long as Keaton, Burton, and Winona Ryder have been is that you can say "no" without worrying whether or not you'll be able to afford rent next month. We'll have to see what happens, but this is a reminder that festival reactions tend to be very extreme, so if the responses for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice appear to lack nuance, they probably are. More nuanced takes will start to come out when critics don't have a turnaround time of five minutes for a review.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Summary, Cast List, Release Date

Beetlejuice is back! Oscar-nominated, singular creative visionary Tim Burton and Oscar nominee and star Michael Keaton reunite for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the long-awaited sequel to Burton's award-winning Beetlejuice.

Keaton returns to his iconic role alongside Oscar nominee Winona Ryder (Stranger Things, Little Women) as Lydia Deetz and two-time Emmy winner Catherine O'Hara (Schitt$ Creek, Corpse Bride) as Delia Deetz, with new cast members Justin Theroux (Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, The Leftovers), Monica Bellucci (Spectre, The Matrix films), Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon) in his feature film debut, with Emmy nominee Jenna Ortega (Wednesday, Scream VI) as Lydia's daughter, Astrid, and Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (Poor Things, At Eternity's Gate).

Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic, and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times, and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

Burton, a genre unto himself, directs from a screenplay by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (Wednesday), story by Gough & Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith (The LEGO® Batman Movie), based on characters created by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson. The film's producers are Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper, and Burton, with Sara Desmond, Katterli Frauenfelder, Gough, Millar, Brad Pitt, Larry Wilson, Laurence Senelick, Pete Chiappetta, Andrew Lary, Anthony Tittanegro, Grahame-Smith, and David Katzenberg executive producing.

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