You’ll Likely Never See The Joel Schumacher Director’s Cut of ‘Batman Forever’ – Here’s Why (VIDEO)
With the recent passing of director Joel Schumacher, there have been calls by Batfans to release his fabled original cut of Batman Forever. That isn’t just unlikely; it may be impossible.
The controversy ignited again after “Star Trek: Picard” writer Marc Bernardin claimed that a 170-minute cut of Batman Forever actually exists. He said this original cut of Schumacher’s film was “much darker, more serious” than the loonier, Bat-nippled version we got.
However, he warned that Warner Bros. is unsure if “there’s any hunger” for the public to see that version, which includes nearly 40 minutes of unused footage.
Today, Variety confirmed that Schumacher did indeed have an original, longer cut of the film initially, with a darker tone closer to Tim Burton’s films.
From Variety:
Variety has confirmed with a source close to the movie that Schumacher did assemble a longer cut of “Batman Forever” that was indeed much darker in nature. This version opens with a sequence involving the villain Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) escaping from Arkham Asylum, and features extended scenes with the Riddler (Jim Carrey) when he invades the Batcave and uses his signature cane as a weapon. The bulk of this version’s runtime focuses on the emotional and psychological issues that led Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) to decide to become Batman, including a sequence of Wayne facing down a giant, human-sized bat.
Perhaps turned off by the response to Burton’s dark and depressing Batman Returns, it seemed Warner Bros. wanted something lighter and more accessible to younger audiences. By playing up Jim Carrey’s Riddler, the final film did that, but many felt it turned out too outrageous.
Batman Forever is sometimes coupled too closely to Batman & Robin, which was a truly bad film, despite a solid cast. Even so, many hope the original version of Batman Forever could change minds about it, and be a nice tribute to Schumacher.
This deleted scene, remastered from the DVD special features and raw footage, shows just how dark the film would have been.
The original trailer for the film shows a quick glimpse of the man bat scene that did not make the final film.
However, Variety reports that Warner Bros. representatives “say there are no discussions about distributing a director’s cut,” and “are not aware if footage for an extended version has even survived 25 years later.”
So it sounds like even if the director’s cut of the film still exists, they are not motivated to release it.
At least not yet.
However, on the plus side, Warner Bros. finally gave in to fans and is releasing the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, spending millions to restore the movie to original director Zack Snyder’s original vision.
So perhaps, there may be another chapter for Batman Forever after all.
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