Tim Burton has revealed how close he was to completing Beetlejuice 2 before the strikes in Hollywood halted production.
The original Beetlejuice, released in 1988, starred Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Alec Baldwin, Catherine O'Hara and Geena Davis. It was a critical and commercial success, earning $74.7 million on a budget of $15m.
There was talk of a sequel for years and the project went through development hell before officially being announced in February of 2022, with Keaton, Ryder and O'Hara returning.
Unfortunately, the movie may be delayed for release due to the actor and writer strikes.
"We had a day and a half left before the strike happened," Burton told the British Film Institute.
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"I feel lucky that we got as far as we did. It is like 98, 99 per cent done. It was a great experience. It reinvigorated my love of making movies."
At the moment, Beetlejuice 2 is set for release in September of 2024.
Several Hollywood productions in both movies and television are currently on hold due to the strikes.
The Beetlejuice gang back together
Burton says it was "special" to work with Keaton, O'Hara and Ryder again while welcoming Jenna Ortega to the Beetlejuice family.
"It’s so weird because I don’t overly keep in contact with people, but this was very special, because obviously the sequel had been talked about for 35 years. I truly never quite understood the success of the first one. It’s one of life’s beautiful mysteries," he explained.
"When I did this one, I didn’t look at the first movie, because it didn’t feel like it would help. I treated it just very much as a project where, after 35 years, the anchor for me is what happened to
"So that anchored the emotion and the feeling, then working with Michael and Winona and Catherine, and also with Jenna and having these new people, all this beautiful new blood into it ... 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."
Related Movie
Beetlejuice
Comedy / Fantasy
1988 • 92 minutes
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