“Batman Forever” Director’s Cut Came Close

Warner Bros. Pictures

With Akiva Goldsman showing up at Comic-Con the other day to talk about producing films, one project that came up in discussion was 1995’s “Batman Forever” which he wrote.

Long tied to that film have been rumors of a director’s cut that the late Joel Schumacher completed. This long-rumoured ‘Schumacher Cut’ was said to be darker and focus more on Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne/Batman psychological state.

There have been deleted scenes and clips that ended up online over the years, but nothing in the way of an official longer cut of the film. Then, last year whilst out promoting his “The Crowded Room” series, Goldsman confirmed such a cut does exist and he had recently seen it.

Now, speaking with Collider, he revealed the longer cut came close to being released at one point:

“Yes, it does exist. There is a preview called ‘Preview One.’ Most of the material that is available is put back together. There’s not a lot out there that folks haven’t seen that you couldn’t cobble [together].

I did talk to Warner [Bros]. This was one administration ago. My fantasy was to try and resurrect [Batman Forever] as a sort of celebration with Joel after he died.

There’s some visual effects that need to be finished. There would be some music that would have to be if not re-scored or rewritten. The whole soup to nuts was about a million bucks.

They were on the verge of doing it, and then Warner got sold again. There’s a-whole-nother DC…. Once the new DC world is moving forward, I will bat my eyes with everybody again and see if once more we can answer that.”

He was also asked to describe what the new cut played like, saying it has a more modern sensibility that audiences didn’t want at the time:

“It was darker. Bruce was haunted by his past. He felt guilt. It’s all the stuff you read. None of that is mysterious. It was a more modern interpretation of the narrative, and what’s not dissimilar to those [stories] that we sort of caught up with now. I’ve seen it. It was put back together.”

The most notable cut scenes that we’re aware of and are out there include a sequence involving Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face escaping from Arkham Asylum at the start, an extended version of Riddler’s attack on the Batcave, and a subplot involving a red diary of the Wayne family, which sees Kilmer and Kidman’s characters interacting more and Bruce delving more into his psyche – including a dream sequence involving a massive bat.

The theatrical cut of “Batman Forever” is available on Max.

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