Up until the strikes shut it down, Tim Burton was filming the “Beetlejuice” sequel in the UK and had been singing the praises of returning to old-school filmmaking techniques on the production.
The filmmaker is currently hard at work editing the film in southern France and is expected to complete the last day-and-a-half of filming required once the strikes are over. He’s also likely to get going on the second season of “Wednesday” which is expected to resume filming post-strike as well.
Recently he had a Zoom chat with the BFI in the UK where he touched upon one project he worked on that wasn’t so lucky – the cancelled “Superman Lives” movie.
Both that film and his 1989 take on “Batman” formed elements of Andy Muschietti’s recent “The Flash” movie at Warner Bros. Pictures. The film saw Keaton returning as Batman in a supporting role, whilst a CG recreation of Nicolas Cage as Superman showed up.
Asked whether he had any regrets about “Superman Lives,” which was scrapped after he spent two years working on the film in pre-production, he says:
“No, I don’t have regrets. I will say this: when you work that long on a project and it doesn’t happen, it affects you for the rest of your life. Because you get passionate about things, and each thing is an unknown journey, and it wasn’t there yet. But it’s one of those experiences that never leaves you, a little bit.
But also it goes into another AI thing, and this is why I think I’m over it with the studio. They can take what you did, Batman or whatever, and culturally misappropriate it, or whatever you want to call it. Even though you’re a slave of Disney or Warner Brothers, they can do whatever they want. So in my latter years of life, I’m in quiet revolt against all this.”
The latter paragraph could refer to “The Flash,” but Burton doesn’t specifically name the movie. Keaton’s return was one of the most well-liked aspects of “The Flash,” whilst the Cage cameo had more of a mixed response due to the problematic CG.
“The Flash” is now streaming on Max.
