Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice Two Is In The Works!

The on-again, off-again saga of a Beetlejuice sequel has been going on since the late nineties. However, the last incarnation of the oft-bemused continuation of Tim Burton’s seminal horror-comedy came from none other than Winona Ryder herself.

Winona told the Daily Beast last November that the film was going ahead, and Tim Burton was attached as director and Michael Keaton was coming back in the role he made famous. The only one Winona seemed a bit sketchy as to returning to Beetlejuice was herself. “I’m kind of sworn to secrecy,” Ryder said. “But it sounds like it might be happening.”

And there ended another chapter in the Beetlejuice sequel saga, until this past weekend, when Beetlejuice himself, Michael Keaton, made some interesting comments about the sequel.

According to Movie Pilot, Keaton said:

“I’ve emailed Tim [Burton] a couple of times, talked to the writer a couple of times, but all really, really preliminary stuff until relatively recently. I always said that’s the one thing I’d like to do again, if I ever did anything again. But it kind of required Tim to be involved some way or another.”

So, from Michael Keaton’s point of view, a Beetlejuice sequel needs to include director Tim Burton, and now it looks like that has happened.

Keaton continued:

“Now it looks like he’s [Tim Burton] involved. And without giving too much away, we’ve talked to each other, and e-mailed each other and if he’s in, it’s going to be hard not to be in.”

Beetlejuice was Tim Burton’s second major Hollywood film. Hot off the success of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Beetlejuice was released in 1988 to both critical and popular acclaim. Starring Michael Keeton, Alec Baldwin, Gina Davis and Winona Ryder, Beetlejuice told the story of a young couple forced to cope with a frustrating life after death. When a family of pretentious yuppies invade their home with their goth daughter, the couple seeks out the help of Beetlejuice, an obnoxious, rude, over-the-top bio-exorcist to help. Soon enough, however, it’s Beetlejuice the couple and the family need help to get rid of.

Made on a veritable shoestring budget of about $15 million, the film grossed over $73.7 million dollars which wasn’t too shabby in 1988. The film spawned a cartoon television version which ran from 1989 to 1991. Beetlejuice helped make household names out of both Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. They would both go on to make Batman and Batman Returns – with Keaton in the title role – after the success of Beetlejuice.

image via Villains Wikia