Venice Film Festival 2024: Tim Burton reveals “very personal” decision behind ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’
At the Venice Film Festival on August 28th, director Tim Burton revealed why he felt inclined to make Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
The long-awaited sequel is set to open the Venice Film Festival, and before the screening, Burton participated in a press conference in Italy. Despite the debut of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice marking the beginning of the Venice Film Festival, it will be screened out of competition.
After being shown at the iconic event, the movie starring Michael Keaton will be released worldwide on September 6th.
Alberto Barbera, the chief of the Venice Film Festival, previously explained the decision to open the annual celebration of cinema with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Barbera described the movie as “the long-awaited return of one of the most iconic characters of Tim Burton’s cinema” before labelling it as “the happy confirmation of the extraordinary visionary talent and the masterly realisation of one of the most fascinating auteurs of his time.”
Burton’s new film is a sequel to 1988’s Beetlejuice. The gothic fantasy director earned significant acclaim with the film, which starred Keaton alongside Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis.
As it has taken Burton over 35 years to return to the movie to produce a sequel, the director made it clear during the press conference on August 28th that he made the new movie for the right reasons rather than financial gain.
The director explained that he “didn’t even watch it (the original movie) before” working on Beetlejuice Beetlejuice after saying the project wasn’t “for money”.
Burton elaborated: “I wasn’t out to do a big sequel for money or anything like that, I wanted to make this for very personal reasons. Like I said, I didn’t watch the first movie to prepare for this. I remembered the spirit of it and I remembered everybody here.”
What movies are premiering at Venice Film Festival?
The 81st edition of Venice will take place from August 28th to September 7th, with a whole host of Hollywood stars set to descend on the Italian city for the event.
Notably, Todd Phillips’ Joker: Folie à Deux is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 4th. Elsewhere, Luca Guadagnino has adapted William S Burroughs’ novel Queer with a cast featuring Daniel Craig, Lesley Manville and Jason Schwartzman, which premieres on September 3rd.
Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones will appear in Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which will be shown in Venice on September 1st. Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult will also appear in Justin Kurzel’s The Order, which the Venice audience will view on August 31st.
Venice Film Festival 2024 full line-up:
‘Competition’
- The Room Next Door, Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)
- Campo di Battaglia, Gianni Amelio (Italy)
- Leurs Enfants Après, Eux Ludovic Bouckherma, Zoran Boukherma (France)
- The Brutalist, Brady Corbet (U.K.)
- The Quiet Son, Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin (France)
- Vermiglio, Maura Delpero (Italy, France, Belgium)
- Sicilian Letters, Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza (Italy, France)
- Queer, Luca Guadagnino (Italy, U.S.)
- Love, Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
- April, Dea Kulumbegashvili (Georgia, France, Italy)
- The Order, Justin Kurzel (Canada)
- Maria, Pablo Larrain (Italy, Germany)
- Trois Amies, Emmanuel Mouret (France)
- Kill the Jockey, Luis Ortega (Argentina, Spain)
- Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips (U.S.)
- Babygirl, Halina Reijn (U.S.)
- I’m Still Here, Walter Salles (Brazil, France)
- Diva Futura, Giulia Louise Steigerwalt (Italy)
- Harvest, Athina Rachel Tsangari (U.K., Germany, Greece, France, U.S.)
- Youth – Homecoming, Wang Bing (France, Luxembourg, Netherlands)
- Stranger Eyes, Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, Taipei, France, U.S.)
‘Out of Competition – Fiction’
- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton (U.S., U.K.) – Opening Film
- L’Orto Americano, Pupi Avati (Italy) – Closing Film
- Il Tempo Che Ci Vuole, Francesca Comencini (Italy, France)
- Phantosmia, Lav Diaz (Philippines)
- Maldoror, Fabrice Du Welz (Belgium, France)
- Broken Rage, Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
- Baby Invasion, Harmony Korine (U.S.)
- Cloud, Kurosawa Kiyoshi (Japan)
- Finalement, Claude Lelouch (France)
- Wolfs, Jon Watts (U.S.)
- Se Posso Permettermi Capitolo II, Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
- Allégorie Citadine, Alice Rohrwacher, JR (France)
‘Out of Competition – Series’
- Disclaimer, Alfonso Cuaron (U.K., U.S.)
- The New Years, Rodrigo Sorogoyen Del Amo, Sandra Romero, David Martín De Los Santos (Spain)
- Families Like Ours, Thomas Vinterberg (Denmark, France, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway, Germany)
- M: Son of the Century, Joe Wright (Italy, France)
‘Out of Competition – Non-fiction’
- Apocalypse in the Tropics, Petra Costa (Brazil)
- Bestiari, Erbari, Lapidari, Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy, Switzerland)
- Why War, Amos Gitai (Israel, France)
- 2073, Asif Kapadia (U.K.)
- One to One: John & Yoko, Kevin Macdonald, Sam Rice Edwards (U.K.)
- Separated, Errol Morris (U.S., Mexico)
- Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989, Göran Hugo Olsson (Sweden, Finland, Denmark)
- Russians at War, Anastasia Trofimova (France, Canada)
- Twst/Things We Said Today, Andrei Ujica (France, Romania)
- Songs of Slow Burning Earth, Olha Zhurba (Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden)
- Riefenstahl, Andres Veiel (Germany)
‘Out of Competition – Special Screenings’
- Leopardi. Il Poeta Dell’Infinito (Parts 1 and 2), Sergio Rubini (Italy)
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Peter Weir (U.S.)
- Beauty Is Not a Sin, Nicolas Winding Refn (Italy, Denmark)
‘Horizons’
- Nonostante, Valerio Mastandrea (Italy) – Opening Film
- Quiet Life, Alexandros Avranas (France, Germany, Sweden, Greece, Estonia, Finland
- Mon Inséparable, Anne-Sophie Bailly (France)
- Aïcha, Mehdi Barsaoui (Tunisia, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
- Happy Holidays, Scandar Copti (Germany, Italy, Qatar)
- Familia, Francesco Costabile (Italy)
- One of Those Days When Hemme Dies, Murat Firatoglu (Turkey)
- Familiar Touch, Sarah Friedland (U.S.)
- Marco, Jon Garraño, Aitor Arregi (Spain)
- Carissa, Jason Jacobs, Devon Delmar (South Africa)
- Wishing on a Star, Péter Kerekes – Documentary – (Italy, Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic)
- Mistress Dispeller, – Documentary – Elizabeth Lo (China)
- The New Year That Never Came, Bogdan Muresanu (Romania, Serbia)
- Pooja, Sir, Deepak Rauniyar (Nepal, U.S., Norway)
- Of Dogs and Men, Dani Rosenberg (Israel, Italy)
- Pavements, Alex Ross Perry (U.S.)
- Happyend, Neo Sora (Japan, U.S.)
- L’Attachement, Carine Tardieu (France, Belgium)
- Diciannove, Giovanni Tortorici (Italy, U.K.)
‘Horizons Extra’
- September 5, Tim Fehlbaum (Germany)
- Vittoria, Alessandro Cassignoli, Casey Kauffman (Italy)
- Le Mohican, Frédéric Farrucci (France)
- Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo, Khaled Mansour (Egypt, Saudi Arabia)
- La Storia Del Frank e Della Nina, Paola Randi (Italy, Switzerland)
- The Witness, Nader Saeivar (Germany, Austria)
- After Party, Vojtech Strakaty (Czech Republic)
- Edge of Night, Türker Süer (Germany, Turkey)
- King Ivory, John Swab (U.S.)
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