Willem Dafoe: Last News

Venice Film Festival press conference for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” that he didn’t set out to make the sequel “for money” — in fact, he didn’t even rewatch the original before he started filming the sequel. Speaking on making a sequel 35 years after his 1988 cult original, Burton said, “And I didn’t even watch it before I did it!” “I wasn’t out to do a big sequel for money or anything like that, I wanted to make this for very personal reasons,” Burton continued.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Willem Dafoe, who stars in Tim Burton’s fest opener “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” along with jury members Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”) and Giuseppe Tornatore (“Cinema Paradiso”) turned up at the annual Venice Film Festival‘s pre-opening party on the rooftop of the Danieli Hotel on Tuesday night. Co-hosted by the Leone Film Group, Variety and the Danieli Hotel, the glamorous bash brought together a mix of stars, global industry movers and shakers, including hitmaking Italian director Paolo Genovese, Los Angeles-based producer Niels Juul (“Ferrari”) and Bárbara Paz, a Brazilian actor and filmmaker.

Jenna Ortega reckons she once auditioned for a role in Dune.The Wednesday star said in a new interview that she went in for the role of Chani, which eventually went to Zendaya, in a secret audition when she was 15.Ortega, who is now 21, told BuzzFeed: “I think it was Chani, I think it was Zendaya’s. But they weren’t saying that, everything was very secret.”The actress added that she remembers being “really excited” at the audition because director Denis Villeneuve “is one of my favourite filmmakers.”Along with Zendaya, the critically acclaimed first instalment of the sci-fi series went on to also star Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Josh Brolin, Stellan Skarsgard and Dave Bautista.

EXCLUSIVE: Acclaimed actor Willem Dafoe, who recently starred in Oscar-nominated pic Poor Things and can next be seen in Tim Burton’s upcoming Venice opener Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, has just wrapped filming tycoon family drama The Birthday Party from Greek production house Heretic. 

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Tim Burton’s long-awaited “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” brings Winona Ryder back to the role of Lydia Deetz after 36 years. Ryder was only 15 years old when she filmed the original “Beetlejuice,” and she recently told Entertainment Weekly that she never predicted her character would become a mother in the sequel. “I would hope there’s that thing of wanting to keep the essence of the first one, but then imagine this whole life that’s happened,” Ryder said.

Although her hairstyle appears to have remained the same, Winona Ryder had her work cut out for her in updating the character of Lydia Deetz.

EXCLUSIVE: Alejandro G. Iñàrritu’s movie with Tom Cruise has assembled a murderers’ row cast. The four-time Oscar-winning filmmaker’s untitled movie for Warner Bros and Legendary Entertainment counts Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall actress Sandra Hüller, Emmy winner John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Oscar nominee Jesse Plemons and Talk to Me actress Sophie Wilde. Oscar winner Riz Ahmed is in final negotiations to join the cast.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Michael Keaton is back as the eponymous “Ghost With the Most” in Tim Burton’s long-awaited “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” which is opening the Venice Film Festival this month before opening in theaters in September. The actor recently told GQ magazine that one of his stipulations for returning as Beetlejuice was for the sequel not to beef up his screen time. After all, the character is only on screen in the 1988 original for 17 minutes.

Jenna Ortega has spoken about the close friendship that she struck up with Winona Ryder on the set of the upcoming film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.The sequel to the 1988 cult classic is out in cinemas on September 4, and sees director Tim Burton and stars Michael Keaton, Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning to the franchise alongside newcomers Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci.Ortega plays the rebellious Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Ryder’s Lydia, as the Deetz clan return home to Winter River following the death of Charles Deetz. See the film’s trailer below.The on-screen mother and daughter turned out to be fast friends in real life, as Ortega recently explained to Fandango.“Obviously joining a sequel to something and it being so long since the original, I think I just wanted to put my head down and do the work and show up and be respectful and read my little book book off to the side,” Ortega said,.“But I think Winona was so warm and so welcoming, as was Catherine [O’Hara], as was everybody else, that you almost didn’t have a choice but to become a part of the family, which I’m so grateful for because I think that in shooting and working together and Tim’s playful spirit, I felt like everything that we were doing felt like we were all in on the same joke or on the same page or had the same ideas.”“It just felt like a free and collaborative space, but Winona and I — I swear we just started talking one day on set and then never stopped,” she continued.

Jenna Ortega has recreated the “demure” viral TikTok trend while on set with her co-stars of the upcoming film Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.The trend has bubbled up in recent weeks after the creator Jools Lebron began using certain phrases as a way of explaining to followers how she handles herself in public – being “very demure” while waiting to board a plane, or “very mindful” when on holiday, for example.Since gaining traction, there have been tens of thousands of posts on the platform using the word “demure” and referencing the trend, and now Ortega has brought it into a more mainstream setting.Appearing alongside Justin Theroux, who plays Ortega’s father in the film, Ortega mouths along to Lebron’s words, including smirking as she says, “I don’t come to work with a green cut crease,” while pointing at the shrunken-headed green prosthetic figure sitting behind her.Jenna Ortega doing the “demure” trend in a new video for ‘BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE’ pic.twitter.com/TIVJCCtqto— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) August 15, 2024Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the 1988 cult classic, is out in cinemas on September 4, and sees director Tim Burton and stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara returning to the franchise alongside newcomers Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci.Ortega plays the rebellious Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Ryder’s Lydia, as the Deetz clan return home to Winter River following the death of Charles Deetz. See the film’s trailer below.In other Ortega news, the Wednesday star has recently been speaking about the issue of “political correctness” in Hollywood and how she feels it can “lack honesty”.“The business that we work in is so touchy-feely,” she said.

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, the long-awaited Warner Bros sequel to the 1988 Tim Burton directed, Michael Keaton starring haunted comedy landed on three-week tracking this AM with an outlook of $65M-$75M — however, don’t be surprised if it does more for there’s too much fuel on this building box office bonfire.

The trailer for director Jason Reitman’s movie about the 90 minutes leading up to the first-ever episode of “Saturday Night Live” in October 1975 was released Thursday.It shows the original cast of the sketch comedy series racing against the clock to put on the first show at Studio 8H.At the start of the trailer, an NBC page played by “Stranger Things” star Finn Wolfhard struggles to give out free tickets to the show.Gabriel LaBelle’s Lorne Michaels, the creator of “SNL,” tries to get past security at 30 Rock.The original cast — which includes Cory Michael Smith’s Chevy Chase, Dylan O’Brien’s Dan Aykroyd, Ella Hunt’s Gilda Radner, Lamorne Morris’ Garrett Morris, Matt Wood’s John Belushi, Emily Fairn’s Laraine Newman and Kim Matula’s Jane Curtin — are also dealing with conflict and disaster as they prepare to tape their first episode.NBC exec Dick Ebersol, played by Cooper Hoffman, tells Michaels that he doesn’t think the show is “ready.”“It doesn’t matter that we’re ready, it matters that it’s 11:30. That’s when we go on,” LaBelle’s Michaels responds.The cast of “Saturday Night” also includes Rachel Sennott as Rosie Schuster, Matthew Rhys as George Carlin, Jon Batiste as Billy Preston, Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson, Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin, Willem Dafoe as David Tebet, J.K.

Deadpool & Wolverine popcorn bucket went viral on social media, fans are getting excited about a range of new popcorn buckets for the upcoming new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice film release.Micheal Keaton is due to return as the character Betelgeuse in upcoming sequel, having originally played the role in the 1988 Tim Burton classic.The film will see Burton return as director, as well as Winona Ryder as Lydia Deetz and Catherine O’Hara as Delia Deetz, with the story set 40 years after the events of the first film.Jenna Ortega joins the franchise as Lydia’s daughter Astrid, while Monica Bellucci plays Beetlejuice’s wife. Willem Dafoe meanwhile will play ghost detective Wolf Jackson.The film, which has been in the pipeline for many years and was confirmed in 2022, is due for release on September 6, with production last year delayed slightly due to the Hollywood strikes.Ahead of its release, some US cinemas are already starting to share details of their Beetlejuice Beetlejuice themed popcorn buckets which could rival those of the recent Deadpool & Wolverine success.Regal Cinemas shared some images of their buckets which you can see below.The collection includes a Sandworm collectable container which is designed to look like one of the black and white striped sandworms from the film.

The first trailer for Saturday Night, about the first broadcast of NBC’s SNL, has just debuted online!

Anna Tingley If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Variety may receive an affiliate commission. After hitting theaters in June, Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest deranged film will soon be available to watch from home.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Warner Bros., Roblox and Fandango have teamed up to launch a virtual box office for Tim Burton’s upcoming “Beetlejuice” sequel inside of the online gaming platform. Beginning Monday, Roblox users ages 13 and up in the U.S.

Meredith Woerner Deputy Editor, Variety.com Finally, fashion for the strange and unusual. Warner Bros.

Rami Malek and Emma Corrin are enjoying a few days away!

The Boy and the Heron, the Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli, has been set to premiere exclusively on Max in the U.S. on Friday, September 6. There, the film will join the rest of the Studio Ghibli library, which came to Max as part of an exclusive multiyear U.S. deal announced earlier this year. 

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning “The Boy and the Heron” will make its U.S. streaming debut on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max in September.

The Venice Film Festival, a perennial awards platform, revealed another powerhouse lineup this morning, including Todd Phillips’ Joaquin Phoenix/Lady Gaga starrer Joker: Folie à Deux, Pedro Almodóvar’s English-language debut The Room Next Door with Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore, Luca Guadagnino’s Daniel Craig starrer Queer, based on the William S. Burroughs novel, Pablo Larrain’s Maria Callas biopic Maria with Angelina Jolie, and Nicole Kidman A24 movie Babygirl.