Tim Burton didn’t make Beetlejuice 2 for the money or to be the first to watch

Tim Burton said during the Venice Film Festival press conference about “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” that he didn’t want to make the sequel “for the money.” In fact, he didn’t even rewatch the original before he started filming the sequel.

When Burton spoke about making a second installment, 35 years after his 1988 cult original, he revealed, “And I didn’t even watch it before I did it!”

“I didn’t want to make a big sequel for money or anything, I wanted to make this for very personal reasons,” Burton continued. “Like I said, I didn’t watch the first movie to prepare for this. I remembered the spirit of it and I remembered everyone here.”

Burton was on the panel at the press conference, along with returning stars Michael Keaton, Catherine O’Hara and Winona Ryder, and newcomers Jenna Ortega, Monica Bellucci, Justin Theroux and Willem Dafoe.

An echo of the sentiments recently expressed in an interview with Variety, Burton said he had become “disillusioned with the film industry” in recent years and had realized that if he wanted to make another film, he had to do it “from the heart.”

“As you get older, sometimes your life takes a turn and I kind of lost myself,” he said. “So for me, this film was a renewed energy, kind of a return to the things I love to do, the way I love to do it, and the people I love to do it with.”

While a Beetlejuice sequel has been in talks for more than three decades, Burton said the project got “new momentum” from shooting his hit Netflix series “Wednesday” (where he first began working with Ortega). “‘Wednesday’ was something we tried to shoot like a TV series, but on a filming schedule, which was kind of fun in a weird way, so I thought about that in advance. But then of course meeting Jenna was really important to me.”

As for whether another “Beetlejuice” is in the works, Burton seemed to laugh the question off. “Let’s do the math… it took 35 years to do this, so I’ll be over 100,” he said. “But I think it’s possible with the advances of science these days, but I don’t think so.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” kicks off tonight’s Venice Film Festival as the opening film. The film finds the Deetz family returning to their old family home, this time with Ryder’s rebellious teenage daughter discovering the model of the city in the attic, opening the gate to the afterlife and once again releasing Keaton’s Betelgeuse.

After its premiere in Venice, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” will rock U.S. theaters on September 6.