Beetlejuice 2 director Tim Burton has officially announced that he has completed principal photography on his long-awaited horror comedy sequel.
The Batman filmmaker took to social media to share the news, while posting the first official behind-the-scenes photo.
The image features Burton sitting in what looks a lot like the Neitherworld waiting room from the first movie, where Barbara and Adam Maitland's spirits were transported to after their deaths and Betelgeuse found himself stuck in an endless queue after being eaten by the Sandworm.
The movie was very close to wrapping when it was forced to suspend production due to the Hollywood strikes.
“I feel grateful we got what we got,” Burton told The Independent at the time. “Literally, it was a day and a half. We know what we have to do. It is 99 percent done."
"On this last one, Beetlejuice 2, I really enjoyed it," he added. "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.”
Check out the photo at the link below.
Michael Keaton will reprise his role as the Ghost With the Most, and he'll be joined by Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz. Both have been spotted in set photos/videos, and a still of Keaton's Betelgeuse recently leaked online before quickly being removed at the request of the studio.
You can check out the set videos below.
Keaton spoke about returning as the manic Bio-Exorcist in a recent interview with Empire.
"Beetlejuice is the most f--kin’ fun you can have working. 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," he says. "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."
"[Burton] and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anybody," he continued. "I said, ‘if it happens, first of all, we’ve both said we’re doing it many times. We both agreed, if it happens, 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. F--kin’ great. It’s the most fun I’ve had working on a movie in I can’t tell you how long."
Catherine O'Hara is also set to reprise her role as Lydia's mother, Delia Deetz. Other new cast members include Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz, Monica Bellucci as Betelgeuse's wife, Willem Dafoe as an afterlife cop, and Justin Theroux in an undisclosed role.
Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar penned the script.
Beetlejuice 2 is set to release in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024.