Script To Screen: “Beetlejuice”

A memorable scene from the 1988 movie Beetlejuice with some significant changes from script to screen [screenplay by Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren, story by Michael McDowell & Larry Wilson]. Script excerpt dates from 2/3/87, revised 2nd draft.

Setup: A couple of recently deceased ghosts contract the services of a “bio-exorcist” in order to remove the obnoxious new owners of their house.

The scene from the movie:

The song has been changed from the script: “If I Didn’t Care” by The Inkspots to “Banana Boat Song (Day O) by Harry Belafonte. Have to say it’s much better in the movie, the rhythm of the Belafonte song lending itself to a great deal more physical humor than the slow doo-wop Inkspots tune.

Interesting The Inkspots classic song is used as the opening tune in the movie The Shawshank Redemption.

One of the single best things you can do to learn the craft of screenwriting is to read the script while watching the movie. After all a screenplay is a blueprint to make a movie and it’s that magic of what happens between printed page and final print that can inform how you approach writing scenes. That is the purpose of Script to Screen, a Go Into The Story series where we analyze a memorable movie scene and the script pages that inspired it.

For more articles in the Script To Screen series, go here.