Beetlejuice Beetlejuice dropped in theaters on September 6. While the fans have given praise to the sequel of the 1988 movie, the makers have released an extended version of the film, which showcases Maitlands’ cameo in the movie.
In conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Alfred Gough and Miles Miller open up about penning a draft with Barabara Maitland being in the scenes. However, the script was ultimately scrapped off.
Gough revealed, “It’s funny with the Maitlands because we asked Tim and we went back and forth.” He added, “There was a version where they just showed up at the end, but the problem is they’re ghosts. So they kind of needed to look like they were 35, which was never going to happen. I think Tim felt, and Miles and I agreed, that their story had been told. So how do we move on from that?”
In the original Beetlejuice movie, the audience got to familiarize with the fact that Adam and Maitland got married, and as the newlyweds were on their way home, their car crashed, and they died. In their afterlife, the couple find themselves getting placed in a haunting house as ghosts.
Speaking in depth about the character, the screenwriter claimed, “The first movie is really about the Maitlands,” Gough explains. “It was really Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis’ movie for a good [portion]. They’re the protagonists who called Beetlejuice against the Deetz family. So he said he really wanted to focus on them.” Gough went on to explain, “He wasn’t interested in doing fan service or being slavish.”
He adds, “So I think he was very much about, how do we tell the next iteration of the story?”
As for the second part of the Beetlejuice movie, the audience witnesses new faces, such as Jenna Ortega, who portrays the role of Astrid in the film, and Arthur Conti as Jeremy.
For the plot of the movie, the synopsis reads, “Three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River after an unexpected family tragedy. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life soon gets turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter discovers a mysterious portal to the afterlife.”
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is running successfully in theaters.
