Seth Grahame-Smith is a popular writer, having written the novels Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, both of which have film adaptations in production (with Grahame-Smith writing the script for the latter himself). He’s also written Tim Burton‘s upcoming adaptation of Dark Shadows and, along with KatzSmith partner David Katzenberg, created and co-wrote the recently canceled MTV series The Hard Times of RJ Berger. So he certainly has enough writing credentials that it’s no surprise that Grahame-Smith and Katzenberg have signed a “first look” deal with Warner Bros. What is surprising is that according to Deadline the duo is expected to work on a sequel to the classic Michael Keaton 1988 comedy Beetlejuice, which was directed by Tim Burton.
Okay, I get that Warner Bros. might be indirectly trying to court Burton for this project by involving his recent collaborator Grahame-Smith, but I don’t think a new Beetlejuice is exactly what the public wants. Sure, the Deadline article claims the film isn’t a remake but a sequel (which is the only bit of good news), but a sequel to Beetlejuice might have been fantastic in 1990 back when Burton showed interest in a goofy followup called Beetlejuice goes Hawaiian, but this is almost 2012. Furthermore Michael Keaton has been more-or-less semi-retired since the late 1990s — although he stole the show in Toy Story 3 as the voice of Ken — and I’d argue that Keaton is the Beetlejuice character as much as Harrison Ford is Indiana Jones, so it’s not like Warner Bros. could just stick Seth Rogen or Michael Cera in the black-and-white suit and expect anyone to seriously accept it.
Finally, while Beetlejuice was a huge hit in 1988, but has any comedic sequel released more than twenty years after the original ever been successful? The only thing that comes close is Blues Brothers 2000 and that sure didn’t turn out well.
So I’m going to file this one in “Proposed Sequels That Likely Will Never Get Made” draw right next to Ghostbusters 3 and The Breakfast Club 2.
But what do you readers think? Am I off-base in my views on Beetlejuice 2, or do you completely agree with me?
Recent Comments