#celebrityinterviews

There's been talk, rumor, and speculation about a Beetlejuice sequel ever since the original movie was a huge hit in 1988. But, over time, one thing became clear: If there was going to be another Beetlejuice movie, it was going to happen on director Tim Burton's schedule. As he became preoccupied with other projects -- most notably the early Batman  movies -- Beetlejuice fell further off his radar. It may have taken three and a half decades, but finally, everything fell into place, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is about to hit theaters, with Burton directing, Michael Keaton once again starring as the title character, and Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara returning in their original roles. As Keaton said, though, as anxious as he and the others were to make another Beetlejuice movie, he had to be patient and wait until Burton was ready.

Matthew Macfadyen on Late Night with Seth Meyers, 4 August 2020

Gerard Butler’s latest film is the thriller Copshop, in which he plays a hitman in pursuit of a con artist. The film’s gotten good reviews, especially for the performances by Butler and co-stars Frank Grillo and Alexis Louder. Set primarily in the claustrophobic confines of a small-town police station, it’s the kind of movie that gives its actors a chance to shine, which may have been one of the things that attracted the stars to the film. For his part, Butler told us that whenever he’s considering a role in a new movie, he’s got a fairly simple rule: The most exciting opportunity wins.

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Things have come full-circle for Fred Savage. At the age of 12, he achieved stardom as the Emmy-nominated star of The Wonder Years, playing young Kevin Arnold as he grew up in the late 1960s. Savage’s success on the show prepared him for a career not only as an actor, but also as a producer and director. With nearly 200 directorial credits over the past couple of decades, Savage was a natural choice to be both an executive producer on a new remake of The Wonder Years and the director of the show’s pilot episode. While the new show is set in the same late-’60s time period, it features a whole new set of characters, and Savage says that gives the series a sense of both familiarity and newness at the same time.

Click on the link below to hear Fred Savage

It's not often that a series airing on PBS generates a buzz, but that's exactly what Downton Abbey did, drawing record viewership to the public network and earning 69 Emmy Award nominations over the course of its six seasons, winning 16 times. Since the series ended, it's also spawned a pair of films, including the new Downton Abbey: A New Era. Hugh Bonneville, who's played the show's patriarch, Robert Crawley, isn't quite sure why the show captured the public's imagination the way it did, though he's pretty sure it has something to do with the way creator Julian Fellowes wrote it.

Having grown up on Disney’s animated musical films, Lin-Manuel Miranda knows exactly how they work. So, when Disney entrusted him with the songwriting duties on two of its films — first Moana, now Encanto — he knew what needed to be done. A big part of his job, of course, would be figuring out how the songs themselves could advance the story, so he took his cue from Disney movies of the past, especially when it came to what Miranda refers to the “I want” song in the films. So, what is a Disney “I want” song? Miranda explained the idea to us and talked about how he’s kept the tradition going in his films.

Click on the link to hear Lin-Manuel Miranda