10 Movie Sequels Stuck In Production Hell

Beetlejuice was a solid commercial hit for Tim Burton back in 1988, grossing almost $75 million on a mere $15 million budget, enough that a sequel - Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian - was being written by 1990.

Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder both agreed to return with Burton directing, but the project was pushed back several years as Burton instead focused on Batman Returns.

By 1997, after years of false starts, the sequel was considered dead by writer Jonathan Gems, but in 2011 it was resurrected with Seth Grahame-Smith (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) tapped to write a new script.

Grahame-Smith finally completed his script by 2015, with Burton reportedly set to start shooting with Keaton and Ryder by the end of that year. It never came to pass, though, with rewrites continuing until Warner Bros. shelved it in April 2019.

Word went dormant for almost three years until last April, when Warner Bros. announced the sequel was back on the menu with shooting planned to begin later that year.

But again it never happened, and though Burton later stated he wasn't actively involved with Beetlejuice 2 at this stage, he added that "nothing is out of the question."

While the persistence of everyone involved is admirable, it's simply tough to believe this thing will ever actually happen.