Widescreen: 'Beetlejuice' rises from the grave - again
I tweeted this about "The Addams Family," Barry Sonnenfeld's hilarious, succinct film adaptation of the Charles Addams characters, back in 2020:
"If a big-budget live-action Addams Family movie were made now, it would be bogged down by world-building to set up sequels that might never happen."
A response to that tweet: "I watched Beetlejuice yesterday and had the exact same thoughts about it."
Lo and behold, what news should we learn this week? Tim Burton, who directed four episodes of Netflix's "Wednesday" - based, of course, on Addams' characters - will soon begin production on "Beetlejuice 2," with new lead actress Jenna Ortega. Yes, that's right, "Wednesday" herself.
No great work of art and/or commerce can go without a sequel in the 21st century, and so Burton's wildly original 1988 comedy - one that takes just 92 minutes to tell its story about a ghost that "exorcises" unwanted humans - will now get a needless continuation that will hopefully allow 71-year-old Michael Keaton to have more fun as "The Ghost with the Most" than he appears to be having in that trailer for "The Flash."
Winona Ryder is back, too, according to Variety, and Ortega will be playing her character Lydia Deetz's daughter. No word yet if Catherine O'Hara will be returning as Grandma Delia. (We can safely bet that Alec Baldwin and Jeffrey Jones won't be invited back. Google that second one.)
"Wednesday" showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar wrote the sequel that is expected in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024. Hopefully it tells a self-contained story and doesn't end with a set up for 12 sequels and four spinoff TV shows.
The original "Beetlejuice," which, to quote the ghost himself, I've seen "about a hundred and sixty-seven times, and it keeps getting funnier every single time I see it," is now streaming on Hulu.
In the room where it happens
This weekend, movie fans have another chance to see a documentary about a historic suburban theater - in the theater itself.
"History Happens Here: The Tivoli Theatre" will screen at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at its namesake, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. The 90-minute documentary presented by filmmaker Jim Toth and the Downers Grove Historical Society features the Johnson family, which bought the theater in 1976 and now runs the Classic Cinemas chain.
Tickets for the documentary cost $5 and are available online at classiccinemas.com.
• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who is happy to report that the "Addams Family" pinball table from the '90s is available on "Pinball FX3" for console and PC platforms.