Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImageCould the rumors be true?
Tim Burton is reportedly in negotiations to direct a sequel to his 1988 hit movie Beetlejuice, according to several trade outlets. The 55-year-old filmmaker has received an offer from Warner Bros. to helm the sequel.
Seth Grahame-Smith—who worked with Burton twice in 2012, on Dark Shadows and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter—penned the script. He will produce the movie with his partner, David Katzenberg. Burton has yet to read the script.
Grahame-Smith sparked sequel rumors with a single tweet on Oct. 16, writing, "Big news today. Very exciting, and very daunting. Lots of work ahead."
It remains to be seen if Michael Keaton would reprise his role as Beetlejuice, an eccentric "bio-exorcist" from the underworld.
Of course, Grahame-Smith would prefer not to recast the part. "The star of the movie has to be Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, and it's a true continuation 26 years later," he told Entertainment Weekly in 2011. "Not just throwing him in as a cameo going, ‘Hey, it's me. I endorse this movie.'"
Burton feels the same way. "Michael was so great in it," he told MTV while discussing a proposed follow-up in 2012. "I'm sure he'd strangely tap right back into it."
Beetlejuice also starred Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O'Hara. It made $73 million at the box office and won the Academy Award for Best Makeup. Burton also executive produced all four seasons of the Beetlejuice cartoon from 1989 to 1991. Notably, he has not directed a sequel to any of his films since 1992's Batman Returns.
Burton, meanwhile, just wrapped production on Big Eyes, starring Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz and Krysten Ritter. He'll next begin work on Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an adaptation of Ransom Riggs' young adult novel.