Deadline has learned that Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B has latched itself to the follow-up to the 1988 cult classic Beetlejuice, which remains in the early development stage. The sequel is currently without a script, or any other developments to disclose.
Beetlejuice featured Michael Keaton as the titular character, with a star-studded cast that included Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara, and Winona Ryder. The film won an Academy Award for Best Makeup. While there have been rumors that Keaton and Ryder have expressed interest in reprising their roles, nothing has been confirmed.
According to Screen Rant, talk of a sequel dates back to 1997 when Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian failed to get off the ground. Beetlejuice director Tim Burton later tapped Seth Grahame-Smith as a scribe for the sequel in wake of their work together on 2012’s Dark Shadows. Any progress seemingly fell through the cracks again, and Grahame-Smith opened up in an interview with Collider last year about the difficulties that he has encountered while trying to pen the script.
“The reason that it’s so hard to get going is because so many people love it and because there are 10 million ways to get that sequel wrong and four ways to get it right,” Grahame-Smith explained. “It’s such a very fine needle to thread that I certainly like didn’t get it there, on the script side. I didn’t thread the needle.”
Plan B has produced Oscar-nominated films, such as the Steven Yeun-led film Minari (which also led to Youn Yuh-jung winning in the Best Supporting Actress category), and Emmy-nominated shows, like the Amazon miniseries The Underground Railroad. The company also has three Best Picture wins under its belt with The Departed, 12 Years a Slave, and Moonlight.
