Beetlejuice 2 “is a go” according to Tim Burton
UPDATE: MTV has confirmed through Tim Burton’s rep that the sequel is not in development and that the director did not provide a statement to Showbiz Spy. The earlier story is below:
Michael Keaton solidified his renaissance by appearing in Spotlight, his second Best Picture winner in a row, which means director Tim Burton is probably anxious to get back in business with his former muse for the much-promised Beetlejuice 2. In a new interview with Showbiz Spy the gothy filmmaker confirmed that he, Keaton and Wynona Ryder are locked in to resurrect the ghost with the most.
“The film is a go and has been approved by the Warner Bros. team, we have talked with the cast members we wanted for the film and they are all on board, this includes both Winona and Michael,” Burton insists. “We have the script in hand, everything is in place, all we need to do now is get ready to start filming.”
Of course we’ve heard the film is a go about 167 times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time we hear it. The last time we had an update was from Ryder, who could only say that her sad teenager Lydia Deetz would be coming back, most likely as a clinically depressed adult.
“I think I can confirm it because Tim Burton did this interview,” Ryder confirmed to NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers last year. “It was very hush-hush, top secret, ‘I don’t know what may happen, I don’t know,’ and then he was doing some press for ‘Big Eyes’ and he did an on-camera interview and he said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re doing it and Winona’s gonna be in it.’ So can I say…? I mean if he said it. But I really don’t know much more than anybody else.”
During promotion for Big Eyes in 2014, Burton talked to CS about the long-gestating sequel, which has been under consideration since the early ’90s, at one time under the title Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
“It’s a character that I love and I miss and I miss actually working with Michael,” Burton said. “There’s only one Betelgeuse. We’re working on a script and I think it’s probably closer than ever and I’d love to work with him again.”
Frequent Burton collaborator Seth Grahame-Smith (Dark Shadows, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, the in-development animated movie Night of the Living) and David Katzenberg (“The Goldbergs”) are penning the script for the currently-untitled Beetlejuice 2, which may be Burton’s next directorial project after Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
