The Juice Is Loose: The 36-Year Journey to Beetlejuice 2
In 1988 a movie which scared most executives in Hollywood for being too “weird” proved to be a resounding hit for Warner Bros. Beetlejuice became the tenth-highest grossing film of the year, wowing critics and audiences alike with its macabre imagery, dark humor, fiendishly bizarre plot — and a star turn from Michael Keaton as the titular “Ghost with the Most.” Strangely, though, it would take more than three decades for a sequel to finally materialize — even if it wasn’t for a lack of trying!
Plans for a sequel started almost immediately
In the aftermath of the movie’s success, a Beetlejuice sequel seemed inevitable. WB wanted it, director Tim Burton wanted it, and Keaton and Winona Ryder were keen to return. So, in 1990 Burton hired screenwriter Jonathan Gems to turn an idea he’d had into a full-blown script.
What was this idea? Well, in 1997 Gems told Fangoria magazine, “Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German Expressionism, because they’re totally wrong together.”
Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian
The resulting script was Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, and it was even more zany than the first film! The plot would have followed the Deetz family as they moved to Hawaii, where patriarch Charles builds a new resort.
Unfortunately, the construction site lies on top of a burial ground for an ancient Hawaiian priest — and when his spirit is disturbed, he wreaks havoc on the resort. Lydia then turns to Beetlejuice for help, and ghostly hilarity ensues, ending with the mischievous ghoul winning a surfing contest to banish the spirit!
A bat throws a wrench in
Everything seemed perfectly set up for the sequel to get the greenlight — but then WB made Burton an offer he couldn’t refuse. You see, the year after Beetlejuice, Burton had directed Batman, which was an even more colossal hit.
It also starred Keaton, and by 1990 the studio was more inclined to get a sequel to their DC Comics cash cow off the ground than they were to see Beetlejuice’s hijinks in Hawaii. So, they offered Burton total creative control of the project, and he agreed to make Batman Returns.
Must we go tropical?
At one point, Burton hired Daniel Waters to re-write Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian — but then he was also waylaid by Batman Returns, as Burton wanted him to script that too. It left the sequel in limbo for a few years as different writers were brought in to breathe new life into it.
Saturday Night Live’s Pamela Norris took a crack in 1993 and in 1996 Kevin Smith was asked to come aboard. But, as he later joked, “Didn’t we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”