Tim Burton’s belated sequel Beetlejuice 2 – or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – has an early fan in star Michael Keaton, who describes an early cut as “great”.
Having finished filming last November, belated sequel Beetlejuice 2 – or Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, to give it its correct, Google-proof name – has been in post-production ahead of its release this September.
The film’s in its late stages, then, and one early fan of it is star Michael Keaton, who reprises his role as the anarchic ghoul, Betelguise.
“I’ve seen it now,” Keaton said in an interview with SiriusXM (via Variety). “I’m going to see it again after a couple of little tweaks in the editing room, and I confidently say this thing is great,” Keaton said. “The [original] was so fun and exciting visually. [The sequel is] all that but really beautiful and interestingly emotional here and there. I wasn’t ready for that. It’s great.”
There’s an element of ‘well, he would say that’ here, admittedly, but then Keaton has been open in the past about things he did and didn’t want to see in a sequel to Burton’s own 1988 comedy-horror classic. He was insistent, for example, that the new film follow the old in its use of practical effects and puppetry.
As Keaton said in February, “The one thing that he [Tim Burton] and I decided on early, early, early on from the beginning, if we ever did it again, I was totally not interested in doing something where there was too much technology. It had to feel handmade.”
It’s been a long road to the big screen for Tim Burton’s sequel – various attempts have been made since the early 1990s – but if Keaton’s enthusiasm is anything to go by, then it’ll hopefully have been worth the wait.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is out in UK cinemas on the 6th September.
