What Happened to NBC’s “Heroes”?

by Chris Vegvary

Anyone remember back in 2006 when a little television series by the name of Heroes existed? It was inspired by classic comic book storylines like X-Men: Days of Future Past, where superheroes from the future went back to alter the past to keep a devastating event from ever taking place. It started out great; ordinary people were discovering they had extraordinary powers which were genetically bestowed upon them, yet are only just now coming to fruition in their lives. While some had mundane powers like super-hearing or eidetic memory, there were others who had the ability to fly, or phase through solid objects, or even mimic or steal the abilities of others.

Sylar

The first season saw these individuals discovering their awesome powers, sometimes with the help of a man named Mohinder Suresh, whose father was murdered by one of these people after writing a book about the evolution of some humans into super beings. This murderer, who calls himself Sylar, uses telekinesis to remove part of the brain (as well as the top of the skull) from these gifted individuals in order to somehow consume their special abilities. The “heroes” of the show end up banding together like the Avengers at the end of the first season in order to stop Sylar, and after 23-hour long episodes, the first season left us with questions unanswered, leaving us wanting more. It was one of the most perfect TV series I’ve ever known, and I, like a fool, resisted it at first.

Peter, Nathan, and Matt after Peter catches the virus

The second season was released during the 2007-08 writer’s strike, which caused some pretty crappy things to happen to television shows, as well as seeing the release of horrific movies that were put on the backburner because they were so lame, such as Over Her Dead Body. I still can’t get over that. However, the strike also caused the plans they had for season 2 of Heroes to go straight to hell. For those who remember, the virus vial that Peter Petrelli caught in the last episode of season 2 was supposed to hit the floor and shatter before he caught it, thus causing the nightmarish future shown (also similar to another X-Men comic storyline) throughout the season. I can’t help but imagine that it would have been much more excellent if they’d had the time to show the story the way it was supposed to go.

Arthur Petrelli, villain

The third season started off great. There was a story arc called Villains, where bad guys with super powers started taking over. Sylar was convinced by Peter’s mother that he, Peter, and Nathan are brothers, which would have made so much sense, considering that Peter and Sylar basically have the same power; the only difference is how they acquire their abilities. Unfortunately, about halfway through the season, it’s revealed that Sylar is NOT actually a Petrelli, and he kills the best villain on the show: Arthur Petrelli, Peter and Nathan’s father who was thought dead long ago, and who had just returned at the beginning of the season.

The moment before Sylar kills Nathan Petrelli

While that definitely sucked, I thought that the final episode of season 3 made up for all the nonsense that most of the rest of the season put us through. In it, Nathan Petrelli faces off against Sylar, but Sylar slits his throat and kills him. Unable to accept his death, his mother, Angela Petrelli, makes telepathic cop Matt Parkman brainwash Sylar into believing he is Nathan. In my opinion, when Sylar wakes up believing he IS Nathan, that was a great moment in the series.

The travelling carnival

Then season 4 came out, and the plot was just so ridiculous (a travelling carnival full of people with super powers) that audiences couldn’t get past it. I was one of those who couldn’t bear it, but the way it ended kind of left us hanging. I wouldn’t mind if they finished up this series with a TV movie or something, just to tie up all the loose ends. I want to know how things are working out with Peter and Sylar now that Sylar has remembered who he really is, returned to his evil ways, was trapped in a room in his head with Peter Petrelli for something like 20 years while only hours passed in the waking world, and now the two are best friends, even though Sylar murdered his brother. Good times. Let’s see what became of these people.

FvJvA: The Epic Film That Never Happened

by Chris Vegvary

You guys know the old story: a horrible maniac is stalking the children of the neighborhood, and when he’s finally caught by the police, he is released on a technicality. A group of outraged parents forms a mob and surrounds the maniac in his refuge, burning him alive and watching him die. This is how the dream demon Freddy Krueger came to be, and from then on, he returned in the nightmares of the children of the parents who burned him to torture and kill them, collecting their souls and becoming more powerful. Once his revenge was complete, he was powerful enough to move on to other children whose families had no connection with his past. He is truly a monster.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: a mentally unwell and physically deformed boy is treated like crap by the other kids at his local camp that his mother insisted he go to, and while swimming alone one day in the lake, his cries for help are ignored by camp counselors who are too busy having sex. The boy drowns, and his mother goes insane, blaming the counselors and going on a killing spree 21 years later. Once she is beheaded by the last surviving counselor, her son watches on from the woods and decides to take a little vengeance of his own. This is how Jason Voorhees came to be, once a deformed, overpowered hillbilly wearing a potato sack over his head, now a hulking, undead killer with super strength and donning a goalie-style hockey mask. He has been to New York and even space, and was used once as a pawn in Freddy Krueger’s schemes.

Last, but not least, the old story goes something like this: five friends decide to take a trip to a cabin in the woods, where they unwittingly release a force of evil that gradually consumes their souls and possesses their bodies one by one, until there is only one chainsaw-armed hero left standing. He has travelled through time in order to save us from the terrors of the Deadites, and his name is Ashley J. Williams. Clearly, he has what it takes to stop the most evil of beings.

After the success of 2003’s film Freddy vs. Jason, there was, of course, talk of a sequel. It would have involved Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees facing off against Ash Williams after a huge killing spree, with Ash ultimately saving the day in the end and sending Freddy and Jason through a portal summoned by the Necronomicon. Unfortunately, there were disagreements about who should win, and the film never happened. It should be noted, however, that although a movie based on this idea never saw the light of day, there was a comic book with this premise released in 2007, called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash, and it was everything it should have been, but it would have been better as a movie. A sequel was released in 2009, called Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors, and it featured the return of many of the survivors from both the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13^th film franchises.

We should have really lobbied to get this movie made, because unfortunately, it’s way too late for all that. Robert Englund, as much as I don’t want to admit it, is too old to play Freddy now, and plus they’ve already remade the film with a different actor playing Freddy, so it wouldn’t be right. If they would just get these remakes right, maybe we could eventually see “Remake Freddy” vs. “Remake Jason” vs. “Remake Ash”. Yeah, let’s have that.

What I Liked About “Thor: The Dark World”

by Chris Vegvary

If you’ve read some of my past blogs, you know that I’m heavily into all things Marvel-related. If you haven’t, then welcome to that knowledge. Either way, the film Thor: The Dark World was released in October 2013, and I went and saw it in the theaters in glorious 3D. While I enjoyed the film, I wasn’t blown away by it, and I wasn’t really that excited to see it. I knew that it would fill in some gaps here and there and let us know what certain characters have been up to, but in truth, I’m pretty much filling the time while I wait for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But like I said, the movie was good, and therefore, here are some of the things I liked about it.

Firstly, although it was another solo film for Thor, it also features an uncredited cameo by Chris Evans when Thor is leading Loki through an Asgardian hallway, and Loki morphs into Captain America and begins spouting optimistic remarks similar to the way Cap would. Very funny stuff, and while unexpected, it was a good moment in the film. It only lasts for a moment, but it also made me feel better to see that Loki can work his magic to look like anyone he wants in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the actor that plays the character portrays Loki’s masquerade.

Another thing you may have noticed when you saw the movie is the giant rock-creature that Thor faces early in the film. This is a reference to one of Thor’s earliest battles in the comics, where he faced these rock-creatures and drove them off, causing them to become terrified when in his presence. This rock-creature, called a Kronan, resembles the character Korg the Kronan from the Marvel comics story arc Planet Hulk, where Hulk was shot off into space and landed on a distant world, where he and Korg, among other alien beings, were forced into slavery and combat. They became “Warbound,” or brothers in war, and were allies when Hulk returned to Earth to take his revenge in World War Hulk. Unfortunately for the Kronan in Thor: The Dark World, Thor is able to destroy him with one upward swipe of his hammer.

I won’t spoil the ending in case you haven’t seen in, but I will mention the mid-credits scene, because that doesn’t reflect the ending of this film. In the mid-credits scene, two of the “Warriors Three” go to see The Collector, a being who collects artifacts throughout the galaxy and stores them for safe-keeping. They bring to him an Infinity Gem, which will fit into the Infinity Gauntlet. Once all the Infinity Gems are placed into the Infinity Gauntlet, Thanos can then use it to alter reality. This should be a major plot point in the upcoming film, Guardians of the Galaxy, due to be released in August of 2014. I can’t wait.

Can We Have A Real “Mortal Kombat” Movie?

by Chris Vegvary

Remember the old days of arcade gaming (by which I now mean the 1990’s)? With games like Street Fighter and Tekken and other fighting games I have zero interest in, Mortal Kombat was a step in the right direction. It had the graphics, it had the controls, and it had the one thing that every other fighting game out there lacks: Fatalities. In Mortal Kombat, fatalities can be performed on the losing fighter by any character, so there were quite a variety of gory (and sometimes impossible and hilarious) death animations to play around with.

In 1995, Paul W.S. Anderson directed a film based on the game. Do you guys know of Paul W.S. Anderson? I’ll bet you do, if you think real hard. He directed the film Event Horizon (which I say is his only good film to date), 2002’s Resident Evil, the horrific Alien vs. Predator (by which I mean it sucked), and the remake of Death Race. Those of you who have played Mortal Kombat know that it’s not a game meant for children, even though children play it anyway. So why, OH WHY, did he take this idea for a movie based on Mortal Kombat and direct a PG-13 movie for us? None of the fatalities we’ve come to know and love from the game made it into the film, with the exception of Shang Tsung “sucking” someone’s soul out…in a very PG-13 way.

Sadly, the film was what it was, but then there was a sequel that came out in 1997 that added a whole slew of characters from the other games in the series, and it looked like it could be good. Unfortunately, that was also rated PG-13, and worse than that, they killed off my favorite character (Johnny Cage, yo) in the opening scene of the film. Sonya Blade, Rayden, Johnny Cage, and Jax were all played by different actors than in the previous film. The rest of the movie played out like a silly costume party where none of the props looked right, and it was just all-around bad. There, I said it.

In 2011, Mortal Kombat was reborn onto the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 with awesome new graphics, controls, and fatalities. It felt like it was completely redone from the ground up. Very little of it resembled the original in terms of looks and style, and it was just excellent. Not to mention that downloadable characters were released after the game came out, one of them being the man himself…yep, Freddy Krueger was in a Mortal Kombat game, and his fatalities are the sh*t. Kevin Tancharoen directed a bunch of shorts based on his vision of what Mortal Kombat is, and since then, there’s been rumblings in Hollywood about a remake of the franchise in film form. While his version is a little too real for me, it is more geared towards an adult audience, and a Mortal Kombat movie with an R-rating that takes full advantage of what the whole thing is about would not be unwelcome.

Are Jigsaw’s Games Truly Over?

by Chris Vegvary

I remember my first encounter with Jigsaw. It was right after the first film came out on DVD and I had never purchased a movie without having seen it beforehand, but I had heard good things about Saw. I was interested in checking it out and didn’t have very much else going on at the time, so I bought it, brought it home, and watched it…and oh man, am I ever glad I did. It was a murder mystery the likes of which I hadn’t seen before, though I’ve heard the comparisons to movies like Seven and the like, but in my opinion, Saw started something completely different. Some people feel comfortable labeling movies in this genre “torture porn” and they call it trash, but to them, I say don’t watch it if you don’t like it, but don't put your messed up labels on the good movies.

Yes, Saw was followed by six sequels that came out each year right before Halloween. It blew up big in a way the studio didn’t expect and became Lionsgate’s biggest cash cow, hence the milking. Unfortunately for Jigsaw, the whole concept sort of lost steam right after the third film. After that, writing duties were taken over by a pair of writers who planned out the next four films in the series. In October of 2010, Jigsaw’s games finally came to a brutal, bloody, and kind of surprising ending in his first (and most likely last) 3D film. Or did they?

After the first Saw film came out, Carey Elwes had gripes about his payment, which is completely understandable. You go through all that and don’t get paid what you’re promised, you’ll likely sue. So with the bad blood between him and the studio (or the filmmakers, I can’t really remember), Elwes was not featured in any of the sequels until Saw 3D was released. If you’re like me, you liked the films, but the first was your favorite, and the reason you stayed so invested was because you knew Elwes’ character from the first film, Dr. Lawrence Gordon, would eventually have his fate explained. Luckily, it all came to fruition in the seventh (and last) film.

But what if Jigsaw’s legacy could still live on? It can, because now Lawrence and all the other survivors of Jigsaw’s twisted games have changed. As you saw from the most recent film, Dr. Gordon has been helping Jigsaw as far back as the beginning of the second film. Is he not the perfect candidate to carry on Jigsaw’s work? He knows the value of life now, having cut off his own foot in order to save himself, his wife, and his child, and he clearly does not have any qualms about showing to others what Jigsaw showed to him.

There’s been rumblings out there in Hollywood of another Saw film being made sometime in the future. I say, why not make it this year? It’s 2014. That means that by October, it will have been ten years since we first laid eyes on a Jigsaw trap. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I still want to play a game, and I’d definitely go see a follow-up to one of my favorite horror series ever to have existed.

Here’s My Problem With Iron Man 3

by Chris Vegvary

I know, I know, this comes a little late in comparison to when the movie came out, but I need to express my side of things here. Yeah, I liked the movie Iron Man 3. It was pretty great in a lot of ways. They adapted a bunch of stuff from the comics and even added in some characters. Sure, they weren’t all depicted the way they were in the source material, but sometimes that’s good. Conversely, sometimes it’s not. Case in point: The Mandarin.

By now, you’ve probably heard all the griping on the internet about the big “twist” in the film, where a character named “The Mandarin,” who is responsible for a series of terrorist bombings and hostage-killing videos, is revealed to be nothing more than an actor named Trevor Slattery and a pawn of the “real” Mandarin, Aldritch Killian. I put the word “real” in quotes because in no incarnation or adaptation of the source material could I ever see this person being the “real” Mandarin.

First of all, for those of you who don’t know, The Mandarin is Iron Man’s archnemesis in the comics. Granted, he’s based on some pretty outdated and possibly racist material, but the way Ben Kingsley portrayed The Mandarin (before it was revealed he was a fake) was very good. I welcomed the change. Then the twist came, and it was all for nothing; getting us hyped about Iron Man’s biggest, baddest villain, and having Ben Kingsley play him, only to have him be made up by someone in a higher position of power.

Making The Mandarin into a joke like that is like taking Lex Luthor and having him be revealed to Superman as a fake character made up and being controlled by Bizarro Superman, or something stupid like that. Seriously, did they think people would NOT be pissed if they just made it like the greatest enemy Tony Stark has ever had into a trick? Some of you might be saying right now that my comparison of Lex Luthor and The Mandarin is way off, that the two don’t compare; well, I’m here to tell you that they do. Lex Luthor is Superman’s biggest pain, just as The Mandarin is Iron Man’s. Just because he’s less well-known than Lex Luthor doesn’t make him any less relevant.

Here’s another tiny problem I had with the film; the scene at the end of the credits. Most of the other movies out there set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with the exception of The Avengers) have a scene at the end of the credits, hinting at or sometimes even leading directly into the next planned film in the series. The scene at the end of Iron Man 3 had just a bit of light humor, and didn’t give us anything to go on for the next film (which would be Thor: The Dark World). It was simply Tony Stark laying out all his problems to Bruce Banner, who has fallen asleep listening to Tony, which causes Tony to start the movie narrative again from the very beginning. What I had heard originally is that the end-of-credits scene would have shown Tony Stark donning his white and gold Starboost suit (which allows for space flight and travel) and flying off into space to meet up with the Guardians of the Galaxy. I know things change while the creative process is ongoing, it’s just that it would have been cool to see that. Other than that, Iron Man 3 was a pretty great film.

Video Games Have Changed

by Chris Vegvary

We’ve come a long way from video games like Super Mario Bros., haven’t we? From the original NES to the Xbox One, from Gameboy to Playstation 4, from Atari to the Wii U, there’s so many games and choices out there. While older consoles are now defunct and way out-of-date, there’s still quite a few of the classics that we like to play. Who can forget the original DOOM for PC, or Sonic the Hedgehog for Sega Genesis, or my all-time favorites, Final Fantasy VII for Playstation? Not the ones who played them, most likely. Playing classic games is fun, but the more modern games sure are something to behold.

There’s so many choices of consoles, and PC games also remain relevant, even though I’ve wasted quite a bit of money on PC games that wouldn’t actually run on any of my computers. Even though the next generation of gaming consoles is out, the previous generation’s consoles are still going strong. Mortal Kombat, a violent arcade fighting game that came out in 1992, featured some pretty realistic-looking graphics for its time, and it had more than its fair share of blood and severed/exploded body parts. When the game was remade for consoles in 2011, the graphics were completely overhauled, the controls felt better, and there were a lot of added bonuses, including the ability to go into “x-ray mode” to view the internal damage your enemy takes, and real-time damage your character takes as you fight it out (including ripped eyelids and other sick sh*t).

Back in the day, we had games for consoles and PCs. Now we have games for cellphones and tablets, games that become smash successes with today’s technophiles, or people who can’t seem to live without their electronic devices (I’m guilty, too). For instance, the game Angry Birds, which was first released in 2009, is an idea that is so simple, yet people love it so much that variations (and straight-up ripoffs) of the game are still being released today. There’s even a full-length movie in the works.

What does the future hold for video games? It’s hard to say, but I feel like this “next generation” of consoles (Xbox One & PS4) is sort of like a stepping stone in the direction of the REAL next generation consoles, because all in all, they just seem like Xbox 360s and PS3s with better graphics and a few extra features. Still, there are a lot of games that will be coming out in the future, and with this being the beginning of these new consoles’ lives, perhaps the boundaries of what can be done with video game graphics and functionality can be pushed more towards the limit than I thought possible.

Whatever Happened to The Blob?

by Chris Vegvary

Do you guys remember the classic 1958 film The Blob, which starred Steve McQueen? Can’t say I do, because that was long before my time, but I do remember the 1988 remake which starred Kevin Dillon (Entourage, Twisted Metal) and Shawnee Smith (Saw,Repo! The Genetic Opera) against a slimy alien bacteria that crashes in the form of a meteorite in a small California town. While it seems like a blob of space jelly might not be a major issue, this particular mass of nastiness is not only sentient and moves by itself, but it absorbs whoever it attaches to by melting it with whatever acid it is composed of, and grows larger with each kill.

While the original 1958 film got its own sequel, Son of Blob, the 1988 version had no such luck, even though the ending was set up for the continuation of the story. I enjoyed the graphic nature of the 1988 film, seeing that the Blob is not just some formless jelly that covers people and then they’re gone, but going as far as showing a teenager (and later, a kid) being melted and absorbed by it while Shawnee Smith’s character tries to save him. It’s the only film that, to this day, scared me as a kid so much that I at one point believed I saw it moving around in my closet while I was trying to sleep.

Remember Rob Zombie’s Halloween, where he delved into the backstory of Michael Myers, trying to explain why he did the things he did? I felt like that was a fairly excellent movie (although there’s more than one version; I prefer the one I saw originally), and The Devil’s Rejects was almost a perfect movie (even though I felt its predecessor, House of 1000 Corpses, was lacking). A few years ago or so, Rob Zombie announced that he was going to be remaking The Blob, but that it wasn’t going to be a mass of jelly like it had been in previous films, and that it would be presented in a way we wouldn’t expect. In other words, we’d get to see a fresh take on The Blob made by the guy who made two of my favorite movies that came out recently.

Unfortunately, not much has been heard about this remake since then. While a sequel to the 1988 film would have been nice, that’s probably out of the cards now, and The Blob seems like the kind of movie you can remake over and over with different takes on the premise, like Dracula or Frankenstein. While it’s still not impossible that we’ll see a remake of The Blob sometime in the near future, I can’t help but feel curious about what Rob Zombie had in mind for one of the freakiest monsters ever to exist on film that would make it more terrifying than it was before. The world may never know.

What’s The Deal With Doctor Strange?

by Chris Vegvary

Some of you may be sitting there, thinking something along the lines of “I know I’ve heard the name, but I have no idea who Doctor Strange is.” If that sounds like you, don’t worry too much about it. In all honesty, while I’m a huge fan of Marvel comics in general, I never go out of my way to read Doctor Strange titles. He may be an Avenger, but you know what? There are plenty of Avengers out there that I don’t even know about. Even though he’s not one of my favorites, it should be said that Stephen Strange is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel universe, what with being the Master of the Mystic Arts and all.

Doctor Strange and some of his friends

Marvel has planned to release a feature film for the character sometime after the release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which would put it right in the center (or at the end) of what Marvel calls “Phase 3” of its plan for a joined cinematic universe, being that Ant-Man is scheduled to be the first movie released in that wave. The appearance of Doctor Strange in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to introduce the concept of magic into those films, unlike the Thor films, where their “magic” was more advanced forms of science (and maybe a little magic, we don’t know how far back the story goes in the cinematic universe yet).

Why should you think anything about Doctor Strange, right? Well, check this out: in the comics, not only is he super-powerful, but he can alter existence as he sees fit, if he so chooses (which he never would). He’s powerful enough to be an Avenger, and smart enough that he was (not aware if he is still currently) part of a group of people who met in order to discuss current events and to maintain control of the superhuman community in secret (the Illuminati). He helped send the Hulk into deep space one time. He keeps the supernatural forces of evil at bay while the rest of us wander around living our lives. He’s been to Hell, and isn’t afraid of it.

So yeah, Doctor Strange isn’t as popular as Spider-Man, but they’re both Avengers, and I don’t see Spider-Man walking around sporting the title of Sorcerer Supreme. I’m not into the Doctor Strange comics, but seeing him in action in a full-length film starring himself might just change my mind and get me to check it out a little more. Guess we’ll find out, probably sometime in 2016 or so.

The Problem With “Alien vs. Predator” Movies

by Chirs Vegvary

I’ve said this before, I even wrote a blog about it, but Aliens is the greatest movie of all time. It just is. While you may not agree with that, you might agree that the 2004 film Alien vs. Predator and its 2007 sequel, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, were both pretty ridiculous movies. First of all, let me just say this to all the filmmakers out there who have an idea for another idea for a film in the Alien franchise: stop trying to make all your lead female characters in Ripley. Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, appears in the first four films in the series, and she is the original badass sci-fi superwoman. You cannot replicate the success of that character, and every attempt you make seems weak and feeble.

Ok, now that we have that out of the way, let’s focus on the point of this whole article. I have a lot of gripes concerning the film Alien vs. Predator, but first and foremost on that list is that it took two R-rated franchises and mashed them together into a PG-13 film in order to make more money off it. That truly makes me sick, because if you don’t believe your film can do well enough on its own with the rating it SHOULD have, then don’t make it (I’m talking to you, studio executives). My next major gripe with it is that it takes place in modern day, on Earth. What the f**k, people, are you telling me that the Xenomorphs existed back then? Get out of here with that nonsense. It makes even LESS sense now that the film Prometheus has been made, or maybe it makes all the sense in the world, but I just don’t like it.

I have fewer gripes with the second film, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, since it stepped it up to an R-rating, but at the same time, it just felt…incomplete, for some reason. I tried to like it, and I definitely liked it more than the first one, but it was lacking something. Plus, the idea that a Xenomorph of any kind, even a Pred-Alien (hybrid of a Predator and a Xenomorph), can lay multiple eggs in hosts through its mouth is insanity after the Aliens’ life cycle has already been clearly established as, well...not that.

How can we make the next AvP movie good? I have an idea: how about we make it like the video game or Dark Horse comic it’s based on? By which I mean, set it in the future, maybe after the events of the film Alien 3 (and we can just pretend Alien Resurrection and all subsequent films don’t exist), and definitely include the space marines like we saw in the movie Aliens. It would have the potential to be the best one yet, maybe in either franchise…except for Aliens, because nothing can replace that as the best movie of all time.

Beetlejuice 2 On The Way

by Chris Vegvary

Those with an affinity for comedy films from the 1980’s, plus those of us who are just old enough to remember, will remember a popular little movie by the name of Beetlejuice, which starred Michael Keaton as a ghost who freelances as a bio-exorcist, which means that he helps other ghosts with any problems they may be having with the living…for a price. If you say his name three times, he appears and begins causing chaos wherever he happens to be.

It’s been a while since 1988, hasn’t it? Something like 26 years later, now we’re hearing talk of a sequel. Not that there was never a sequel planned back then, because there very much was: Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian. If that doesn’t sound like a terrible enough idea for you, then you should hear what the plot would have been. Ridiculous. Thankfully, that movie never got made, but then Warner Bros. decided in 2011 that the world was ready for another dose of Beetlejuice, and they hired a writer to start penning the script. The word is that not only is the script done, but Michael Keaton will be returning to play Beetlejuice, while Tim Burton will be returning to direct the film. Exciting, right? As long as there’s no tropical angle here, I might be inclined to be on board with it.

Winona Ryder, who played the character Lydia Deetz in the first film, has also mentioned the possibility of returning for the sequel, which would supposedly be in real-time, meaning that 26 or 27 years have passed since the first film in both reality and in the plot of the film. It’s not known yet whether Winona Ryder be returning or not, but even so, pop star Katy Perry has expressed an interest in playing the character. That might be nice for her, to be able to branch out more into films and whatnot.

Before I sign off here, I just wanted to fill all you Beetlejuice lovers in on something you may not have known. Were you aware that the original script was really violent, most likely R-rated? Things were very much less lighthearted and whimsical in the original version, and in it, Lydia also has a little sister who is brutally slaughtered by Beetlejuice, who in the form of a rabid squirrel. Just think about that next time you’re watching the movie. Oh, and by the way…Beetlejuice, Betelgeuse, Beatle Djuse.