Filming for a big blockbuster movie is rumoured to be taking place at a former school near Hitchin.

Crews have been spotted at the Princess Helena College site in Preston, which closed to students in 2021, with claims they are capturing footage for Beetlejuice 2.

The sequel to the 1988 classic, the film is directed by Tim Burton and stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega, with September 6, 2024, set as a release date.

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Blue Hawaii is being used as a working title for the film, which references plans for an original sequel called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, which were drawn up in the early 1990s before being scrapped.

The Comet: Beetlejuice 2 is the sequel to the 1988 classic.Beetlejuice 2 is the sequel to the 1988 classic. (Image: Archant)

The original story had the Deetz family moving to Hawaii to develop unwittingly develop a vacation paradise on an ancient burial ground, but the plot for the 2024 film is currently under wraps.

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Filming at Princess Helena College is taking place today and tomorrow (May 16 and 17), with a stop-go road closure in place on St Albans Highway and Little Almshoe Road from 5am to 9pm.

The former boarding school recently featured in an episode of Endeavour, the prequel series to much-loved crime drama Inspector Morse.

If you have any pictures of the filming taking place at Princess Helena College, please send them to daniel.mountney@newsquest.co.uk