Today, in Crimes You Absolutely Should Not Do (But Which We, If Questioned Under Oath, Would Have To Admit We Would Kind Of Want To Do) News: Someone has apparently stolen one of the abstract art pieces from the set of Tim Burton’s currently in-the-works Beetlejuice 2.
That’s right: A Delia Deetz original is apparently floating around in the (non-dead-people) underworld, as Caledonian Record reports that Vermont police are asking the public for help in locating a 150-pound statue apparently taken from the set of the movie. And good luck to them: We’re pretty sure anybody going out of their way to steal a sculpture that is very obviously a sculpture from Beetlejuice probably isn’t looking to fence the thing, since said fence would probably have a lot of Beetlejuice-adjacent questions they would want addressed before shelling out. No, this has likelygone to the real Juice heads, for what we can only assume will be some scrupulously accurate cosplay photoshoots.
It’s not clear if the sculpture—which, per photos released by police, resembles one of the ones that comes to life and menaces the Deetzes and their friends during the climax of the 1988 original—is the same piece from that first movie, or a recreation for the long-in-the-works sequel. (By the way, did you know that Catherine O’Hara, Delia herself, married production designer Bo Welch after they met on this movie? Tim Burton apparently told him to ask her out, and the rest is history. Isn’t that neat?) Anyway, the sculpture is apparently one of two pieces that have been stolen from the set so far, the other being a lamp post with a “distinctive pumpkin decoration” that was bundled into a truck in the early morning some time back on July 14.
Principal photography on Beetlejuice 2 began back in May, although filming is currently shut down due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. Although much of the filming on the new movie is being done in the U.K., production also returned to East Corinth, Vermont, which was prominently featured in the first movie, to shoot exterior footage. The new film stars O’Hara, Wynona Rider, and Michael Keaton, plus newcomers Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, and Willem Dafoe.
