Jenna Ortega is believed to be eyeing a reunion with director Tim Burton in his highly anticipated Beetlejuice 2.
The 20-year-old actress and Burton, 64, recently worked together on Neflix’s hit Addams Family spin-off show Wednesday.
Now, she is said to be “circling” a role in the long-awaited sequel to his 1988 cult classic movie about a married couple Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis) who are recently deceased and learn that a new family, the Deetz’s (Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder) have moved into their house.
They consult the Handbook for the Recently Deceased and summon the spirit known as Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) to scare off this new family.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ortega – who is set to make her Saturday Night Live debut as host this weekend – is hoping to bag the role of Ryder’s daughter Lydia Deetz.
There have been many attempts over the years to develop a Bettlejuice sequel.
One of the earlier tries came in 1990 when Burton hired Jonathan Gems to write a script entitled Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which would follow the Deetz family moving to Hawaii to develop a resort, which turned out to be built on an ancient Hawaiian burial ground.
The Hawaiian-themed sequel went through a number of different writers throughout the 1990s, including Daniel Waters (Heathers) and Pamela Norris (Troop Beverly Hills), with Kevin Smith (Clerks) turning down a chance to rewrite the script.
The project stalled until 2011 and there were further attempts to revive it in 2011, 2015 and 2017, but by 2019 things had gone quiet again.
Last year, the sequel came back to life yet again when Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment announced it was taking it on with both Keaton and Ryder attached.
