Tim Burton's BEETLEJUICE 2 Had Less Than Two Days Left To Shoot Before The Actors' Strike Hit
Tim Burton was only less than two days away from completing production on Beetlejuice 2 before the SAG-AFTRA strike launched. He was so close to finishing shooting and the team was 99% done with the movie. Burton shared this bit of information during an interview with The Independent, saying:
“I feel grateful we got what we got. Literally, it was a day and a half. We know what we have to do. It is 99 percent done.”
While he’s thankful that they got so far into production, it’s still got to be frustrating that they only had less than two days left to complete filming. In the meantime, they are able to work on the film in the post-production process.
The movie brings back Michael Keaton, who is returning to play the Ghost with the Most, Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, Jenna Ortega as her daughter, Catherine O'Hara as Delia Deetz, Justin Theroux (The Leftovers), and Monica Bellucci (Irreversible, Spectre, The Apartment) as Beetlejuice’s wife in the story. Willem Dafoe is also in the movie and plays a ghoulish law enforcement officer in the Neitherworld.
The film’s cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos recently offered some additional insight on the film explaining that the movie will tell a story about family: "At its heart 'Beetlejuice [2]' is a story about a family, and now it's 30 years later and what are the intricacies and the human condition in keeping a family together all that time set in the craziest world possible? That's why I choose projects. That human connection for me is always at the forefront."
The project started production this week with Burton directing from a script written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Wednesday and Smallville). The script was also worked on by Mike Vukadinovich, with earlier drafts from Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg. Katzenberg and Grahame-Smith are producing. Danny Elfman is also returning to compose the score.
The movie will be released in theaters on September 6th, 2024.