There are few films more iconic to the goth crowd than “Beetlejuice,” the 1988 absurdist black comedy from director Tim Burton. The film starred Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz, a morose teen who moves into a new home and meets the ghosts of married couple Barbara and Adam (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin), as well as a sass-talking trickster from the underworld named Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton). While there have been multiple attempts to make a sequel to this strange, surreal movie, it looks like we’re finally getting one in 2024.
Announced in May 2023, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” will see Winona Ryder come back as Lydia, with Jenna Ortega of “Wednesday” fame playing her daughter, Astrid. They’ll be joined by a returning Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz and Monica Bellucci of “The Matrix” series as Beetlejuice’s wife. Justin Theroux of “The Leftovers” fame is playing a character named Rory, and the Green Goblin himself, Willem Dafoe, will be playing a B-movie star turned afterlife law enforcement officer. And, of course, you can’t have a “Beetlejuice” movie without Michael Keaton, and the Oscar-nominated star is indeed returning as the ghost with the most.
The script hails from “Wednesday” scribes Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, and Burton himself is returning to direct the project, with long-time collaborator Danny Elfman scoring the pic. Perhaps the most exciting bit of news about the upcoming movie involves the visual effects. Reports coming out of 2024’s CinemaCon praised the movie’s heavy reliance on practical effects, including stop-motion animation. Prepare for some spooky laughs and hopefully a lot of Harry Belafonte songs on September 6, 2024.
