Director Tim Burton has not altogether dismissed the idea of a sequel to his much-loved (by me) Beetlejuice movie, but he approaches the subject with some reservations. Earlier this week Vulture spoke with the director about the chances of Michael Keaton’s creepy character once again gracing the silver screen. While Burton recalled the film with a good deal of fondness, he seemed wary about bringing the cast (including Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder) back together without first having a really solid script.
Last summer Burton revealed that Dark Shadows screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith had been monkeying around with a script for a Beetlejuice sequel. “Seth is writing something, so we’ll see,” said the director. “I love the character but I want to just kind of look at it from a fresh perspective and see what he comes up with. That’s, like, one of my favourite characters I’ve ever dealt with… I would love to revisit that character at some point.” For his part, Grahame-Smith says that Beetlejuice 2 would be “a true sequel with Michael Keaton as the title character,” and not a reboot or a remake (which is a relief for those of still horrified by the news that Gremlins, The Neverending Story, and The Warriors are all up for modern makeovers).
But these days Burton is sounding just a little less enthusiastic: “Those were fun characters, but I’d have to see what the script was like and if it was worth doing—I can’t just make it because it’s one of the worst ten movies of the year! The first two films I did, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, made the ten-worst-movies-of-the-year lists. Then, years later, people said they were my best movies. What? I’ve had conflicting information from the beginning.” Huh. Can’t imagine how that feels.
