The film stars Jenna Ortega and Michael Keaton in reprisals for the title role.
The ghost with the most returns 30 years later and the wait is high. We don’t know much about “Beetlejuice 2”, a long gestation, which should bring together Michael Keaton in the title role, alongside Jenna Ortega, Winona Ryder and director Tim Burton. But the film’s cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos, shed some light on what fans can expect.
At the press conference for Zambarloukos’ latest film, Kenneth Branagh’s ghost story “A Haunting in Venice,” the cinematographer explained how Branagh and Burton have some similarities in their shooting style. “Kenneth and Tim, in both of these stories, wanted to work behind closed doors,” Zambarloukos said, meaning the two films were shot in strict order so they could be edited during filming.
“At the heart of ‘Beetlejuice (2)’ is the story of a family,” said Zambarloukos. “And now, 30 years later, what are the intricacies and the human condition of keeping a family together for all this time in the craziest world possible? That’s why I choose projects. For me, this human connection is always in the foreground.
And, no doubt, this crazy world will involve all sorts of wacky Tim Burton special effects, including puppets. “In ‘Haunting in Venice,’ we built a miniature house, a palace, and we made it to scale,” Zambarloukos said. “That’s how we got some angles that we couldn’t get in the real Venice. With Tim, we work with Neal Scanlan, his puppeteer on many films.
In June, Keaton explained how filming “Beetlejuice 2” was very similar to how they made the film in 1988 in an interview with Empire magazine. “It’s so fun, it’s so awesome. And you know what it is? We do exactly as we did in the first film. There’s a woman in the great waiting room of the afterlife with literally a fishing line – I want people to know because I like it – pulling on a cat’s tail to do it move,” he said.
The length of time only made the actors more attached to their characters. “(Burton) and I were talking about it years and years ago, never telling anyone,” Keaton told Empire. “We both agreed: if this happens, it should be done as close as possible to how we did it the first time. Inventing things, making things happen, improvising and riffing, but literally handmade things, like people creating things with their hands and building something. Damn, awesome. It’s the most fun time I’ve had working on a film – I can’t tell you how long.
“Beetlejuice 2” hits theaters on September 6, 2024.