And also, the inconvenience of watching your character become a pop culture icon
If ‘Bitelchús Bitelchús’ is a failure, it will not be because they are not trying very hard: There are still three months left until its premiere (September 6) but we have been listening for at least half a year as Michael Keaton, Tim Burton and Winona Ryder describe what we are going to find in this sequel, which is one of the great unknowns at the box office this year. Does the public want to meet the character again or has nostalgia already reached its limit?
A monkey with a gun
After being nominated for an Oscar for the first time for ‘Birdman’, Michael Keaton is experiencing a second wave of sudden pop fame thanks to his roles as The Vulture (‘Spider-man: Homecoming’) or Batman (‘Flash’). That didn’t stop I had certain doubts about interpreting again to Bitelchús 35 years later.
And a large part of these doubts came from how the character has been overrepresented in pop culture for years. According to Keaton in Empire, “I had to go back to the beginning. Think about ‘What was my very strange imagination thinking when I was developing it the first time?’ rather see a mug or golf club cover adorned with the face of Bitelchús“.
In fact, it bothers him a lot that the character is a pop star: “It was fucking weird. To be honest with you, It took away my desire to look at all the places and say ‘I don’t want to look like all these little things, screw them'”. Of course, it did not affect his interpretation. According to Burton “It’s like he was possessed by a demon, because he came back immediately. It was crazy”.
Jenna Ortega goes further: “Was like seeing an animal armed with a gun who had just entered the room. Seeing him change physically was as if Michael Keaton had left and he had to deal with Bitelchús… it blew my mind“. Are they empty promises or are we really facing one of those few nostalgic sequels that are worth it? There’s less left to check it out.
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