Tim Burton is directing a Beetlejuice sequel Michael Keaton set to reprise

Having exhausted all the remakes he could possibly do, Tim Burton is finally returning to the film that put him and Michael Keaton on the map “Beetlejuice” (course there was Batman, but you know what I’m saying) and don’t ask about the spelling. Apparently, a script has been penned by screenwriter Seth Grahame-Smith, author of the book Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the screenplay for Dark Shadows. This doesn’t make me feel better, but maybe this will work? Or we’ve finally seen the end of Tim Burton. Either way, this will either work or be a colossal failure.

(via.Schmoes Know)

Last week, according to our source, Tim Burton was thinking about dropping out of directing his Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children set up at 20th Century Fox. As originally reported by DEADLINE, Peregrine’s story is a compelling one and right in Burton’s wheelhouse.

But it seems that he was almost tempted to leave the project entirely in order to return and direct the new BEETLEJUICE. But before anyone could say “the name that shouldn’t be named 3 times in a row…” he shifted his schedule and is now looking to do both films.

David Katzenberg and Seth Grahame-Smith have just signed a two-year first-look feature producing deal at Warner Bros. While rights are still being worked out, one of their first projects is expected to be a sequel to Beetlejuice, the 1988 Tim Burton-directed hit that starred Michael Keaton as a ghoul hired by a recently deceased couple to drive the new owners out of their house.

Then, as the news settled and everyone went back to worrying about who was going to be the next Superman and when the next Dark Knight was going to come out, the news got lost in the ether.

But then SCREENRANT dropped in some news from an interview saying:

“When Warner Bros. came to us about it, we said the only way we’d do it if we got Tim [Burton’s] blessing and involvement, and we got that, and the star of the movie has to be Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice, and it’s a true continuation 26 years later. Not just throwing him in as a cameo going, ‘Hey, it’s me. I endorse this movie.’ We’re not there yet [with Keaton] because we don’t have a film to present to him.”

Could this mean that Tim has finally wised up? Could he be seeing, for the first time since getting his best director nod for Big Fish, that his original material is what has made him who he is today? Here’s to hoping he’s done spoofing himself and will start to create some real work and without Johnny Depp…for the love of God.