Sources have told Variety that Tim Burton is in talks to direct a sequel to his 1988 comedy, Beetlejuice. Seth Grahame Smith (Dark Shadows, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) penned the script and will produce with his partner David Katzenberg through their KatzSmith Productions.
Burton rarely does sequels (his only sequel has been Batman Returns), but perhaps he's interested in revisiting one of his favorite film characters. Vital to this is that Michael Keaton is interested in reprising his leading ghoulish role, having told NME.com that the sequel is "a go."
Additionally, Winona Ryder might be reprising her character. The actress recently told The Daily Beast that the long-gestating sequel "might be happening."
Burton, of course, is quite busy. The filmmaker is also eyeing his Fox project, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, with one source saying it could possibly go before Beetlejuice 2. Also, he is in production on his latest feature, Big Eyes.
More information will be announced in the near future, so stay tuned!
Tickets are now on sale for "Danny Elfman's Music from the Films of Tim Burton," a concert that will take place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday, 7th of October, 2013, and will feature Danny Elfman in person!
On Monday 7 October 2013, the Royal Albert Hall will be hosting an exclusive World Premiere of Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton, celebrating the extraordinary collaboration between the acclaimed composer and visionary filmmaker.
The concert will see Danny Elfman‘s famous Tim Burton film scores brought to life on stage by the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by John Mauceri, whilst visuals from Burton’s original production artwork, sketches and drawings are displayed on the big screen. There will also be an exclusive special guest performance by four-time Oscar-nominated Danny Elfman himself, making his first public singing performance in 18 years.
With a range of films from a fascinating back-catalogue of classics including Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Alice in Wonderland, this concert will explore the collaborative relationship between music and storytelling and the process and importance that this has in filmmaking.
Quotes:
“I’ve always heard Danny’s scores performed live during our recording sessions for the films we’ve collaborated on… for others to finally be able to hear his music live, at such a historic venue as the Royal Albert Hall, is really something special.”
-Tim Burton
“I really look forward to revisiting this body of work which has been such a huge part of my life and bringing it to the concert stage. And the idea of performing some of Jack Skellington’s songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas live for the very first time is immensely exciting.”
-Danny Elfman
Tickets:
Tickets for Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton go on sale at 9am on Thursday 14 February and start at £20 (booking fees may apply).
Vulture spoke with Tim Burton to learn about Frankenweenie and its chances at winning an Oscar this year, his balance between films that are critical successes and box office hits, his broken arm, and more:
Do all the nominations and awards help make up for the film's less-than-blockbuster box -office performance?
It's really nice, especially for a film like that. Everybody works really hard for something like this, especially the people who work in a dark room for a couple of years. The thing about stop-motion is that it's such a slow, painful process — one frame at a time. The positive side is that it helps keep the medium alive. It's not high on to-do lists for studio execs to make stop-motion, let alone black-and-white stop-motion. There's still a bit of a stigma, so any sort of positive response is meaningful.
You would think after The Artist there would be less opposition to black-and-white — especially when it comes to films about Hollywood. Argo also got a lot of awards love partly because it's about Hollywood helping to save the world. And Frankenweenie celebrates classic horror films. Hollywood loves nothing more than celebrating itself.
That's true, now that you mention that. Even last year, films like Hugo did that. But I never really thought of that. It's certainly not my perception of the world. For me, it's just what inspires me, and those monster movies stay with you on some kind of level. Those early things are still inside of me. It was just fun to play around with words and themes and memories, because you don't get to do that on every project.
Loved the shout-out to Mary Shelley with the turtle's name, by the way.
[Chuckles.] My son's turtle was named Shelley. When you have a pet as a child, that's the first pure relationship you have. It's unconditional love. And it's your first experience with death as well, so it was an easy emotional connection to make to Frankenstein and monster movies. Those first relationships are very important. And to me, the Frankenstein story is about creating things, not the business of creating things.
But you still want it to be successful.
No one wants to feel like they weren't, unless they're doing some kind of weird art-house thing: "I hope nobody sees this film! And if they see the film, I'm selling out!" You hope for success, but it's a strange phenomenon. You have a movie that gets shitty, crappy, horrible reviews but makes a lot of money; you have a movie that gets good, decent reviews, but then no one goes to see it. I've been lucky, even if a film didn't do that well [at the box office], I end up meeting people who connected with it, and that evens the score.
How do you feel about the critics who say you should stop using Johnny Depp so much?
I'm in a no-win situation. Some say I use him too often, and then others say, "How come he's not in this one?" Whatever. I'm strangely used to that from the beginning.
I don't decide to make a film because of the actors first, even though there are a lot of people I love. I don't think I've ever gone, "Oh, I want to work with that person," and then specifically found a part with that person just to work with them. For Frankenweenie, I hadn't worked with Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, Martin Short, or Martin Landau in a long time, so that was great. But the project drew me to them because they're all so talented.
With Catherine, not since Beetlejuice. People want a sequel for that one.
Those were fun characters, but I'd have to see what the script was like and if it was worth doing — I can't just make it because it's one of the worst ten movies of the year! The first two films I did, Pee-wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice, made the ten-worst-movies-of-the-year lists. Then, years later, people said they were my best movies. What? So if those were my best, I'm in real trouble. [Laughs.] The point is, even if I wanted to analyze it, I'm not going to make everyone happy. It's easier when you're starting out and people don't really know what you are. But then you become a thing, and that's not really what you want. I never really targeted my films for kids. It's just what I like to make. But then people were saying The Nightmare Before Christmas was too scary for kids — too much singing, too scary. And then the kids loved it. So I've had conflicting information from the beginning.
How is The Nightmare Before Christmas too scary? It's no scarier than any fairy tale ...
Exactly. When you were a child, did you ever see Disney movies? There's some scary stuff in there. That's what made Disney movies to a large degree, but as people get older, they kind of forget that. There's a new generation looking at fairy tales now, and that's what monster movies were for me. I've always been interested in those kinds of stories, the ones that have been around for ages. When I go back and reread "Red Riding Hood," it's so bizarre, so weird, so fascinating, and we forget how strange they were, even if they've stayed in our consciousness for ages. Fairy tales are amazing, intense, psychological horror stories. But if you ask most adults, they immediately think it's all princesses and happy endings, and it's so not. Obviously.
Are you still thinking about doing Pinocchio next?
It's really hard to think about doing anything when I've got a throbbing pain in my shoulder! The painkillers are not that good here. The doctors are like, "Take two aspirin."
You're in London. Codeine is over-the-counter there!
Yeah, but it's a pretty weak form of codeine, probably. But you're right. I should do that. [Laughs.] I'm hoping the pain subsides soon, but it's like when you have a toothache, and it's hard to think, hard to do things, hard to focus on what's going on when it's throbbing away.
Once the pain subsides, then you can consider Pinocchio, or perhaps a Walt Disney biopic starring Ryan Gosling. Have you seen that poster?
The story at Cal Arts was that Walt was cryogenically frozen and somewhere in the basement. We used to spend Friday nights looking for him. So that's the story. Listen, I'm open to ideas at the moment!
Tim, this film was made in London, and you are an adopted Londoner. How do you feel about opening the London Film Festival?
Tim Burton: It's amazing. It is special because it was made here. It's strange because when we started the film there was no Olympic Stadium and by the time we finished it was done. It just shows you how long a film like this takes to make!
This is a film that you've come back to. You started this as a live action short film in 1984 and now you've come back almost 30 years later. What made you want to make this Frankenweenie?
Burton: Looking at some of the original drawings at some point Don had mentioned the idea of it. It was such a memory piece, the drawings and doing stop motion and black and white and 3D, and kind of thinking about other kids I remembered from school and weird teachers and parents it just became a real memory piece. The purity of stop motion and for me the idea of seeing black and white in 3D stop motion was an exciting prospect. Obviously be able to work with all these people that I've worked with in the past just made it more special.
What's everyone's memories of their first impressions of Tim Burton?
Allison Abate: I just thought he was so energetic and so fascinating and so young!
Martin Short: On Mars Attacks I was so thrilled to meet Tim. I'm such a fan of Tim's, but what I was really excited about after my experience on Mars Attacks was how unbelievably collaborative Tim is. He really wanted to know what you thought and you kind of felt free to put out anything in the atmosphere and he would hone and refine it. It was a really ideal working situation for an actor.
Catherine O'Hara: I was called to meet Tim for Beetlejuice. I flew to L.A. and was told to meet him at Warner Bros. Boulevard and that's where Warner Bros. Studio is but I looked it up in the L.A. map book and I found a Warner Bros. Boulevard in Anaheim and I drove and drove and drove and I thought, 'whoever this guy is he is so far outside of where show business is really happening I'm not sure I want to work with him.' I finally phoned somebody and found out that I was in the wrong place and then finally got back there about two hours late and there was a note on the door [saying], 'I'm really sorry I missed you.'
Don Hahn: It was an odd time at the studio [Disney] and I think they didn't know what to do with Tim and to their credit gave him some money to make shorts called Frankenweenie and Vincent. It's amazing because they never knew what to do with those shorts, never quite knew how to release them, and didn't want to put the Disney name on them. And to come around full circle now a few years later and be able to revisit that and have the studio support and celebrate what Tim's trying to do is really odd in a way but terrific. It's interesting how a guy who's 25 years old can make a film that's as smart and interesting as Frankenweenie can turn around again and revisit that years later.
Martin Landau: I remember seeing Beetlejuice and I was very taken with the film. I saw it with my daughter and we left the theatre and I said, 'my God who directed this? I'd like to work with whoever it is.' I had no idea who Tim Burton was at that time. And here we are! It was a joyous experience working with him on Ed Wood with Johnny and Tim. I found that half the time he never finished a sentence or I did. We'd rehearse and he'd come up and say, 'you know what...' and I'd say, 'yeah.' He created a playground for the actors and he still does that and good directors do that. It's a fun place to work with Tim Burton and anytime he'd ask me to do something I would drop what I was doing, including my pants!
Legend has it you were fired by Disney, Tim. Are you surprised that your outlook is now considered part of the mainstream?
Burton: It wasn't like The Apprentice, 'you're fired!' It was a bit more Disney-friendly, 'here, let Goofy and Minnie show you out.' [Laughs] There's an exit with little cherubs on it, a magic forest door!
Short: [adopts Mickey Mouse voice] 'You're fired!'
Burton: It was a strange period in the company's history and it's obviously changed over the years. It's a whole different place. It was a low point for animation not just for Disney but for everything nothing was really going on. But at the same time I got the opportunity to do the films [Frankenweenie & Vincent shorts] so even though they weren't released the opportunity to do them was really great so I've always been grateful to them for giving me the chance to do it. [In terms of being considered mainstream now] I'm not so sure that's true.
What has it been like working with your heroes such as Martin Landau and Vincent Price?
Burton: It's so inspirational. When I talk to Martin and hear him talk about Alfred Hitchcock, or being on Space 1999 - I told him I had a Space 1999 lunchbox - you learn so much from people like him and it's just a joy. You love making films, meeting these people is why you like making movies. In terms of Catherine and Martin here, I've been a fan of theirs forever that's why I said 'guys do as many characters, do like three characters. It wasn't that we didn't want to pay other actors! It was because they're so great and interesting, it made it part of the creative process. They're coming in and doing things like a weird demon possession. Working with people that I've worked with in the past made it very special for me.
Martin and Catherine, you played three different characters and acted opposite each other which is unusual for animated films - what was that experience like?
Short: The parents Catherine and I did together which I thought was very smart but I think that Tim really had a very specific idea of what he wanted for those characters, very intimate and very real so by doing it together it was easy to achieve that. The other two characters that I did were just experiments that Tim and I would go on. Where you just kind of start with blank sheet but then you land in a Lionel Barrymore meets President Ronald Regan [place]. And then I'd say to Tim, 'what if he smoked 4 packs of cigarettes a day and just quit about two months ago?' That pre-emphysema sound.
Burton: I think we even talked about a constipated Raymond Burr.
O'Hara: I think it was smart on Tim's part, it cut down the amount of times he had to say, 'um... why don't you say it like a human being would say it?' I was so happy when I saw their scenes, they are so beautiful and private and the way they stay back, it's so discreet how we shoot this family. I'm so proud to be their voices.
Short: Tim's always respectful. He would just say, 'go with your instinct and then divide by 7.' Animation is usually in colour but you have chosen to film this in black and white. The black and white was a crucial element. It's something that is hard to put into words but for me it made it more emotional and the idea of seeing black and white and also the 3D element, to me just helps support the work that the people who worked on the film did. You look at these puppets and you see the reality and tactile nature of it. Every little prop and everything is handmade and drawn, the black and white and the 3D process really shows you all the work that the artist put into it. To me the black and white really shows off their work very well.
There's an exhibition opening in London. Could you tell us about The Art of Frankenweenie?
Abate: One of the exciting things Disney did for us was to realise how beautiful the artwork is and how special every prop is. We have a travelling show and it's an exhibition of three sets from the movie and puppets, to represent three little moments from the film in real life. It's at the BFI Southbank next week. There's also something called, 'At the Desk of Tim Burton.'
Burton: Yeah but the desk is a bit too clean. There's no used tissues or empty beer bottles!
Hollywood tries to reproduce what is successful, did you have any problems with Frankenweenie in terms of the tone and the style, presenting that when the Pixar films and style is so popular?
Burton: from my point of view I feel like all forms of animation survive. I remember a few years ago after Pixar took off and computer animation took off that they said that they weren't going to make any more hand drawn movies which I thought, 'oh that's really unfortunate.' Thankfully they changed that and I hope it's the same for stop motion, I think it's a beautiful art form and you just hope that all forms of animation can flourish.
How much would you say Frankenweenie is a tribute to horror films and how do you open that up to children who haven't seen those kinds of films yet?
Burton: It's an interesting point because obviously a lot of references are based on, for me, a love of those movies but we thought very hard throughout the film that we didn't want to make it reference dependent. That's why we tried to shoot it and make it feel like one of those movies so you can feel what those movies look like even if you didn't know the references. We just felt like you should be able to enjoy the movie without having to know exactly every reference. It was always something in the back of my mind to make it more of a feeling of those films so that people that didn't know those exact references would still enjoy the film.
Martin your character looks like Vincent Price but doesn't sound like him - was that a very deliberate decision on your part?
Landau: Well one of the things about this I was floored by was Tim sent me a picture of Mr Rzykruski - it's like an eye chart this name! The wonderful about it is behavior, when I'm acting it's part of everything. In this instance I had a picture of this character but I relinquish the behavior to the animators. When I saw the film I was dumbfounded because if I'd been on camera I would've played it exactly the same way and my mouth was agape actually because I was shocked. I knew the character looked a little bit like Vincent and I little bit like I did earlier in life but I saw him as a completely singular person and a wonderful teacher and not a very diplomatic person. I think that when I read it I also felt that he probably lasted two months in any school he taught in! Have a conversation with your student's parents and you call them stupid or simple. I don't think Vincent would've played it the way I did, I think it would've been a different thing but I think there's a physicality there's no question. I always felt too that Tim was attracted to Ed Wood in a sense because of Ed Wood's connection to Bela [Lugosi] and his appreciation of Vincent Price's work - which I loved as a kid as well, as a young actor I would always go out of my way to watch a Vincent Price movie.
Burton: Most good animators try to get the actor in there. Don, this iteration of Frankenweenie began with you in a strange way because you went to Tim with the idea.
Hahn: Yeah I did. It wasn't a big leap. All I did was go to Tim's office and say, 'look you made this really great story years ago, there's got to be more.' And there was more. I think just the Frankenstein mythology and be able to go back into some of the ideas that were turning around in Tim's head for probably years and all I had to do was mention the name and I think he took off running. We had great collaborators, that's the other thing about working with Tim that I love is that he surrounds himself with people he trusts and lets them do their work.
Danny Elfman's score in Frankenweenie is fantastic. How important was it for you work with him on the film?
Burton: I've worked with him from the beginning of my career basically and on my first feature film, both didn't know what we're doing - we're still pretty much in the same boat! So I feel quite close to him. I always feel like he is another character in the film and helps to solidify the emotions of whatever's going on, because there's usually a mixture of things going on and he's always felt very good at sort of guiding as another character and setting the tone of what the film is.
Death seems to play a prominent role in your animations. What is your fascination with bringing characters back to life?
Burton: When I was a kid I always wanted to be a mad scientist, a regular scientist was no fun. It's not so much about bringing dead things back to life; I find that quite creepy actually. It's more about creating. Creation, making things, that's why I think I always loved the Frankenstein story because it's partially about creation and making things and that's what filmmaking is and that's what stop motion is and so for me that's the fun of it. That's why you like doing it; it's not so much about the business or box office or reviews it's about actually making something. I think that's why this was so special, it's with a smallish group of people, real artists and a more pure version of why you like making movies.
Will she star in the film?: "You tell me - I don't know! I've heard from journalists, that's how I found out, but I'm seeing Tim next week, and I will let you know."
She added: "I'm trying to think about how that would work. Obviously I'm not [the focal point]; it's got to be Michael [Keaton]. So is it happening?... Tim hasn't confirmed it yet."
Ryder clarified that she would not be averse to joining the project if the story appealed to her: "If it was interesting. Although, I don't know if I would ever know a good script if it bit me in the face. But, I know what I like, so we'll see.
"Seth is writing something. I just told him, because it was something where I liked the character, he'd probably have a better response. He has ideas about it, so I just wanted to let him respond to it and see what he comes up with."
Winona Ryder has collaborated with Tim Burton on Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and his newest feature, Frankenweenie (2012).
Rolling Stone reports that we can expect two soundtracks for the new film, Frankenweenie: Frankenweenie Unleashed!, which will feature music and songs from and inspired by the motion picture, and which will bear this glow-in-the-dark album artwork on the cover, and Frankenweenie: The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, which will feature Danny Elfman's score. Both will be released on September 25th.
We don't have many details regarding Frankenweenie Unleashed! yet, but Rolling Stone states that it will at least feature a song by Yeah Yeah Yeah singer Karen O., "Strange Love." Her song will also play during the end credits of the film.
"There's a magic and nostalgia in this film that reminded me of being raised on Tim Burton's catalog," said Karen O. "I was thinking, 'Oh yeah, this man shaped my artistic sensibility over the past 20 years alongside thousands of other impressionable offbeat youths.' Tim wanted an unconventional unconditional love song."
"My music inspiration came out of the same era of B-movie fright film references sprinkled throughout the film," she continued. "I went in the direction of exotica and calypso stylistically because it's quirky, good vibes music of that era, and when you throw in a Theremin solo, it's a marriage made in heaven. I remember Beetlejuice introducing me to the genius of Harry Belafonte's calypso record, so I wanted to give a nod to that, too."
Collider recently had a conversation with Tim Burton. In the interview, the filmmaker discussed a range of topics, from how Disney let him make his stop-motion Frankenweenie, his involvement with Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, what he thinks of the test-screening process, whether there are deleted scenes from older films like Ed Wood, Pee-wee's Big Adventure, and Beetlejuice, and his criteria in picking future projects.
Shock Till You Drop spoke with Tim Burton to get a few words on the possibility of making a sequel to Beetlejuice. Here is a transcript of what Burton had to say:
"Seth [Grahame-Smith] is writing something, so we'll see. I love the character but I want to just kind of look at it from a fresh perspective and see what he comes up with. That's like one of my favorite characters I've ever dealt with. [Michael Keaton] is one of the first people I worked with who was so good at improv. That movie, I was very lucky to work with a lot of actors, like him and Catherine O'Hara, who were very good at improv, so that kind of set me on a whole new course. I would love to revisit that character at some point."
The Reel Bits has posted this video interview with actor Benjamin Walker and screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith. The two men discuss their latest project, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The pair talk about treating the actual historical figure of President Lincoln with respect in this amusing fictional mash-up, Walker's preparation for the role, how Lincoln historians have responded to this film, and more.
Grahame-Smith also talks about the possible Beetlejuice sequel that he is currently developing with Warner Bros. Grahame-Smith explained that he has met with both Tim Burton and Michael Keaton to discuss the possibility of making a sequel to the 1988 comedy, but stressed that nobody wants to do the project simply to cash in on a familiar name. He reassured the interviewer that if the sequel is never made, it's because they "couldn't do it right."
MTV News recently caught up with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp. In this video, the interviewer asked the longtime collaborators about the possibility of Depp appearing in the potential Beetlejuice sequel.
Shock Till You Drop spoke with writer Seth Grahame-Smith. The ever-busy screenwriter/author/executive producer gave a few brief words on two Tim Burton projects in development: the possible Beetlejuice sequel and a new stop-motion animated film, Night of the Living.
On the Beetlejuice sequel: "Everyone is waiting for me to get my ass in gear," Grahame-Smith said. "I just finished a script called Night of the Living, and I'm giving it to Tim this weekend. And I'm moving now into adapting Unholy Night [his latest book], which I have to deliver to Warner Bros. I've got to do this, then I'm going around the world for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, so I'll be writing Unholy Night on the plane and in hotel rooms."
On Night of the Living, which is about humans terrorizing undead creatures, a reversal of Night of the Living Dead: "[It's] not just zombies. Let me put it this way, Tim and I are big fans of classic movie monsters. The title pretty much where you're going to be at. Plus, it's a Tim Burton stop motion-animated movie. That movie for me is my love letter to all of the movies I grew up on."
Shock Till You Drop recently spoke with Tim Burton. The ever-busy filmmaker was asked about three projects that are either in development or pre-production. Nothing particularly groundbreaking was learned, but it does show that these projects are on Burton's radar:
On the possible Beetlejuice sequel: “Seth [Grahame-Smith] is writing something. I just told him because I liked the character, I just thought I’d have a better response if he has ideas about it to just let him [work on it]." He continued: "I don’t know if I’d ever know a good script if it bit me in the face, but I know what I like."
On an adaptation of Pinocchio that Burton is attached to direct at Warner Bros., from a script by Bryan Fuller, and which might have Robert Downey, Jr. in the lead: "I’m very busy aren’t I? It’s kind of embarrassing. I’ve got three movies [coming out this year]. I’m sick of me already. So, we’ll let these come out, then I’ll go away and you guys can deal with other people."
On Big Eyes, a biographical film about artists Margaret and Walter Keane starring Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Reynolds that Burton is producing, and is currently in pre-production: "Oh, I don’t know. There are a lot of projects in the works, but as you can see when something is 10 years in the making, you’re never quite sure when it’s happening."
In an interview with MTV News, Tim Burton explained the recent reactions to the trailer for Dark Shadows. He expressed that he didn't consider the film to be just a goofy comedy. "Everything that's in [the trailer] is in the movie," Burton told MTV News. "It's a funny film for me, because I never considered it a comedy. I was always trying to capture the weird vibe of 'Dark Shadows,' which is a weird thing to try to capture. It was a weird daytime soap opera."
"It's not like I'm being campy with it or anything," Burton said. "The guy's been locked in a box for 200 years, and [when] he comes out ... something weird is going to happen."
Burton also talked about the interviewer's comparisons to Edward Scissorhands. "Edward Scissorhands was more of a naive character. Barnabas has been around the block a few times," Burton told MTV News with a laugh. "There is something about a character who doesn't quite fit into the world, which is similar, just in this case, he's been around a long time."
He also briefly responds to questions regarding a sequel to Beetlejuice, and whether or not he would make another Batman or Pee-wee movie. "I think I have enough on my plate," the very busy filmmaker replied.
Amazon.com will be releasing an exclusive Blu-Ray box set on May 1st, 2012: The Tim Burton Collection. The box set will also include a book, and includes Tim Burton's seven films made with Warner Bros.: Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Mars Attacks! (1996), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Corpse Bride (2005). Click this link for more details.
The Hollywood Reporter recently spoke with writer Seth Grahame-Smith. Grahame-Smith talked about several forthcoming projects, including a script he is writing for Tim Burton for a new stop-motion animated film, currently titled, Night of the Living.
Grahame-Smith said, "I'm right in the middle of writing an animated movie for Tim Burton right now called Night of the Living." He continued: "Night of the Living is an idea I have had around for years that I'm doing with Tim Burton. When we were shooting Dark Shadows last year I worked up the nerve to tell Tim about it because I always thought it would make a good movie. When I saw what he had done with Frankweenie and Corpse Bride, it always struck me as a great idea for that form. I'm writing it at Warner's Bros. for him (as a stop-motion monster movie). As soon I'm done with that draft, I'll move into Unholy Night, probably in a matter of weeks."
He also reiterated his plans to write a script for a Beetlejuice sequel. "The first opportunity to tackle that will probably be later this year," he said.
Collider spoke to writer Seth Grahame-Smith this weekend at WonderCon. The screenwriter and novelist is keeping very busy, but stated that he plans on writing the first draft of a sequel to Beetlejuice this year. Here's a video:
“Beetlejuice is hopefully the third thing I’m gonna write this year. I’ve met with Tim about it, I’ve met with Michael Keaton about it. There’s a lot of goodwill to want to do it from both of those guys; Tim from a producing aspect and Michael from returning to the character. Again, it’s on me. It’s whether or not I can come up with a script that’s worthy of them jumping back in.”
He continued: “I have a rough idea of what it’s gonna be. However—I should stress this—it’s not a remake, it’s not a reboot, it is a true sequel with Michael Keaton as the title character Beetlejuice. The thing that Tim and Michael and I all agree on, and is most important for me is, I don’t wanna be the guy that destroys the legacy and the memory of the first film; I would rather die. I would rather just not make it, I’d rather just throw the whole thing away than make something that pays no respect and doesn’t live up even close to the legacy of the first film.”
Grahame-Smith elaborated on applying a real-time time-frame to the sequel: “This will be a true 26 or 27 years later sequel. What’s great is that for Beetlejuice, time means nothing in the afterlife, but the world outside is a different story.”
ShockTillYouDrop.comspoke with screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, and asked him about whether Beetlejuice 2 will become a reality or not. "It's a reality in the sense that I met with Michael Keaton last week," Grahame-Smith told us. "We talked for a couple of hours and talked about big picture stuff. It's a priority for Warner Bros. It's a priority for Tim [Burton]. Right now, I am writing an animated movie for Tim based on an idea of mine. Then I adapt Unholy Night[based on the upcoming book]. The third I am hoping is Beetlejuice in terms of writing schedule."
And what was Keaton's excitement level like?
"Huge," the writer added, "he's been wanting to do it for 20 years and he'll talk to anybody about it who will listen. I really told him, I have a huge reverence for Tim and a huge reverence for that film in general. I don't think we should do it if we shit on the legacy. He agrees. So, right now, it remains to be seen, I have a couple of story ideas, but we're very early out."
So, it's possible that Grahame-Smith and Burton might be working on two more projects after their collaborations on Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter: an animated film (which is likely the stop-motion film, Night of the Living) and, if Warner Bros., Keaton, and Burton agree, possibly Beetlejuice 2. Stay tuned...
MTV News recently caught up with a very busy Tim Burton. In this interview, the filmmaker discusses his various 2012 projects (Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter), as well as what might happen in the next few years...
MTV: Hi, Tim, we wanted to check in with you because it looks like it's going to be a busy 2012.
Tim Burton: Don't remind me. [Laughs.]
MTV: I'm sorry.
Burton: That's OK. I have to face it sooner or later. I didn't really plan it. I probably should have. I wish you could control film schedules a bit better. But it's OK. It's all things that I love, so that's good.
MTV: How are you dividing your time between the various projects?
Burton: With "Frankenweenie," it's a little bit easier to do it, because you only have a couple shots coming through each day. It's like a slow-motion process. When you're dealing with something like "Dark Shadows," that's immediate and intense. And then with "Lincoln," [director] Timur [Bekmambetov] is great. I'm there just to support it. It's a project I really liked and just wanted to see.
MTV: I got a chance to visit the set, and I was impressed. If I didn't know any better, I'd say I was on the set of a historical biopic.
Burton: You were! It is! That's what's great about it. It just seemed like a natural thing for Timur. It being an American history story, it seemed right for it to be directed by a Russian. [Laughs.]
MTV: What stage are you in for "Dark Shadows" right now?
Burton: Panicking. That stage. We're editing and doing effects. It's not an effects-heavy picture, but it's still got stuff in there. There's a strange tone to the movie. That's always what's fun about movies. You never know exactly what they are. It makes it both exciting and scary and why you like doing it. I have to keep remembering that.
MTV : With over 1,200 episodes of the original series to draw upon, what was important to you to retain?
Burton: It's got such a strange vibe. And it's not something that a lot of people necessarily know. You're trying to do a weird soap opera. I felt really lucky, because the cast is really good. People like Michelle [Pfeiffer] grew up watching it. Some of the cast knew about it. Some didn't, but they were all game for it — getting into the weird spirit of what "Dark Shadows" was. It has a weird sense of heightened melodrama. There was a generation of us who would run home from school to watch it. That's probably why we were such bad students. We should have been doing homework; we were watching "Dark Shadows" instead. It was hard to put into words the tone it was. It had a weird seriousness, but it was funny in a way that wasn't really funny. We just had to feel our way through it to find the tone. We didn't do any real rehearsals, because the cast all came in at different times. But there was an old photo of the [original] cast which I always remembered, so a couple days before shooting, we got the whole cast together to take a similar shot so everyone could see each other and get that vibe from doing a group photo. That helped set the tone more than anything.
MTV: Some of it takes place in the 1700s, but most of it takes place in 1972, is that right?
Burton: Yeah it goes back, but it's mainly in 1972, which to the era of "Dark Shadows" is the modern era. To me, it was a scary time.
MTV: Does the film leave that house much?
Burton: A little bit, but the thing about "Dark Shadows" was it was a very hermetically sealed world. It's mainly the internal family melodrama. You get a little bit of the sense of the world, but it's like "Grey Gardens," where these people are in their own sort of world.
MTV: Do you utilize time travel in the movie?
Burton: Not too much. A tiny bit. For me, that's when the show kind of made me want to do homework. I was like, wait a minute! That came near the end of the trail of the series.
MTV: You decided not to do 3-D this time around?
Burton: No. It's the '70s, man. Only "Frankenstein's Bloody Terror" was in 3-D. That's the only one I remember from that time.
MTV: Is it true that you're considering doing another "Beetlejuice" film?
Burton: Yes. I love that character, and Michael [Keaton] is so great in it. I always think about how great and fun that character was, so I just said to ["Vampire Hunter" writer] Seth [Grahame-Smith], "If you have some idea about it, go for it, and then I'll look at it freshly." In the past, I tried some things, but that was way back when. He seemed really excited about it.
MTV: Has he run any of his ideas by you yet?
Burton: No. I told him to try some stuff, but he hasn't come back to me yet. Michael was so great in it. I'm sure he'd strangely tap right back into it.
MTV: It must be extremely exciting for you to return to "Frankenweenie," considering the original short led to your demise at Disney.
Burton: Maybe it'll cause my second or third demise. [Laughs.] I'm very excited about it. The opportunity to do it in black-and-white and 3-D really fits the story. For me, it's the heart of the story that we've gotten to go back to and expand. It's more of a "House of Frankenstein" kind of situation now, but also it stays with the same thing. It taps into the politics of other children that you remember from school. It's still intimate, though. It's still the basic story with a few more elements.
MTV: It actually shocks me there hasn't been a Broadway musical version of "Nightmare Before Christmas."
Burton: A couple of schools have done it. I think it could lend itself to something like [Broadway]. I'm just happy it's taken on a life of its own. We've resisted any kind of sequelization thing. Some things are just best left on their own.
MTV: Did anyone try to dissuade you from doing "Frankenweenie" in black-and-white?
Burton: I'm very grateful, because I think they understood that that was part of the emotion of it. I was very happy about that, because it's a big part of it. It's a big deal for a studio to go along with something like that. And the 3-D really suits it. With a lot of 3-D, you lose some of the detail, but with stop-motion, you actually feel more of the detail. So all the work that people put into the puppets and the spaces on the set — you actually feel it.
MTV: Is IMAX interesting to you?
Burton: Yeah, definitely! We're doing a test for "Frankenweenie." "Frankenweenie" is such a tactile funky project. It would be interesting to see it in that, so we're playing around with it.
MTV: Is "The Addams Family" the next thing on the stop-motion docket?
Burton: Oh, I don't know. I got so many things to keep up with now ...
MTV: You do seem to have a long list of things with your name attached.
Burton: That's why I don't go on the Internet, Josh. It freaks me out. I've got my immediate things to worry about. It's like when they thought the Earth was flat and you hit the horizon and fell into a black hole.
MTV: So this laundry list of things that are stressing you out ...
Burton: Just check them all off till later. Next year, we'll take a look at them like Santa's list. I'll tell you yes or cross them off the list.
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.
Flickr user Steven Kuhn has uploaded an image from the Tim Burton exhibition at LACMA in Los Angeles. The photo shows two stop-motion puppets of two new characters in Frankenweenie, "Edgar" and "Weird Girl." Like the rest of the animated cast, both characters have been directly designed by Tim Burton. Catherine O'Hara (Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas) will provide the voices for both characters.
