VENICE — United States director Tim Burton acknowledged on Wednesday that he fell out of love with the film business in recent years, but rediscovered his mojo while shooting a sequel to his 1988 comedy horror Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens this year’s Venice Film Festival and reunites many of the original cast, including Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, while introducing an array of fresh faces such as Jenna Ortega of Wednesday fame.

Mr. Burton had not expected to revisit one of his earliest hits, but said he had been encouraged by making Wednesday for Netflix in 2022 and decided it was time to check in again with the anarchic demon Betelgeuse, played by Mr. Keaton.

“In the past couple of years, I got a bit disillusioned with the movie industry, you could say … this movie was re-energizing, kind of getting back to the things that I love doing,” Mr. Burton told reporters.

After a string of early successes, including Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood in the early 1990s, more recent outings have been less fruitful, including the 2019 live-action remake of Disney’s Dumbo, which was panned by critics.

“I’m not out to do like a big sequel for money or anything like that, I just wanted to make this for very personal reasons,” Mr. Burton said.

Thirty-six years after the original, Ms. Ryder returns in the role of Lydia, who has grown up from the Goth teenager she once was into an anxious mother of a disaffected daughter, played by Ms. Ortega, who needs saving from the underworld.

Whereas in the first film she had to fight off the lecherous Betelgeuse, this time Lydia needs his help to navigate the afterlife, where a soul-sucking monster, played by Monica Bellucci, is on the loose, chased by a deceased TV cop, Willem Dafoe.

Ms. Ortega, a global star thanks to Wednesday, said she had been overawed when she signed up to Mr. Burton’s new project.

“I was joining a team of giants and people who are so special. … I just kind of tried to mind my business in the corner,” she said, sitting alongside the rest of the cast.

“For me, I was just making sure that I wasn’t, you know, ripping off lovely Winona’s work back in the day, and you know, making something new,” she said.

Mr. Burton admitted that he never understood why his initial film was such a big hit, and said he had not watched it again when he set to work on a follow-up.

But he shot exteriors at the same white Victorian house in the US state of Vermont, and said the same playful energy of the original infused filming of the sequel.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is being shown out of competition at Venice and will open worldwide next week. — Reuters

BRITAIN’S hospitality industry is gearing up for a multi-million pound boost from the Oasis concerts next summer after brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher announced plans to reunite for a series of gigs.

“The Oasis tour is likely to join the likes of Taylor Swift, Harry Styles, and Beyoncé in delivering record-setting shows in recent years,” said Kate Nicholls, Chief Executive of trade body UKHospitality.

The band, whose debut album Definitely Maybe was released 30 years ago, split in 2009 when lead guitarist and main songwriter Noel said he could no longer work with frontman Liam after a number of public spats between the siblings.

Both brothers have enjoyed individual musical success and acclaim since Oasis split up, but always against the backdrop of calls from fans for the band to reunite and tour once again.

Oasis, one of the 1990s rock bands that defined Britpop who became responsible for a generation of haircuts, fashion, and swagger, have remained hugely popular, with Spotify saying they still have 21 million monthly listeners.

News that they would play nights in Cardiff, Wales, next July, followed by nights in Manchester — where the band was formed in 1991 — London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, prompted fans to fret online about whether they would be able to get tickets.

Cheap hotel rooms appeared to disappear from travel sites in places like Manchester, and the band’s website briefly crashed. Tickets go on sale on Saturday morning.

The concerts could also prompt a generational divide, with life-long Oasis fans vying for tickets with younger fans who only know a few songs.

“Imagine waiting 15 years for Oasis to reform only to lose out on tickets to Chloe, 21, from Stockport who just wants to hear Wonderwall live. #oasisreunion,” said one user on X, Billy Corcoran.

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER
The Welsh government said concerts there would attract thousands of visitors to Cardiff, and provide a substantial economic boost to its hospitality, retail and transport businesses, bringing in millions of pounds.

“It’s great news that Oasis will be kickstarting their comeback in Cardiff,” a spokesperson said.

In Dublin, searches for hotels spiked within minutes of the announcement, Google data showed. Of 12 high-end Dublin hotels with rooms for the night of the first gig on Kayak.com, a third had doubled their prices from the previous week.

Whitbread, whose Premier Inn hotel chains are close to the British venues, is already seeing strong demand across all the planned dates and locations, it said.

“There’s no definitely ‘maybe’ about it, like music fans everywhere we’re mad for the news Oasis are to reunite and are expecting it to be one of our most popular events of all time,” the Whitbread spokesperson said.

A tour in 2025 will mark the 30^th anniversary of Oasis’ second album (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?, which included the singles “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and “Wonderwall.”

The band is set to release its Definitely Maybe — 30^th Anniversary album on Friday, according to their Spotify page.

UKHospitality’s Nicholls said the industry expects to see huge demand from fans, both from the United Kingdom (UK) and from abroad, and the tour “will no doubt deliver a multi-million-pound” boost to the British hospitality sector next year. — Reuters

COPENHAGEN — Toymaker Lego said on Wednesday it was on track to replace the fossil fuels used in making its signature bricks with more expensive renewable and recycled plastic by 2032 after signing deals with producers to secure long-term supply.

Lego, which sells billions of plastic bricks annually, has tested over 600 different materials to develop a new material that would completely replace its oil-based brick by 2030, but with limited success.

Now, Lego is aiming to gradually bring down the oil content in its bricks by paying up to 70% more for certified renewable resin, the raw plastic used to manufacture the bricks, in an attempt to encourage manufacturers to boost production.

“This means a significant increase in the cost of producing a Lego brick,” Chief Executive Officer Niels Christiansen told Reuters.

He said the company is on track to ensure that more than half of the resin it needs in 2026 is certified according to the mass balance method, an auditable way to trace sustainable materials through the supply chain, up from 30% in the first half of 2024.

“With a family-owner committed to sustainability, it’s a privilege that we can pay extra for the raw materials without having to charge customers extra,” Mr. Christiansen said.

The move comes amid a surplus of cheap virgin plastic, driven by major oil companies’ investments in petrochemicals. Plastics are projected to drive new oil demand in the next few decades.

Lego’s suppliers are using bio-waste such as cooking oil or food industry waste fat as well as recycled materials to replace virgin fossil fuels in plastic production.

The market for recycled or renewable plastic is still in its infancy, partly because most available feedstock is used for subsidized biodiesel, which is mixed into transportation fuels.

According to Neste, the world’s largest producer of renewable feedstocks, fossil-based plastic is about half or a third of the price of sustainable options.

“We sense more activity and willingness to invest in this now than we did just a year ago,” said Mr. Christiansen. He declined to say which suppliers or give details about price or volumes.

Rival toymaker Hasbro has started including plant-based or recycled materials in some toys, but without setting firm targets on plastic use. Mattel plans to use only recycled, recyclable or bio-based plastics in all products by 2030.

Around 90% of all plastic is made from virgin fossil fuels, according to lobby group PlasticsEurope. — Reuters