12 Crazy Sequel Pitches That Almost Ruined Great Films

10. Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian

When Batman hit big, it was naturally thought that the hot property director should be given every opportunity to go out and harvest as much money as possible. It was deemed that a Beetlejuice sequel was the best way to take advantage of Burton's profile boost, and quickly, so the studio approached him to write a sequel treatment.

Burton apparently didn't feel like playing along, so he pulled an elaborate prank on his own studio, writing the worst script possible as a joke, as confirmed by screenwriter Jonathan Gems:

"Tim thought it would be funny to match the surfing backdrop of a beach movie with some sort of German expressionism, because they're totally wrong together."

The sequel would involve the Deetz family planning to open a resort in Hawaii, on ancient burial grounds, which upsets militant daughter Lydia, who calls upon Beetlejuice to scare them off the island, after he initially turns down a group of disgruntled local ghosts who ask him the same thing. Naturally, Beetlejuice uses the opportunity to try and seduce Lydia and break up her fledgling romance with a local called Kimo, before drugging Lydia and attempting to marry her.

Kimo finds out the truth, comes to stop the evil plan and the world implodes in a ridiculous end sequence, featuring dinosaurs, the Easter Island heads and a monster-sized Beetlejuice (now called Juicifer,) which is all sorted out when Lydia uses her psychic powers (!!) to summon a giant wave to wash all the badness away.

Thank God Burton was too busy thanks to Batman Returns to make this, because even if it was just a sick joke, something tells me that the studio would have green-lit it anyway, and we'd all be talking about that awful Beetlejuice franchise.