It's showtime this September as Michael Keaton's hilariously scuzzy undead antihero Beetlejuice returns to the big screen in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. We've been waiting years for Tim Burton's follow-up to his classic 1988 horror comedy and it's almost here, including special format presentations in IMAX, 4DX, ScreenX and Superscreen.
Get ready with our list of facts about the original film.
1. Michael Keaton largely improvised his role as the notorious bio-exorcist Beleguese (pronounced 'Beetlejuice'), including the moment where he hawks the snot into his jacket and claims, "I'll save that one for later."
"You show up on the set and just go f--kin' nuts," Keaton told Rolling Stone. "It was rave acting. You rage for 12 or 14 hours; then you go home tired and beat and exhausted. It was pretty damned cathartic."
2. The original script from writers Michael McDowell and Larry Wilson was much darker, with Beetlejuice sketched as an actively homicidal character. It was later rewritten by Warren Skaaren who reworked the movie as a lighter, though still morbid, horror-comedy with Beetlejuice reimagined as a prankster rather than an evil character.
3. The likes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Dudley Moore were considered for the role of Beetlejuice before Keaton got the part.
4. There was no reference to Harry Belafonte's music in the original script; instead, it designated RnB music, but songs like 'Banana Boat' helped introduce Belafonte to a new generation.
5. The film's epilogue with Beetlejuice getting his head shrunken was added after positive reactions from test audiences who demanded one more appearance from the Beetlejuice character.
6. As a joke, Burton suggested the name 'Scared Sheetless' as a possible title and was horrified when the studio Warner Bros considered using it.
7. The brass contortions in Danny Elfman's carnivalesque score proved so hard to capture that noted conductor Lionel Newman walked out of the recording sessions in anger. The score was eventually conducted by William Ross who captured the nuance Elfman was looking for.
8. Alec Baldwin who portrays Adam Maitland in the film thought Beetlejuice would fail, saying: "I thought my, all of our, careers are going to end with the release of this film."
9. Instead, the film was a critical, commercial and artistic success, grossing $74.7 million on a $15 million budget and winning the Oscar for Best Make-Up
10. The film's success spawned an animated television series, video games and a 2018 stage musical.
The juice is loose from September 6th. Click the link below to book your tickets for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
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