Could it be that Winona Ryder is about to “go ahead and make our millennium”? While it was recently confirmed that director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton are involved in revisiting their 1988 hit comedy, Beetlejuice – the story of a recently deceased young couple trying to exorcise a new, obnoxious family from their home – there was no news of the rest of the original cast. It’s a whole new day now, however, as Winona Ryder – Beetlejuice’s gloriously gothic outcast, Lydia Deetz – was clearly ‘in the know’ about Beetlejuice 2 when she recently spoke to The Daily Beast:
“I’m kind of sworn to secrecy. But it sounds like it might be happening. It’s not a remake, it’s 27 years later. And I have to say, I love Lydia so much. She was such a huge part of me. I would be really interested in what she is doing 27 years later.”
It’s not clear whether a fully-formed script has actually reached Ryder’s hands, but when it does, it will be via the pen of Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), who worked with Tim Burton on Dark Shadows. Grahame-Smith recently formed a company with David Katzenberg – KatzSmith Productions – and signed a two-year, first-look deal with Warner Brothers. The Beetlejuice sequel will likely be among their first projects.
The original Beetlejuice was a huge box office success in its time, and co-starred Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin and Catherine O’Hara. Michael Keaton’s performance as the Beetlejuice character (a demonic ‘bio-exorcist’) became so iconic that it would become the role he is most associated with – after Batman – despite his screen time amounting to just 17.5 minutes. That film marks its 25th anniversary this year so, if Ryder’s ‘27 years later’ clue is an indication of progress, we may have a little longer to wait before we return to Limbo with Beetlejuice 2.