During the producers’ panel at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con (via bumper), screenwriter Akiva Goldsman we discussed the current status of the legendary, long suppressed „Schumacher Cut” Batman Forever. Correct: the one with the giant bat.
“Yes, it exists. There’s a preview called ‘Preview One.’ Most of the footage that’s out there is put back together. There’s not much that people haven’t seen that can’t be put together. I talked to Warner (Bros). That was during the administration. My fantasy was to try to revive (Batman Forever) as a kind of celebration with Joel after his death.”
What exactly is in this edition of Schumacher? During the episode, his Fat guy pose last year, Kevin Smith revealed that he had seen the aforementioned two-and-a-half-hour podcast. The “Preview One” cut was quietly hailed as “completely watchable.” Unfortunately, scenes not in the finished film were intended to include Bruce Wayne suffering from temporary amnesia, which was a different take on the mysterious “red book” plot point, and a cameo by Jon Favreau as a financial consultant for Wayne Enterprises. More intriguingly, the director’s cut was also intended to feature more of Tommy Lee Jones’ controversial portrayal of Two-Face, including an extended scene of the character’s disfigurement and his initial escape from Arkham Asylum.
Overall, Schumacher’s original version seemed much darker than the one that ended up in theaters — a sentiment Goldsman echoed on stage: “It was darker. Bruce was haunted by his past. He felt guilty. That’s all you read. None of it was mysterious. It was a more modern interpretation of the narrative, and it wasn’t any different than the ones we’ve kind of covered. I’ve seen that. It’s been re-edited.”
Goldsman also revealed that Warner Bros. would have to invest “around a million dollars” to restore Schumacher’s version before it would finally be ready for audiences – a project the studio was willing to take on before comes under new managementIn his own words, “There are some visuals that need to be finished. We’d have to polish up some of the music, if not rework it or rewrite it. The whole soup to nuts thing cost about a million dollars. They were close to doing it, and then Warner got sold again. It’s a completely different DC. When the new DC world moves forward, I’ll just blink again with everyone and see if we can answer that question.”
While the price tag may seem steep, a $1,000,000 donation from Warner Bros., who have some seriously deep pockets, might be worth it to see the whole thing Val Kilmer In the Mouth of Madness– inspired interaction with a giant, humanoid bat. Considering the year of the film, it may even be a way to make it tax deductible. We know that they not for that.
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