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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