During a recent interview with MTV,
Tim Burton ("Batman") confirmed that
he will direct Beetlejuice 2, and he also confirmed that Winona Ryder ("Star Trek") will reprise her role as '
Lydia Deetz.' “
Oh yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah yeah, oh yeah,” Burton said when asked if Ryder was coming back for the sequel. Last year, Ryder hinted that she would be included, even so, it is much nicer to have the director confirm it.
“I worked with [Ryder], I hadn’t seen her in awhile… and she was so great,” Burton said. “I was so happy to see her. So those kinds of elements mean something to me. Michael, and her… and that character, I just miss it, there’s some freedom about that character that I love.”
In a separate interview with Coming Soon,
Burton was asked about the possibility of working with Michael Keaton ("Birdman") again and the current status of
Beetlejuice 2.
"It's a character that I love and I miss, and I miss actually working with Michael", Burton said. "There's only one Betelgeuse.
We're working on a script and I think it's probably closer than ever and I'd love to work with him again".
It has been almost three decades since the original came out. Can you believe that? God, I'm old. Hopefully, the sequel is right around the corner because if they wait any longer some of the returning cast members could literally play ghosts.
Beetlejuice (1988) - Thanks to the carelessness of a cute little dog, newlyweds Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are killed in a freak auto accident. Upon arriving in the outer offices of Heaven, the couple finds that, thanks to a century's worth of bureaucratic red tape, they're on a long celestial waiting list. Before they can earn their wings, Davis and Baldwin must occupy their old house as ghosts for the next fifty years. Alas, the house is now owned by insufferable yuppies Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones. Horrified at the prospect of sharing space with these obnoxious interlopers, Davis and Baldwin do their best to scare O'Hara and Jones away, but their house-haunting skills are pathetic at best. In desperation, the ghostly couple engage the services of a veteran scaremeister: a yellow-haired, snaggle-toothed, profane, flatulent "gonzo" spirit named Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton). The problem: Beetlejuice cannot be trusted-especially when he falls in love with O'Hara and Jones' gloomy, black-clad teenaged daughter Winona Ryder. Beetlejuice producer David Geffen, director Tim Burton, and composer Danny Elfman were also involved in an animated TV-series spin-off.