Don't call it a comeback, 'Beetlejuice' has been here for years

Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice

For over 25 years now we have been teased with the possibility of a Beetlejuice sequel. A goofy follow-up called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian was in the development stages in the early 90s but was shelved inexplicably.

Now new comments from star Michael Keaton have reignited the rumors of a part two.

There is a script in place, Keaton is on board and so is, apparently, director Tim Burton. Here's why I am excited...

Beetlejuice has long been a favorite of mine and although Burton has been very hit or miss for the last few years, when he teams up with Keaton (one of my favorite actors) he can do no wrong. The original 1989 Batman is my favorite movie of all-time (I'll get into that in another post) and its sequel, Batman Returns, is flawless in my opinion too.

As far as I know Burton and Keaton had a great working relationship so it's a shame that they haven't collaborated since 1992. I remember hearing talk that the director considered Keaton to play the lead role in his reboot of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which I probably would have been more intrigued to see than whatever he did with Johnny Depp (I never saw it, I thought the Gene Wilder version was perfection).

For some reason, Burton has been fixated on Depp, not unlike the way Scorsese has made DiCaprio his muse, but with far more disappointing results. I loved Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands, and Sleepy Hollow was decent if memory serves.

Yet with the exception of Sweeney Todd I have been turned off by their recent collaborations. It seems like Burton is in this strange rut where he has become a parody of himself. And Depp just seems to be acting "quirky" instead of actually being funny or interesting.

I miss the Burton of 1988 who made the original Beetlejuice, and original is the best way to describe the movie and why it has such an enduring appeal. Sure, it's on Comedy Central constantly but it's also really damn funny and inventive. There really hasn't been a mainstream comedy like it since it came out and it's become a part of our cultural landscape -- Beetlejuice has become a way to describe anyone or anything with a tiny head or someone in a stark black and white suit -- think about that.

The movie took everyone by surprise when it came out and why wouldn't it? A movie about a cute couple who die (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) and try to scare away the family of yuppies that move into their home -- that doesn't have hit written all over it. Throw in old Harry Belafonte songs, a Handbook for the Recently Deceased and a title character with not a lot of screen time but some of the fastest, funniest dialogue I've ever heard.

Michael Keaton in Beetlejuice

I can't think of this movie without thinking of Keaton's laugh-out-loud funny "commercial" as Beetlejuice when he promises to "eat anything you tell me to eat" and then hollers "I'll chew on a dog!"

I have no doubt Keaton has still got it. He doesn't make a lot of movies anymore and when he does he's usually been the best thing in a mediocre film (I hear he's the best thing about the new Robocop).

Still, The Other Guys did show me some of that classic Keaton riffing that I've been missing and I think he's game to show us what he can do by reprising one of his best-loved roles.

Tim Burton, I'm not so sure about. Can he recapture some of his old manic spirit? He used to make genuinely macabre masterpieces. Now, he seems to be treading water. He's been largely rebooting other people's ideas in the last 15 years (Planet of the Apes, Alice In Wonderland, ughh...).

Can he come up with something fresh and new for a sequel?

Sometimes his first impulses are terrible. For instance, he originally thought of casting the late Sammy Davis, Jr. to play Beetlejuice. That would have probably been a huge mistake, with all due respect to Davis. And I'll never forgive him for his "insult" to Wilder's version of Wonka.

So maybe the new screenwriter can save the day? Uh-oh. It's Seth Grahame-Smith. His credits to date include Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and Burton's flop Dark Shadows. So he's 0 for 2. Not too encouraging.

As I've written before, rebooting a franchises after decades have passed is almost always a dicey proposition. It's just so hard to recapture what was magical about the earlier films. Yet with Beetlejuice there always felt like there was more you could do, new adventures to explore (hence the animated series) and with modern special effects it seems like you could expand the character's world and powers (although the scene where Beetlejuice turns into a snake scared me pretty effectively when I was a kid).

At least they had the good sense to keep Keaton in the title role. It would be unthinkable to proceed without him, as the makers of Ghostbusters 3 are foolishly trying to do in the case of Bill Murray. Winona Ryder may return as well -- which is exciting. No word yet on Davis and Baldwin.

I am keeping my fingers crossed, even if all signs point to a likely disaster.