Let’s turn on the juice and see what shakes loose!
As the SAG-AFTRA strike took effect during the summer, production for the long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice had just two days left of shooting.
While that fact was probably incredibly frustrating for the cast, crew and everyone involved in the process, the reality was that they would have to wait another 118 days on top of the 34 years since the original dropped in cinemas.
However, once the strike ended on November 9, it meant that Beetlejuice 2 was the first major movie to be completed once actors were able to work.
Director Tim Burton announced on Thursday, November 30 that filming had finally finished, and its release date is set for September 6, 2024.
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Beetlejuice sequel could easily be an instant classic
The 1988 Beetlejuice is a highly quotable masterpiece of the weird and one of Tim Burton’s most iconic films, with Michael Keaton‘s performance as the chaotic bio-exorcist one of the best of his incredible career.
With many of the cast of the original returning for the sequel, including Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara, as well as the strong additions of Wednesday star Jenna Ortega (she was born to be in this film), Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci, things are looking very positive.
Stacked on top of that is Tim Burton’s assurances that the film will be a close representation of the original, right down to the low budget puppetry (Beetlejuice was made on a budget of just $15 million).
In an interview with The Independent in September, Burton said, “I tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with good people and actors and puppets. It was kind of like going back to why I liked making movies.”
In another interview, Keaton described filming the sequel as “the most fuckin’ fun you can have working.”
He told Empire, “It’s so fun, it’s so great. And you know what it is? We’re doing it exactly like we did the first movie. There’s a woman in the great waiting room for the afterlife literally with a fishing line – I want people to know this because I love it – tugging on the tail of a cat to make it move.”
He continued, “It has to be done as close to the way we made it the first time. Making stuff up, making stuff happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade stuff like people creating things with their hands and building something. Fuckin’ great. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in, I can’t tell you how long.”
The sheer excitement radiating from Keaton about the upcoming sequel should assure us that Beetlejuice 2 is bound to be one of the classics of 2024.
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