Tim Burton is already set to reunite with Eva Green (Dark Shadows, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children) and Danny DeVito (Batman Returns) on his upcoming live-action remake of Dumbo, and now Variety is reporting that Beetlejuice, Batman and Batman Returns star Michael Keaton is also in talks.
According to the site, Keaton is in negotiations to play the villain, which would be his second bad guy turn of late following July’s superhero reboot Spider-Man: Homecoming, where he is set to play the web-slinger’s nemesis The Vulture. It would mark Burton and Keaton’s first film together since 1992’s Batman Returns; the two had been planning to reunite on the long-rumoured Beetlejuice sequel, although that project is yet to get off the ground.
Burton is directing Dumbo from a script by Ehren Kruger (Transformers: Age of Extinction), while Colin Farrell is also attached to star. Production is expected to get underway later in the spring.
Originally published April 5, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
