You don't need a bio-exorcist to tell you the best BTS "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" facts when you have us! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the things you might not have known about the making of director Tim Burton’s long-awaited legacy sequel.
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00:00Here's a preview. Be warned, it's intense.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the things you might not have known
00:09about the making of director Tim Burton's long-awaited legacy sequel, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.
00:14A word of warning, spoilers are to follow.
00:17The juice is loose.
00:24Otho, are you doing this?
00:26I work all night and I drink a rum.
00:34There was clearly a lot of pressure on Burton and company to incorporate another memorable
00:38musical moment into Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, a la the first film's instant classic Deo sequence.
00:44Breaking down the film's script for Entertainment Weekly, co-writer Alfred Goff explained that,
00:48quote, we all wanted a musical number. We just didn't know what it was.
00:52It all felt like the movie was wrapping up too neatly.
00:57Daylight come and me wan' go home.
01:01Burton, according to Goff, has a jukebox in his home, which contained the original MacArthur
01:06Park recording as performed by Richard Harris, solidifying his choice.
01:10MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark, all the sweet blue icing flowing down.
01:18The unique thing about this scene? Beetlejuice leads it, as opposed to Deo,
01:22in which the character doesn't appear at all.
01:25Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep! Eep!
01:35We did it!
01:36Number 9. Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega became besties.
01:39You ever been in an army?
01:42I've never found one that could handle me.
01:49Ryder is clearly building a reputation for herself as a mentor to a new generation of
01:54of silver screen talent. Speaking to Screen Rant, Ryder gushed about working with Wednesday
01:58and Scream star Jenna Ortega, saying that, quote,
02:01"...it did feel a lot like I was talking to a younger version of myself, but she's just
02:05like a thousand times cooler, because we both have the same almost religious reverence for
02:10film. She is a cinephile, and we just can talk movies for years."
02:14This must have been a breath of fresh air for Ryder, who had previously bemoaned her
02:18young co-star's lack of interest in classic cinema as part of a 2024 Los Angeles Times
02:23profile.
02:248. Tim Burton had some help from a friend
02:39Alfred Goff, as part of that aforementioned Entertainment Weekly breakdown, explained
02:43how Burton's friend and frequent collaborator Danny DeVito ended up making a small but memorable
02:47cameo in Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Goff explained that he hadn't written what would become DeVito's
02:52role with any particular actor in mind. The screenwriter shared that, quote,
02:56"...Tim called Danny, and Danny said yes in a minute and came and did it, which was great."
03:00In another fun bit of trivia, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice reunites DeVito, Burton, and Keaton,
03:18who worked together on Batman Returns and Burton's live-action Dumbo remake, the latter
03:22alongside Colin Farrell.
03:24Not that DeVito's presence ever needs to be explained away. Isn't it technically a crime
03:28to not love him?
03:317. Multiple attempts to film a sequel failed
03:44The answer as to why Beetlejuice fans had to wait so long for a sequel would be good
03:54old-fashioned Hollywood bureaucracy. Although a number of wild ideas were floated — more
03:59on that in a moment — none of them came to fruition, and the project was killed, then
04:03revived, then killed again. Rinse and repeat.
04:07For a moment in 2011, it looked like the Beetlejuice sequel was finally going to happen, with Warner
04:12Brothers hiring frequent Burton collaborator Seth Grahame-Smith to write and produce. Graham-Smith
04:17told Entertainment Weekly in 2015 that filming would begin at the end of that year, with
04:22Winona Ryder reprising her role. Warner Brothers announced in 2019, however, that this iteration
04:28had met a familiar fate.
04:316. What do Hawaii, Romeo and Juliet, and Beetlejuice have in common?
04:42As it turns out, quite a lot. After the original Beetlejuice was a box office hit, the Geffen
04:47Film Company immediately went to work on crafting a sequel. They commissioned two scripts in
04:521990. One was called Beetlejuice in Love, and was written by Warren Skaran, who had
04:57worked on the first film script. This pitch involved Beetlejuice re-entering the world
05:02of the living, trying to steal Julia away from the deceased Leo.
05:057. The other pitch? Beetlejuice goes Hawaiian, which would have seen Charles Dietz building
05:18a resort on an ancient Hawaiian burial ground. Beetlejuice would have saved the day by winning
05:23a surfing competition. Sounds like we should be thankful we got Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
05:27instead.
05:285. Winona Ryder's Stranger Things contract had a Beetlejuice clause
05:43Ryder, born Winona Laura Horowitz, had an extremely busy few years after Beetlejuice
05:51turned her into an overnight superstar. Once a prototypical media darling, America's goth
05:56sweetheart faced intense backlash and public scrutiny after having been arrested for shoplifting
06:01in 2001. Cut to June 2015, and Ryder is cast in what she doesn't yet know is her major
06:07comeback role, that of Joyce Byers in Netflix's Stranger Things.
06:23As neither Ryder, her simultaneously cast co-star David Harbour, or the showrunning
06:27Duffer Brothers were aware of the show's massive potential for crossover success, she insisted
06:32on only a single demand in her contract. That would be the ability to unconditionally take
06:37time off if a Beetlejuice sequel ever entered production.
06:414. Why Charles Dietz was written off
06:52Jeffrey Jones, the actor behind Charles Dietz, was at one point ubiquitous in Hollywood,
07:04appearing in such 80s hits as Amadeus, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and, of course, Beetlejuice,
07:09as Lydia Dietz's uptight, high-strung father Charles.
07:28While almost every starring cast member from the original Beetlejuice film was contracted
07:32to return for its sequel, Jones was conspicuously absent. While the character's death is crucial
07:38to the plot of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, there's a significant elephant in the room
07:41that likely contributed to Jones' dismissal. That would be the fact that in 2003, the actor
07:46was required to register as a sex offender in California for possession of illicit materials
07:51involving children. Jones pled no contest to a solicitation charge.
07:563. Burton felt that he couldn't make Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice until now
08:11Reading about Burton's motivation for making a sequel to one of his most legendary films
08:15really puts the events of Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice into context. Upon finally signing on to make
08:20the film in 2022, the oddball director, speaking to British newspaper The Independent, claimed
08:26that he, quote, "...tried to strip everything and go back to the basics of working with
08:29good people and actors and puppets."
08:31Burton elaborated in an interview with Collider, describing the film as highly, quote, "...personal,"
08:48and that, quote, "...that became the emotional hook. The three generations of mother, daughter,
08:53granddaughter, life, death. Just basic normal things that we all experience, especially
08:58if you're lucky enough to get older. You feel those things."
09:012. Why the Maitlands don't appear
09:09Burton brought on his Wednesday collaborators Alfred Goff and Miles Miller to write the
09:12screenplay for Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, working from a story conceived of by them and Seth
09:17Graham Smith. Early on, the trio discussed ways to potentially bring back Adam and Barbara
09:22Maitland, as played by Alec Baldwin and Gina Davis in the first Beetlejuice film, for,
09:26at the very least, a cameo appearance.
09:29However, the filmmakers decided against it, citing a number of reasons. Among them, in
09:44a rather refreshing creative choice, was the inadequacy of contemporary de-aging technology,
09:50as ghosts wouldn't get older. In addition, Burton felt that the Maitland story was already
09:54complete, and that reviving them would serve no narrative purpose beyond mere fan service.
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10:271. Michael Keaton himself insisted on Beetlejuice's limited screen time
10:42For the Oscar nominee who earned top billing as the titular character in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,
10:47this might seem like a kind of counterintuitive decision. In a GQ profile published ahead
10:52of the sequel's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Keaton explained why he made the
10:56demand one of the conditions of his return.
11:09Many actor and occasional Batman declared that too much Beetlejuice would, quote, kill
11:14it, further elaborating by saying, quote,
11:16I think the Beetlejuice character doesn't drive the story as much as he did in the first
11:20one. He's more part of the storyline in this one as opposed to the first one.
11:24Which is a case of this thing comes in and drives the movie a little bit.
11:43What was your favorite Beetlejuice Beetlejuice moment? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
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