'I was lost': Tim Burton on falling in love with film again

Tim Burton has described being "a little bit lost" as a film-maker before returning to his roots with the all-star sequel to his 1988 cult horror Beetlejuice.

- Nadia Khomami

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, which opens the Venice film festival, features original cast members including Michael Keaton playing the titular ghoul, Catherine O'Hara, and Winona Ryder as Lydia - now mother to her own teen, played by Jenna Ortega.

"Over the past few years, I got a little bit disillusioned with the movie industry. I sort of lost myself," Burton said yesterday.

"I realised the only way to be a success is that I have to love doing it. For this one, I just enjoyed and loved making it. I was not out to do a big sequel for money. I wanted to make this for very personal reasons." The film reunites audiences with the Deetz family. Lydia, now the host of a cheesy ghost-hunting show, returns to the haunted home with her stepmother, Delia (O'Hara), and her surly daughter, Astrid, who opens a portal to the afterlife.

Ryder, who was 15 when she first played Lydia, said returning to Beetlejuice was "one of the more special experiences of my life". Burton said while he had been thinking of a sequel for some time, making the Netflix spinoff to The Addams Family, Wednesday, "re-energised" him.