Winona Ryder Hints at Involvement with Beetlejuice 2

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]inona Ryder has been dropping some annoyingly tantalising hints about her involvement with Tim Burton’s planned sequel to his 1988 film Beetlejuice, in which she starred as misunderstood teen Lydia Deetz. Last month news crept out that Burton was almost certainly going to be directing the sequel, and that erstwhile star Michael Keaton would also almost certainly be returning to his role.

We also heard that Seth Grahame Smith (who wrote the screenplay for Burton’s Dark Shadows) and David Katzenberg have co-written the script. Speaking to the Daily Beast earlier this week, Ryder revealed:

“I’m kind of sworn to secrecy, but it sounds like it might be happening…It’s not a remake. It’s 27 years later. And I have to say, I love Lydia [Ryder’s character in the first film] so much. She was such a huge part of me. I would be really interested in what she is doing 27 years later.”

Ryder has also said that if it weren’t for the involvement of both Burton and Keaton, she would have turned her nose up at the thought of Beetlejuice 2: “I would never go near [the film] if it was not Tim and Michael, because those guys, I love.”

Beetlejuice grossed $73.7m, and gave a shot in the arm to the careers of pretty much everybody involved, including Ryder. She acknowledged that it is “…one of those movies where little kids stop me. I’m so associated with it. I think it gave me my career. I was such a weird looking kid.”

It seems almost certain then that weird looking kid Lydia Deetz, now in her forties, will be making an appearance in Beetlejuice 2, which is certainly good news for hardcore fans of the original film. With the key triumvirate of Keaton, Burton and Ryder all reportedly involved, we’re unlikely to end up with yet another two-and-a-half-hour soulless cash-in hitting our screens in the near future.