Friday, October 28, 2011

No "Beetlejuice 2" Without Burton's Blessing



Entertainment Weekly spoke with David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith, the heads of KatzSmith productions, to learn more about their various upcoming plans and projects. Included in were two possible projects that may involve Tim Burton -- emphasis on "possible" and "may." The first was a possible sequel to Beetlejuice.

David Katzenberg: We’re not remaking Beetlejuice. People have been very angry about that.

Seth Grahame-Smith: When Warner Bros. came to us about it, we said the only way we’d do it if we got Tim [Burton’s] blessing and involvement, and we got that, and the star of the movie has to be Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, and it’s a true continuation 26 years later. Not just throwing him in as a cameo going, “Hey, it’s me. I endorse this movie.” We’re not there yet [with Keaton] because we don’t have a film to present to him.


The second film discussed was a possible stop-motion animated feature, Night of the Living. The idea is still only a concept, but the duo are considering pitching it to Tim Burton. The story concerns a community of monsters whose peaceful lives are turned around when they are invaded by humans.

Seth Grahame-Smith: Night of the Living is all of the topes of horror movies, but turned on their head from the monster’s point-of-view.

Again, however, Night of the Living does not yet have Burton attached to it.


Seth Grahame-Smith wrote the screenplays for two future Burton films, Dark Shadows and the Burton-produced Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. David Katzenberg is the son of Jeffrey Katzenberg, founder and head of DreamWorks Animation.


Image Credit: Noel Vasquez/Getty Images

2 comments:

Jack said...

i was thinking about what the beetlejuice sequel could be like the other day. obviously they could move on from mr. and mrs. maitland and beetlejuice has to trick his way out of the "land of the dead" maybe the film could start out with beetleguese still in the waiting room with his head small :)
with all the darn sequels being made these days i still see it as a possibility

Alex Graham said...

Good to know they're at least being respectful. My only other issue is that they'll use CGI. Hopefully if they can get Tim to do it, he'll include traditional stop-motion effects (which would be a lot smoother than 80s stop-mo obviously). The stop-motion was an inherent part of the style/charm of the original