Overview
Did Hollywood have a disagreement with its past, get a fortune cookie predicting the future, feel an earthquake shudder, then wake up back in the 80s and 00s? Based on two new flicks heading to cinemas, yes, it must've. Because everything old is always new again in Tinseltown — a trend that's bringing Cruel Intentions, Twilight and Harry Potter back, too — both Freaky Friday and Beetlejuice are scoring sequels.
Unlike those big-screen sagas and their upcoming TV versions, this pair of films is getting movie follow-ups — and they're set to feature members of their original casts as well. For Freaky Friday 2: Freak Harder (which won't be its actual name), that means reuniting Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis with Lindsay Lohan (Falling for Christmas) two decades later. With Beetlejuice 2: Electric Boogaloo (again, not its actual name), Michael Keaton (Morbius) and Winona Ryder (Stranger Things) are back with the poltergeists.
The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the Freaky Friday news, noting that Elyse Hollander will pen the script. Story details haven't been revealed, but body-swapping is bound to feature given that's what Freaky Friday has always been about. Drinking, dancing, getting angry that your mum won't let you go to your band's big audition, eating those enchanted cookies — perhaps that'll all get worked in as well.
For this franchise, it all started with 1972 book by Mary Rodgers, then the 1976 Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian)-starring first movie adaptation, and also a 1995 remake with Gaby Hoffman (C'mon C'mon). After 2003's beloved Curtis- and Lohan-led take, horror flick Freaky gave the idea a spin in 2020.
Freaky Friday 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but Beetlejuice 2 does: September 6, 2024 in the US. It'll continue the story started in Tim Burton's 1988 hit Beetlejuice, with Wednesday favourite Jenna Ortega playing the daughter of Ryder's Lydia Deetz. As Variety reports, Justin Theroux (White House Plumbers) is also among the cast.
You don't need a Handbook for the Recently Deceased in your ghostly hands to get excited, but you might spend time with folks with one, which is what happened with the original flick's Barbara and Adam Maitland (GLOW's Geena Davis and Dr Death's Alec Baldwin). In the first film, viewers also saw what happened when that pair started to suspect that they're no longer alive, a new family moved into their house (including Schitt's Creek's Catherine O'Hara) and they decided they needed a 'bio-exorcist'.
The Freaky Friday sequel doesn't yet have a release date, while Beetlejuice 2 will release in September 2024 — we'll keep you updated as more details are announced.
Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety.