As you’ve certainly heard by now, the wheels are finally in motion on a sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice, with Tim Burton returning to direct, Michael Keaton back in action as the titular ghost, and Jenna Ortega onboard as the daughter of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder’s character in the original; she, too, is expected to return for the sequel). A solid start for a film most of us assumed would remain in development hell, where it’s been for many, many years now.
Well, according to a recent report over at Deadline, the Beetlejuice 2 party will be joined by another integral member of the original film’s team: composer Danny Elfman, whose Beetlejuice score remains one of his very best efforts.
Elfman tells Deadline:
“I love being a fly on the wall when he’s shooting. I’ll be doing that in a couple of months, as you may know, on [Beetlejuice 2]. That is very exciting, to return to that world.”
Elfman goes on to mention that a friend recently asked him if star Michael Keaton was really returning to the role after all these years, the implication seeming to be that he might be a little too old to play the character, to which Elfman replied:
“I said, ‘He’s not even going to look that much different. That’s the beauty of the Beetlejuice makeup. He already looked like he was 150 in the first one.’
It’s perfect, you know? Everybody else has to play the next generation, except for Michael. I mean, he’s still like really fit and really active and really on it. And with the Beetlejuice makeup, I can’t even imagine it’s going to look like he’s changed practically at all. So, I can’t wait for that.”
Gotta agree with Elfman on this one. Chances are, Beetlejuice is gonna look pretty much exactly as we remember, with the possible addition of a few more wrinkles. Will that matter? Absolutely not.
What’ll matter is whether the film’s writers (Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, co-creators and co-showrunners on Netflix’s Wednesday) have delivered a script that can go toe-to-toe with the original. As of this writing, we have very little to go on in terms of what Beetlejuice 2 might be about … but, hey, at least they seem to have jettisoned that Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian idea that was kicking around for a while?
Nothing further to report on Beetlejuice 2 at this time, but stay tuned for further updates as they roll in. This writer is very curious to see how this one pans out.
