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Warner Bros. Pictures
It has been nearly thirty years since Joel Schumacher’s “Batman Forever” opened back in 1995 and was met with a massive reception. The music was huge, the marketing pervasive, Jim Carrey was in his prime, Nicole Kidman was breaking out, and the film was a big hit.
The film’s writer Akiva Goldsman has had a long history in Hollywood, working on many blockbuster films, award-winning dramas and numerous television franchises – most recently the “Star Trek” franchise.
In a new interview with The Playlist, Goldsman spoke about how he came to work on “Batman Forever” and the significant changes the film underwent in the development and production phases.
He indicates the biggest change was the switch of Robin Williams to Jim Carrey for The Riddler, something that took place relatively early on as Williams was cast back when Michael Keaton was still tipped to return. That led to Goldsman meeting with Williams to brainstorm about the villain:
“When I came in [to ‘Batman Forever’], no one had been cast yet, and it was still going to be Michael [Keaton]… I think that Val [Kilmer] wasn’t cast or just was, and Robin Williams was still attached.
I remember sort of this extraordinary day where Joel [Schumacher] sent me to San Francisco, and I spent the day in Robin’s kitchen and him just talking about the Riddler. And he was like, genius is not the right word. It was as if he, like he had opened up his head and the universe would just talk into it. It was so beautiful and so kind.”
Williams was also a hot commodity at this time with “Mrs. Doubtfire” being a success, “Jumanji” and “The Bird Cage” on the way. So why didn’t he stay on in the role? Goldsman says: “Ultimately, he and Joel [Schumacher] didn’t see eye to eye.”
Goldsman adds he had ideas for other Batman movies at the time, including doing “The Dark Knight Returns” with Clint Eastwood, but Hollywood had “not caught up at all” with the idea of superhero films.
Goldsman adds that he remains proud of “Batman Forever” and the work that was done, saying even though Tim Burton’s films were “truer to the source or at least a version of the source”.
“Even though Tim [Burton]’s ‘Batman’ and ‘Batman Returns’ I think they were truer to the source or at least a version of the source – It just scared everybody. So they went to Joel because Joel sort of thought of Batman as the [60’s] show. It was kind of colorful and sort of big and sort of hyper-real. And I think [Batman] Forever kind of ended up walking a tightrope well enough.”
Made for $100 million, “Batman Forever” ultimately grossed $336.6 million worldwide and became the sixth-highest-grossing film of 1995.
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