Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

“Beetlejuice 2,” the buzzed-about possible sequel to the 1988 cult classic, might have pulled original director Tim Burton back into the creative mix. Initially signed as a producer, Burton is now reportedly “officially in talks to direct the sequel for Warner Bros,” according to The Wrap.

Sources close to the project revealed that Burton has an offer to direct but has not read the script, written by Seth Grahme-Smith and David Katzenberg. As the director told Vulture in January 2013, he has to “see what the script was like and if it was worth doing.”

Grahme-Smith, who penned the novel “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” updated his Twitter followers on the progress of the script in March 2013, posting a photo of a figure in stripes standing front of his computer with the caption “It’s showtime …”

Thus far, the author has confirmed that they wouldn’t move forward without Michael Keaton reprising his role as Beetlejuice and Burton’s involvement, and also insisted that the gap in years between the two films doesn’t mean that the new one would be a reboot. “We are not remaking or rebooting this movie; we are absolutely doing a 26-years-later sequel. And more important than that, if we don’t feel like it does the first movie justice, then I think it’s even better not to do it, so we’ll see,” Grahme-Smith told SciFiNow.co.uk.

Grahme-Smith isn't the first to try bringing back the famous bio-exorcist. In the '90s, Jonathan Gems penned the first sequel attempt, called “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian.” The script (which thankfully never made it to production) was rumored to be about the Deetz family moving to Hawaii to develop a resort. According to the “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian” wiki page, “construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Betelgeuse comes in to save the day” … somehow winning a surf competition along the way.

Grahme-Smith reassured “Beetlejuice” fans that his script won’t be an “overblown big ‘Beetlejuice Saves The World’ type of story.”

“Frankly, Beetlejuice himself is only in the original movie for about a half hour,” he told Bleeding Cool in June 2012. “I think using him sparingly is key. And not trying to make it so modern, family-friendly and broad but to cling to the things that made it a little dangerous.”

Tim Burton has yet to confirm if he’ll be stepping up to direct the “Beetlejuice” sequel. He’s currently working on a movie adaptation of Ransom Rigg’s YA novel, “Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children.”

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