He’s still sounds about as indecisive as a kid in a colossal candy store, but filmmaker Tim Burton’s at least speaking about the prospect of a “Beetlejuice” sequel with some sort of enthusiasm. Considering the prolific perminator of cinema hasn’t spoken seriously about a sequel to his 1998 hit since the early ’90s, when he was gearing up to shoot a tropical-themed follow-up with the starry spite called “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian” (would’ve been shit, so we dodged a bullet! actually he did too), it must mean something, right!?
On scripting duties for the “Beetlejuice” sequel – which, yes, will star Michael Keaton; if it comes to be – is “Abraham Lincoln : Vampire Hunter” scribe Seth Grahame-Smith. Burton, a producer on the latter, tells Shock Til You Drop why he’s considering resurrecting (so to speak) Beetlejuice and not one of his other characters like, say, Edward Scissorhands or… I dunno, the three-nippled guy who lived with the Apes.
“Seth is writing something, so we’ll see. 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 favorite characters I’ve ever dealt with. (Michael) is one of the first people I worked with who was so good at improv. That movie, I was very lucky to work with a lot of actors, like him and Catherine O’Hara, who were very good at improv, so that kind of set me on a whole new course. I would love to revisit that character at some point.”
The flick would be produced by Grahame-Smith and producing partner David Katzenberg, the duo behind “Dark Shadows”; ideally, Burton would be in the director’s chair but I suppose there’s also a chance – what with the former twosome getting in on the filmmaking scene themselves – that the writers could end up directing for a producing Burton.
Anyway, Burton’s of course resurrected ‘Frankenweenie’, the stitched-up pooch from his early short for a feature-length flick, which is on the way shortly. And if you’re having Beetlejuice withdrawals, you can still catch ‘The Ghost With the Most’ in his grand performance at, er, Warner Bros Movie World.
