During a recent interview with Variety, the outlet asked Michael Keaton the obligatory Beetlejuice 2 question: What do you know about the project? And his answer might surprise you. Turns out he knows about as much as we do. Maybe less. “No. Zero. You always hear things, that this is happening, and people seem to know more about it than I do.” He indicated that he loves the character but admitted that “it’s possible that ship has sailed.”
“The only way to do it is to do it right,” he continued. “So much of it was improvised and so much was beautifully handmade by the artist that is Tim Burton. If you can’t get close to that, you leave it alone.” Keaton went on to say “There are certain movies that are like Indian burial grounds. You never ride over them. Bad s— happens if you cross that. You don’t touch certain things. They are sacred.”
Last we heard, Tim Burton said that it was something that he would really like to do but only under the right circumstances. From the sound of it, the cast is potentially down to return if all the pieces align. But it’s a matter of getting everyone’s schedule cleared at the same time, getting a great script, and getting the studio on board.
This is a follow up effort that has suffered through development hell for years and while it seemed as though things were finally coming together at one point, it looks like we may be waiting indefinitely for this project to materialize. Last we heard, Seth Grahame-Smith had been tapped to pen the script. As far as we know, his is the most recent draft of the screenplay but don’t hold your breath on the picture going into production any time soon.
The original film sees a pair of recently deceased ghosts trying to exorcise the new (living) inhabitants of their home by enlisting the services of a bio-exorcist.
