Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Starring Michael Keaton and Jenna Ortega Will Open the Venice Film Festival

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is heading to the Venice Film Festival!

Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel to the 1988 comedy-horror Beetlejuice is set to open the 81st Venice Film Festival out of competition on Aug. 28, the festival has announced.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice will have its world premiere at the Lido’s Palazzo del Cinema during the annual movie event before it is released internationally on Sept. 4 and in the U.S. on Sept. 6.

The cast of the film — which includes Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara reprising their iconic roles as well as newcomers Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe — is also expected to attend the Venice Film Festival, according to Variety.

“I’m very excited by this. It means a lot to me to have the world premiere of this film at the Venice Film Festival,” Burton said of opening the Venice Film Festival with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice:

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice marks the long-awaited return of one of the most iconic characters of Tim Burton’s cinema, but also the happy confirmation of the extraordinary visionary talent and the masterly realization of one of the most fascinating auteurs of his time,” Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera added in a statement.

Barbera added, “The Venice Biennale is honored and proud to host the world premiere of a work that features a surprising swing of creative imagination and driving hallucinatory rhythm.”

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The upcoming sequel follows three generations of the Deetz family coming together after a tragic death as they move back to Winter River, where Beetlejuice (Keaton) was last conjured as he is reawakened again.

The official trailer for Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was released in May. In the clip, Lydia Deetz (Ryder) and her daughter, Astrid (Ortega), appear to accidentally summon the poltergeist just as Lydia did in the 1988 classic by repeating Beetlejuice's name three times.

In February, Keaton, 72, told PEOPLE that working on the sequel was “the most fun I've had on set in a long time.”

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Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the first among several high-profile projects to be confirmed for this year's Venice Film Festival, which will announce its full line-up on July 23.

Per Variety, other titles expected to make their debut at the festival include Todd Phillips’ Joker 2: Folie à Deux starring Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix, Luca Guadagnino’s film adaptation of William S. Burroughs' Queer with Daniel Craig and Jon Watts’ action-comedy Wolfs starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney.

The 81st Venice Film Festival will run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 7.