Beetlejuice might never have seen the light of day if producer Larry Wilson had listened to some executives at Universal Studios. The film was written keeping ghost stories and horror tropes in mind. Michael McDowell created the characters of Beetlejuice in a bid to twist the common convention of a good family finding itself haunted by evil ghosts.
Beetlejuice was an important film for Tim Burton and Michael Keaton, essentially propelling them into the mainstream. However, it seems executives at Universal were not that keen on making the film, questioning why an up-and-coming exec like Wilson would even look into something like Beetlejuice.
A “prominent executive” did not want Larry Wilson to go ahead with the script
The film, after Larry Wilson had a chance to go through the script, ended up at the desk of Universal Pictures. Universal Pictures was still an industry juggernaut at the time, focusing on making films rather than just theme parks. As it ended up on the radar of a certain executive, who cannot be named, the response was one Wilson might not have expected. Wilson, speaking to Den of Geek, revealed what the exec told him:
“But I went into his office, and he literally said ‘what are you doing with your career? This piece of weirdness, this is what you’re going to go out into the world with? You’re developing into a very good executive. You’ve got great taste in material. Why are you going to squander all that for this piece of shit’, was basically what he was saying.”
Had this been the final verdict that dissuaded the writer-producer, Beetlejuice would have probably never seen the light of day.
In an interview with Film Courage, however, Wilson revealed the thought process behind the writing and development of Beetlejuice, which points toward him and McDowell having a stronger resolve to see the film through.
Larry Wilson wanted to make a classic with Beetlejuice
Speaking to Film Courage, Wilson revealed what exactly he loved about developing Beetlejuice. He said:
“In my mind I said to myself…(this sounds so awful maybe) but “I’m going to write a classic. I’m not just going to write another movie. We are going to going to create a classic.” And who knows what that means? I know it sounds obnoxious. But we knew probably…I don’t know…some 20 pages in that just something was happening. And we weren’t thinking about demographics.
We weren’t thinking about who the audience was going to be. We weren’t thinking about any “commercial” aspects of it. We were thinking What’s good? What’s funny? What’s moving the story forward? What are the zaniest, craziest ideas we could have. And it happens with scripts and it happens in your writing.”
Wilson would, of course, see the film through and release it in theatres, where the movie would become an instant classic across demographics, which would lead to a very successful theatrical run despite its limited budget. The film would star A-list actors like Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder and established 80s talent like Catherine O’Hara.
