Michael Keaton had two very specific conditions for returning to one of his most iconic roles, and it sounds like Tim Burton's "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" is going to be all the better for it.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Michael Keaton had two very specific conditions for returning to one of his most iconic roles,
00:06and it sounds like Tim Burton's Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice is going to be all the better for it.
00:10With a title like Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, you might expect there to be twice as much
00:14screen time for the ghost with the most. It might surprise you to know that Michael
00:18Keaton's freelance bioexorcist was only in a paltry 17 minutes of the original film.
00:23That's right, it takes a while for the titular ghost to properly show up in Tim Burton's classic
00:281988 supernatural comedy. Even after that, he's not shown on screen quite as much as you might
00:33remember. In fact, Beetlejuice is mostly irrelevant to the plot, much of which centers around the
00:38lovable, recently-deceased Maitlands trying — and failing — to scare the off-putting,
00:42still-breathing Dietzes from their home. It's only in the third act that Beetlejuice
00:46fully evolves into the film's antagonist, giving the two families a common enemy to unite against.
00:51You bunch of losers! You're working with a professional here!"
00:56Nearly 40 years later, you might think that Burton's sequel Beetlejuice,
00:59Beetlejuice would change things, between Keaton developing into an even bigger star
01:03in the intervening decades and Beetlejuice himself becoming a truly iconic character.
01:08According to Keaton, however, you'd be wrong. Not only that, the Oscar-nominated Batman and
01:13Birdman actor has said that the first of his two conditions for returning for the film was
01:17that Beetlejuice could only be used as much as felt necessary for the story at hand.
01:22Keaton explained to GQ,
01:23The idea was, no, no, no, you can't load it up with Beetlejuice. That'll kill it.
01:28He added that, the way he sees it, the mischievous ghoul drives the overarching
01:32narrative even less in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice than he did in the first movie,
01:35yet remains an essential piece of the puzzle. As Keaton put it,
01:39He's more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one, which is a case of,
01:43this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.
01:47I'm gonna make you so happy.
01:49But Keaton wanted more than just a promise that Beetlejuice wouldn't appear in every scene.
01:53It was also important to the beloved actor that Burton return to the style and substance that
01:58defined his early career. For most of the last 20 years, Burton has, arguably to his detriment,
02:04relied on CGI instead of the practical effects that epitomized the look of a Burton film in
02:08the 80s and 90s. Back when he was one of Hollywood's most visually innovative artists,
02:13his films were also tactile in a way that allowed their goth, gross-out elements to really sing,
02:18so much so that they could arguably overcome a poor script on their own.
02:22Hell, if Burton's Planet of the Apes was only the scenes featuring Rick Baker's incredible
02:26practical makeup, it would probably be a pretty terrific sci-fi social satire.
02:31As Burton's pictures became increasingly CGI-heavy, though, audiences haven't been as enthused.
02:36This is why Keaton's second condition was that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had to be as
02:40handmade as feasible, lest the franchise's deliciously disgusting vision of the afterlife
02:45and the Neitherworld feel watered down or overly polished. Keaton explained,
02:50When I say handmade, it's literally handmade."
02:53But while he admitted that's really hard to do in 2024, he wouldn't have signed on if Burton
02:58hadn't agreed with him, in his own words. For the most part, with CGI, I think a lot of audiences
03:03subconsciously feel farther away from what's actually going on on the screen or in the story.
03:08It'll work, they'll accept it, but I think for a lot of movies, it's not quite as enjoyable.
03:13To Keaton and Burton's credit, the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice footage unveiled so far has that
03:18throwback, tangible feeling, and its setting is all the better looking for it. We'll see
03:22how the rest of the film stacks up when it opens in theaters on September 6th, 2024.