Almost 30 years ago, Batman Forever changed the trajectory of the Batman movie franchise and became the biggest movie of 1995. It brought camp energy, became exponentially toyetic, and even expanded the DC film verse at the time with a quick mention of Metropolis. It also had a darker edit to the film that has yet to be officially released.
Batman Forever writer and Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman wants that edit of the film to have an official release, similar to that of Zack Snyder’s Justice League and Richard Donner’s Superman 2. “I saw [the “Schumacher Cut”] recently, and it’s funny because there’s been a swell on the Internet for it, and I stay out of it, mostly,” he said on The Playlist’s Bingworthy podcast. “Although, it’s got about 35% more psychological realism in it. You know, it’s really more about guilt and shame.”
Aptly nicknamed the Schumacher Cut, this Batman Forever film had an edgier take with more comic book-type moments, including the now infamous scene between Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne having a somber moment between himself and a giant humanoid bat.
Goldsman added that he didn’t feel the world was ready at the time, but enough time has passed that he feels Warner Bros. should meet the demand of the fans and for the memory of Schumacher, who passed away in 2020. “I’m certainly an advocate for it being in the world…just for Joel, you know? Because he died and he died quietly. There wasn’t a lot of honoring him and it would be a nice way to honor him, I think. And I think he’d get a kick out of it.”
Goldsman also wrote the critically-panned Batman and Robin, which helped initiate the Batman film reboot, starting with Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins eight years later.
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