There’s a new Beetlejuice film in the works. It’s been rumoured for a while, but now it’s real, true, confirmed by Winona Ryder on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
“I think I can confirm it, because Tim Burton did this interview,” Ryder told Meyers. “It was very hush hush, top secret. And then he was doing some press for Big Eyes and he did an on-camera interview, and he said, ‘Oh yeah, we’re doing it, and Winona’s going to be in it.’ If he said it, I can…” She went on to talk about the enduring love of the movie, even among young kids who would have been born long after its 1988 release. Apparently, people – including Transportation Security Administration staff – often ask her to say “Beetlejuice” three times. This whole clip is worth watching:
For a lot of people, this will be great news, I’m sure. Me, I’m not so convinced. Beetlejuice is one of my all-time favourites; there’s no way to describe it as an “all-time classic” without sounding wanky, so I’ll describe at as such, wank and all. I’m not going to go as far as saying a sequel would ruin the original – that’s a ridiculous notion – but I seriously wonder whether a sequel could capture the magic of the original, even without having to fight through the rose-tinted glasses of longtime fans.
But, I’m ready to be proven wrong. George Miller took a beloved classic and utterly eclipsed it with Mad Max: Fury Road, so there’s every hope that Burton could do the same to Beetlejuice – especially with Ryder and (hopefully) Michael Keaton involved. We’ll see.
