It Took Over 30 Years to Make Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024
A sequel to the 1988 classic, Beetlejuice was stuck in development hell for over 30 years. It’s actually a miracle that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice 2024 was ever made. Find out what issues Tim Burton and the studio’s kept running into and see the problems that haunted production. Watch the video below or continue reading for a text version.
The first Beetlejuice broke box office records. Bringing in over $75 million dollars on a $10 million dollar budget. So obviously, they wanted a sequel and fast. So in 1990 the Geffen Film Company commissioned two sequel scripts with the hopes of raking in more of that sweet, sweet cash.
The first script was written by Warren Skaaren and titled: Beetlejuice in Love. Skaaren had done heavy rewrites on the first Beetlejuice. One of his greatest contributions was to the character of Beetlejuice itself. Originally Beeteljuice was more of a humorless evil character, but it was Skaaren that made him into the hilarious demon we all know and love. So Skaaren was the perfect choice to write a sequel, but sadly he passed away shortly after turning in the first draft of the script. But, that Hollywood train has to keep going and a completely different script was written that same year by Jonathan Gems. Jonathan’s sequel was titled, Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.
Fan made poster of Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian
The Hawaiian thing was actually Burton’s idea. He thought it would be funny to see Beetlejuice with a surfing backdrop. It sounds silly, but when you think about it a lot of Burton's films play with weird dark characters in environments you usually wouldn’t see them in. Edward Sissorhands is a perfect example of this. So while the title is horrible, it was horrible on purpose, and Burton had already proven that these ideas work. Apparently, the script was good enough that both Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder agreed to do the film on the condition that Tim Burton was the director.
The studio ran into a problem when Burton committed to Batman Returns. So the script sat on a shelf for 6 years. So long that when Warner Brothers looked at it they realized it might need some updating, so they asked Kevin Smith to rewrite the script. Smith turned it down to write the script for Superman Lives another sequel that was never made.
The more time passed, the busier Burton got with other projects, and Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian slowly faded away. It wasn’t until 2011 that work on a sequel would start back up. Burton hired Seth Grahame-Smith to work on the script for Beetlejuice 2 and apparently it took 5 years. So of course once it was done in 2016 it needed heavy re-writes. Buron hired Mike Vukadinovich to work on the re-writes, but by 2019 it was announced that the sequel had been shelved.
Then three years later, in 2022, a sequel was announced and in May 2023 the sequel to Beetlejuice finally started filming… only to be shut down in July of that same year due to the writers strike. The film did get back on track on November 16th, 2023 though and wrapped filming just a couple weeks later on November 30th. You might notice that that’s really not a long production schedule for a film like this.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was finally released in theaters on September 6th 2024. It was a massive hit taking in over $438 million dollars off its $100 million dollar budget and getting mostly positive reviews. Personally, I didn’t like the film and think most of the positive reviews are heavily influenced by nostalgia. For most people that’s all they wanted out of this, a nostalgia trip with Micheal Keton doing some more Beetlejuice stuff. So I get it, the bar was really low, but I found it hard not to notice how rushed and messy the whole thing felt. I honestly don’t understand how anyone could enjoy this many plots in a film that never seem to come together.
It’s a film filled with worthless plot lines that go nowhere. Example: The whole Delores plot line. Delores is supposed to be the true villain of the story, but nothing interesting is done with her and she barely affects any of the other plots. She’s brought back to life, sucks out some people’s souls, we’re told why she hates beetlejuice (pretty lame reason btw), and then she dies. This plot is only in here so Tim Burton's girlfriend can get work and tim could make this scene where she puts herself back together.
I do think the rushed production schedule and sewn together plot also hurt the acting. The performances here don’t seem as genuine as the original. What is up with Winona Ryder in this film? Was she given any direction? She just makes the same twitchy face in every scene she’s in. Flipping from one emotion to another, almost like she’s been electrocuted by Burton off screen.
All this said… I didn’t completely hate the film though and I was actually pleasantly surprised by the look and feel of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, especially with such a short and interrupted filming schedule. I think it’s able to grab the campiness of the original and that’s mostly because of all the practical effects. The artists that worked on these did a fantastic job.
It’s not the worst sequel I’ve seen and honestly it’s been so long between films that it could have easily been worse. Overall it’s probably the best looking Burton film in years. I think he’s really learned from his mistakes like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the abomination that is Dumbo.
Overall Rating: I’m cool with a bunch of different plots in a movie and they don’t even need to be completely tied together. But, if you’re going to go that route, then when plots do cross paths they should mean something or affect each other. This movie doesn’t do that because plots are just in the movie to give Burton’s girlfriend/friends parts. I think there are good aspects of the film: visually it’s Burton’s best film in years and most of the time it captures the look/feel of the original. This is the most 5/10 movie I’ve ever experienced, so I can see people loving it for the good parts, but I won’t be revisiting this film ever again.
