Summary

• Beetlejuice Beetlejuice introduces a new generation of the Deetz family in Winter River, accidentally opening a portal to the Afterlife.
• Tim Burton returns to helm the project with a screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, featuring a talented cast.
• The movie centers on three generations of women, emphasizing practical effects, improv, and the spirit of the original film.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is an epic thirty-six years in the making, and it introduces the next generation of the beloved Deetz family. After the ing of patriarch Charles Deetz, Lydia brings her daughter Astrid to Winter River, where she accidentally opens a portal to the Afterlife and heralds the return of Betelgeuse. Tim Burton came back to helm the project, this time with a screenplay penned by Smallville's Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice also welcomes back its talented cast, most notably Michael Keaton, Catherine O'Hara, and Winona Ryder. They are ed by Wednesday star Jenna Ortega and other screen icons including Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci. In Burton's eyes, the movie centers on three generations of women, pulling at the threads of a weird but ultimately loving family.

Screen Rant participated in a roundtable interview with Tim Burton, alongside several other media outlets, in which he discussed the so soon after Wednesday.

Tim Burton Strove To Make Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Like The Original – Whatever That Means

“I didn't even watch the first one, because I didn't really understand why it was a success to begin with.”

The comedy was so relevant and on par with today. Can you talk to me about how some of that dialogue came about?

Tim Burton: Well, it was a bit like the first movie. I tried to treat this movie like the spirit of the first movie, where we had a script, but there was a lot of improv that went on. I'm very lucky to work with people like Michael and Catherine that are very good at improv, so we just tried to do it in the spirit of that. We'd shoot quickly, and all the actors contributed - Justin and Will and everybody contributed to their character. They really took it from the page and made it something else.

That was the whole vibe of the movie. We wanted to do it with practical effects and sets, quickly with all this great improv that just gave it energy, which is part of what the vibe of the film is for me. And part of the re-energizing to me is why I like making movies; just working with creative people back and forth and just making stuff up on the set.

You can't really do that much in a lot of movies, or you don't want to, but this property is part of the spirit of it.

Kevin Polowy: It feels like such a seamless continuation of the original in large part because of the visual style and practical effects. What can you say about how much you wanted to mirror your approach to the original, especially when you have such new bells and whistles?

Tim Burton: 30 years of bells and whistles! But Michael and I both talked about it, and I said, "Listen, I am only going to make this in the spirit of the first one." But I didn't even watch the first one, because like I said, I didn't really understand why it was a success or not to begin with. I didn't feel like it was going to help me, so I truly didn't watch it, but I the feeling of it. It's hard to go back and recreate feelings, especially in this industry where it's [about] "all the bells and whistles" and everything we're talking about.

So, we go back to simple; shoot it quickly. All the actors contributed. The script was there, and it was a good script. But everybody - and I mean all the actors - contributed to that. And then even with the effects guys, I had a guy I've worked with before named Neal [Scanlan]... and he was equally as important as the actors, in of making puppets quickly and doing it all, like, "pulling the string on the tail," kind of stuff so that we could keep doing it in that same spirit.

Also, I didn't realize this until the very end, [but] we ended up actually shooting it in the same amount of time as the first one. I wasn't planning that particularly, but it sort of ended up that way, which was part of the DNA of the film, whatever it was. It's just, "Let's just do it in that kind of [way]. Let's think about it, let's talk about this question, but not too much." When I did it, it was important to me to not to think about sequels, franchises, all these words - when I first started, none of those words were around.. Reboots, rehab, restructure, whatever.

I was reading a lot about how the live effects and the puppets allowed for spontaneity on set. With that in mind, what scene changed the most from script to screen?

Tim Burton: It wasn't anything really big. I think it was more just subtle things, and that's the beauty of it. Just Michael looking at somebody here or there, or not looking at somebody. That all made it so you didn't have to describe to the actors, "Well, this is going to happen. This is going to look like that. I'm fighting this..."

Having all that stuff there and having sets and having everybody there just ups the energy, in of the set and therefore what you're making. Again, just get rid of all the white noise of business and studio, and you just get right into it. It just re-energized me.

Michael Keaton Brought The Old Beetlejuice Magic, While Jenna Ortega Injected New Blood

“It was truly like demon possession. It felt like a time warp.”

Watching the movie, I felt like Michael Keaton never skipped a beat. Throughout the process, what were your thoughts on seeing this Michael Keaton come to life again?

Tim Burton: Scary s--t, man. We didn't rehearse, we didn't do anything, right? He comes on, and it was truly like demon possession. It felt like a time warp. You're right, it was unnerving. It was great, and it was exciting, but it was really also disturbing.

No, it was great. I mean, that's what gave the film its energy. We make up stuff every day, which is kind of hard to do when you're dealing with all live effects. But we did it, and I worked with these effects people who in the spirit of the movie, would make these things very quickly.

Michael and I talked about this from the very beginning, that it was very important to the spirit, especially with all the technology. You can do all this stuff, whatever. We just wanted to not think about sequels or anything; just go and just make the movie. Like you said, that energy of what he brought back to it was amazing and crucial.

Was there a temptation from you or anybody else to take Beetlejuice in a more heroic direction, instead of a despicable monster?

Tim Burton: My whole career, people said, "This is too dark," which I never saw my film as dark. I've seen much darker films than my films. I don't really know what they're talking about, you know what I mean.

But I think Michael and I both love the fact that he was politically incorrect then, and he's politically incorrect now. I'm just laughing because someone asked him the other day, "So, Michael, how does the Beetlejuice character evolve?" And we started laughing because he doesn't evolve.

Jenna Ortega once said in an interview that she's always had dark humor, and her humor is so dark that it surprised you even.

Tim Burton: That's why she was Wednesday. She is Wednesday, so that's why there was no question about that at all.

But she's really integral to this because she's our entrance into this world. She's kind of the anchor of the film. It is actually really a story about her, if you really want to boil it down. Her and her mother. She's a really beautiful addition.

Like I said, I had the beauty of Michael and Catherine and Winona, but then I have the beauty of Jenna and the other cast , like Willem, Monica, Justin, that really became part of a weird family.

Why Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Took So Long – And Why Beetlejuice 3 Isn’t In The Works

Kevin Polowy: What can you say about the development process and how long this was really in the works? What kind of speed bumps did you have?

Tim Burton: It's been asked from the very beginning, but nothing clicked. And truly, it couldn't have happened until now. It was only fairly recently, because of all this talk, I just put all the noise away.

I just go, "Okay, I love the Lydia character." That was the character that I connected with, this kind of teenager that I being. So I go like, "Well, what happened to this person 35 years later?" What a weird thing, you go from cool teenager to some kind of f--ked up adult or whatever. And what relationships do you have when you have kids? What's your relationship with that?

It's not something I could have done back then. It's only something you could do once you've experienced those things yourself. For me, it became a very personal movie; kind of a weird family movie. It's about a weird family or it's a weird family movie - I don't know which way you want to look at it. But that became the emotional hook: the three generations of mother, daughter, and granddaughter. Life, death - just basic normal things that we all experience. Especially if you're lucky enough to get older a little bit, you feel those things. That's where it really started, and it really could only have happened for me after all this time.

Tim Burton: They talk or whatever, but if we follow the model now, I'd be making that one when I'd be over a hundred. And it's possible! But I don't know about medical science these days. I don't know.

But no, for me, I wasn't really personally interested. If you said it to me, I would run the other direction. This is one where I just said it was something that caught my [eye]. Now would something else do that? I don't know. Not right now because I've been finishing this one, basically.

About Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife.

Check out our other Beetlejuice Beetlejuice interviews:

• Jenna Ortega & Catherine O'Hara
• Winona Ryder
• Justin Theroux
• Monica Bellucci

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice hits theaters September 6.