Tim Burton Says He Didn't Make BEETLEJUICE Sequel for the Money and Didn't Watch the First Movie to Prepare
Tim Burton recently appeared at a Venice Film Festival press conference for his upcoming film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and while there he talked about his motivation for making the film, and he insisted it wasn’t for the money.
The filmmaker also makes a point of saying that he didn’t even watch the first movie he made to prepare for the sequel, saying: “And I didn’t even watch it before I did it!”
Burton continued: “I wasn’t out to do a big sequel for money or anything like that, I wanted to make this for very personal reasons. Like I said, I didn’t watch the first movie to prepare for this. I remembered the spirit of it and I remembered everybody here.”
Burton has said that in recent years, he had become “disillusioned with the movie industry” and had realized that, if he was going to make another film, he had to “do it from the heart.”
That’s what he found in making Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. He went on to say: “As you grow older, sometimes your life takes a bit of a turn and I sort of lost myself a bit.
“So, for me, this movie was a reenergizing, a kind of getting back to the things I love doing, the way I love doing it and with people I love doing it with.”
When asked if there was a third Beetlejuice movie in the works, Burton laughed off the question and said: “Let’s do the math… it took 35 years to do this, so I’ll be over 100. But I guess it’s possible with the advent of science these days, but I don’t think so.”
Micheal Keaton, previously talked about the movie saying that it has "a stronger story" than the first film. the actor continued saying "There's more of a connection for the audience in terms of the other characters."
He added: "There's things in here that I wasn't ready for, that are beyond delightful. Instead of saying, 'I can't wait until this thing shows up,' or, 'I just want this thing called Beetlejuice to go nuts.'"
In the film, “After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened."
“With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.”
Keaton is joined by Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz, with new cast members Justin Theroux (The Leftovers), Monica Bellucci (Spectre, The Matrix films), Arthur Conti (House of the Dragon), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday, Scream VI) as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, and Willem Dafoe as a B-movie action star who died and became a police officer in the Afterlife.
Burton explained what interested him in telling this story, saying: "I so identified with the Lydia character, but then you get to all these years later, and you take your own journey, going from cool teenager to lame adult, back and forth again. That made it emotional, gave it a foundation. So that was the thing that really truly got me into it."
Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Wednesday and Smallville) wrote the script along with an earlier draft by Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg. Katzenberg and Grahame-Smith are also producing. Danny Elfman is returning to compose the score.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is set to be released in theaters on September 6, 2024.
Via: Variety