The first Beetlejuice movie came out in 1988 and pretty much instantly became a cult classic among fans of all things weird, ooky and spooky. It starred Winona Ryder as gothy teenager Lydia Deetz and Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, a mischievous spirit who tries to purge Lydia and her family from their new home.
Now, decades later, the cast has reunited for Beetlejuice 2, which will feature many actors from the first film as well as some new ones, like Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter. “e shot about the same number of days as the first one,” director Tim Burton recently told BFI. “Working with these people again, and seeing them all, it was very emotional for me. Again, just going back to the old, same puppets and techniques. It goes back to the good old days.”
Speaking of shooting about the same number of days as on the first one, if only they could have worked slightly faster…
Shooting on Beetlejuice 2 was “a day and a half” from being done when production shut down
Burton and company were almost done shooting Beetlejuice 2 when Hollywood actors went on strike in July, which forced them to stop production. “Literally, it was a day and a half,” Burton told the Independent. “We know what we have to do. It is 99 per cent done.”
Beetlejuice 2 is currently set for release on September 6, 2024. But with no end to the actors strike in sight, it’s possible that this could get moved back. We’ll wait and see.
Happily, the movie sounds like it will be worth waiting for. During his talk with the Independent, Burton once again noted how much he enjoyed making the film. “I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”
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