‘It’s a very, very personal intimate story’: ‘Beetlejuice 2’ cinematographer promises it won’t be a cash-grab legacy sequel

25 years on and Michael Keaton’s mouldering anarchist ghost is still tickin’. Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice 2 will pick up two decades and change after the original film concluded, with Keaton and Winona Ryder reprising their roles and Wednesday star Jenna Ortega joining the cast as her on-screen daughter.

Cynics might say bringing Beetlejuice back after so long is scraping the barrel for 1980s nostalgia, though Keaton is always good value for money, and after Burton and Ortega knocked it out of the park with Wednesday, we’re eager to see what they cook up here.

The shoot is on hold due to the Hollywood strikes, but The Direct has an interview with the Beetlejuice 2 director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, who confirmed there will be a focus on practical effects over CGI:

“I think there is the same kind of passion and that’s what is the kind of ignition behind all of this. We’ve been working with Neal Scanlan on incredible puppeteering and in-camera effects. And there’s just an element of that storytelling–It’s a natural progression. It’s a very, very personal intimate story for Tim [Burton]. “

Zambarloukos also said that they’re maintaining the combination of surreal supernatural haunting and believable family dynamics that made the first film work so well:

“Although it’s fantastical, when you look at the explanation between the data and the nuances of everything, you will always find something that goes back to kind of something personal for him. So although it’s a fantastical story, it, again, at the heart of it [is] a brilliant, warm family story. It is the story of a family and how it’s progressed over for 30 years. And I think that’s always the basis of a great story.”

We’re eager to find out more, though the shots of Ortega in a wedding dress may indicate that Keaton’s character is finally going to get his long-awaited wish of a mortal wife to allow him to wreak havoc in our world. That may be complicated by the presence of Monica Bellucci’s character, listed in the cast list as “Betelgeuse’s wife”, though we suspect a teeny bit of bigamy is well within his wheelhouse.

Another intriguing addition is Willem Dafoe in an unknown role. We reckon he’ll be some kind of demonic antagonist that represents a more malevolent threat than Betelgeuse, though we’ll have to wait for the trailer for more.

Beetlejuice 2 is due out on Sept. 6 2024.