It’s Teaser Trailer Day-O For 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'
Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder bring Jenna Ortega aboard for extraordinary Deetz in the long-awaited sequel
Tally me bananas, Beetlejuice is back on the big screen. Warner Bros. has set the juice loose with the teaser trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the beloved 1988 film starring Michael Keaton as the Ghost with the Most, with Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara also returning as Lydia and Delia after 36 years, enough time to mature the idea after less exciting ones were floated in the immediate wake. The film will be released in theaters on September 6.
The teaser trailer begins with a children’s choir doing a slow dramatic rendition of “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” Jenna Ortega’s Astrid Deetz, rides her bike into a farmhouse. As the official synopsis describes “Beetlejuice is back! After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia's life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.” It is very widely believed that the family tragedy is the death of husband/father/grandfather Charles Deetz, addressing how exactly they were going to deal with the character as he was portrayed by noted sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Jones.
Interestingly, Entertainment Weekly’s first look, published on Wednesday, a day ahead of the teaser release, features images that do fall within what was seen in the teaser, which runs only 67 seconds: The three Deetz generations standing in mourning at the funeral, and Betelgeuse having risen from the town model. As for who else is in the film, there’s Monica Bellucci playing Betelgeuse’s wife, while Willem Dafoe plays a ghost detective who had been an action movie star while alive. Justin Theroux has been revealed to play Rory, but that’s everything disclosed about his character, and a name is more than what’s been revealed about Arthur Conti and Burn Gorman’s characters.
Director Tim Burton returns, and he says he feels "a bit jinx-y" about revealing character details, given that the film is still being shaped in editing. What he does confirm is stop-motion animation is used to bring a lot of the classic Beetlejuice visual effects to this new film. "It needed a back-to-basics, handmade quality," he says. "It reenergized why I love making movies." Beetlejuice is written by Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, best known as the developers of Smallville. Creating Wednesday allowed them to grow a rapport not only with Burton but star Ortega. The screenplay is based on a story by Seth Grahame-Smith, though it is also credited to Gough and Millar.
Sources: Variety, Entertainment Weekly