Big Eyes, Beetlejuice and Batman: Tim Burton on Finding His Voice

That could be one of the reasons that Michael Keaton sort of retreated from bigger films — not wanting to be boxed in.
You get pigeonholed. Nobody likes it. I didn’t like it when I was a child, and I still don’t like it. In a weird way, it’s a form of control and putting a person down in a funny way. Do you know what I mean? 

Yeah, it’s a backhanded way of doing it.
Right. I don’t think people are aware of it. It’s just like, You’re this. That’s it. I was categorized as a weird person. I never felt weird. I can be the most normal person you could meet and make the nicest, cutest movie in the world. But people would still…[pauses]. Once you get labeled, it’s hard to get rid of that label.

People have been asking a lot about Beetlejuice 2. Is that actually going to happen at this point?
I hope so! Because there’s only one Beetlejuice, and that’s [Keaton]. I miss the character and I think it’s probably closer than ever in some ways. But we haven’t started yet. I’d love to work with him. He’s such a cathartic character.

I am not really into sequels. It’s like Nightmare Before Christmas: I know Disney wanted to do something and I just said no. The same with Edward Scissorhands. There are certain films that you want to keep protected in their form. I mean, I love the characters in Scissorhands and Nightmare, but I just feel like [not doing a sequel] keeps it special. Beetlejuice is slightly different because it’s just a character that kind of is…I wouldn’t even consider it a sequel. It’s just its own thing.

It feels like the right time for Keaton too, coming off of Birdman.
I haven’t seen it. But I heard he’s amazing.

I always wondered, with Nightmare Before Christmas, does director Henry Selick ever get mad that people inadvertently give you directing credit for it?
Well, it’s a hard thing to say, because animated movies, especially at the time…it was a different phenomenon. For me, the reason I felt comfortable with it was because it was something that I spent a couple of years devising. So between Henry and [composer and voice of Jack Skellington] Danny Elfman and [screenwriter] Caroline Thompson, it just felt like we were a group of people making it. I mean, people ended up thinking I did Coraline too, but I had nothing to do with that. That’s why when [Henry] did James and the Giant Peach, I tried to really step away. Because it wasn’t my creation. I said “Henry, take the reigns.” With Nightmare, I felt comfortable because it was more my thing.

This year was the 25th anniversary of Batman. Do you feel a sense of kinship with the superhero movies of today? Obviously, they are very different than what you were doing…
It feels a bit surreal. I mean Batman made a lot of money but critically, it was panned and considered too dark [laughs] — now, 30 or 40 years later they’re mining the same thing. Even though it’s slightly different, it’s still tortured souls dressing up in funny costumes. It’s amazing how it’s not only stayed but grown.