The 81st Venice Film Festival got off to a delightfully macabre start. Beetle Juice Beetle JuiceThe highly anticipated sequel to Tim Burton's horror comedy was presented to the press for the first time on Wednesday morning, in front of a packed house, as the opening film of the prestigious Italian festival.
Burton and his all-star cast, which includes returning stars Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, along with Catherine O'Hara and newcomers Jenna Ortega, Willem Defoe, Justin Theroux and Monica Belluci, then flocked to the Venice press room for the first group discussion about the making of the long-gestating project.
“One of my favorite parts was looking into your eyes again,” Ryder told Keaton when asked what it was like to reunite 36 years after making the original Beetle JuiceShe said the atmosphere on the set of the sequel was very similar to the one she experienced when she was 16 and working with Burton and Keaton on the first film in 1988.
“My love and trust for Tim is so deep and there was a sense of a certain playfulness and willingness to try things,” she explained. “You feel so safe in the absurdity, but you also feel completely free.”
Summing up the entire journey of returning for the sequel, he said: “It was one of the most special experiences of my life.”
An Italian journalist noted the “feeling of happiness” in the air during the morning press screening and asked Keaton how he deals with the aging and evolution of his character after more than three decades.
“I think it’s obvious that my character has matured,” he deadpanned, slipping into his trademark bonkers smirk. “As suave and sensitive as he was in the first one, I think he’s even more so in this one. Just his general caring nature and his sense of social mores and his political correctness.”
Burton added: “When people ask us how the Beetlejuice character evolved, we can't help but laugh.”
Beetle Juice Beetle Juice centers on Lydia Deetz (Ryder) and her family who return home to their iconic haunted house after a tragedy and then face the consequences when her daughter, Astrid (Ortega), opens a portal to the afterlife where Beetlejuice resides. The film’s teaser trailer debuted in March and featured Keaton declaring to a stunned Ryder, “The juice is loose.”
The first reviews for Beetle Juice Beetle Juice won't be released until later in Italy, after Burton and the cast hit the red carpet for the world premiere at the Sala Grande in Venice. Warner Bros. is likely feeling bullish about the film's commercial prospects, as the most recent tracking has the film opening at the North American box office of $80 million when it opens on September 6, which would be one of the biggest September debuts of all time, without adjusting for inflation.
Tim Burton and the stars of 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice'
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