Tom Jolliffe looks at the career of the late Joel Schumacher, whose great work has been disappointingly overshadowed by Batman… For many film fans, Joel Schumacher has had an impact. For better or worse, his work in the world of Gotham has become iconic for reasons of irony or antipathy. The trouble is, we now […]
R.I.P. Joel Schumacher (1939 – 2020)
American film director Joel Schumacher, known for the likes of The Lost Boys and the Batman sequels Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, has passed away aged 80, his publicist has announced today. “Filmmaker Joel Schumacher, director of such St. Elmo’s Fire, A Time to Kill, The Client and Tigerland, passed away quietly from cancer […]
Joel Schumacher wanted Drew Barrymore and Rosanna Arquette for The Lost Boys sequel
When speaking with Empire Magazine, The Lost Boys director Joel Schumacher discussed a spinoff of his iconic 1987 vampire film, one that would have put a female spin on the material. “There’s always been a desire at Warner Bros to do a sequel,” Schumacher told Empire (via Bloody Disgusting), “and I always felt there was […]
Joel Schumacher wanted to make an Arkham Asylum movie after Batman & Robin
Batman & Robin might be the worst, or underappreciated, Batman movie ever made depending on who you ask. The movie was critically panned, and Joel Schumacher was presumably given a restraining order from every Batman property in existence. However, what if the movie succeeded? In an alternate universe, where Batman & Robin was a triumph, […]
Joel Schumacher apologises for Batman & Robin, talks Bat-Nipples
Batman & Robin is notoriously regarded as one of the worst comic book films ever made, and now 20 years later even its director Joel Schumacher is apologizing to Batman fans for putting such a disaster into existence. Speaking to Vice on the 20th anniversary of the film, Schumacher said: “Look, I apologize. I want to […]
Batman at the Movies – The Films That Never Were
Tony Black on the Batman films that never were… One of the most lucrative and successful movie franchises in cinematic history, Batman prefigured the current superhero franchise craze and set the standard after Tim Burton’s 1989 picture established a succession of films which changed the long-held perception of Batman on screen as a camp throwback […]
Michael Keaton on why he dropped out of Batman Forever: “It sucked”
When Tim Burton left Batman Forever, Michael Keaton followed suit, and now we know why. On The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter Podcast, when asked what prompted his exit from the project, the Spider-Man: Homecoming villain sugarcoated nothing. “Let me simplify it for you: it sucked,” said Keaton. “The script was never good, I didn’t understand why he […]
Directors Who Damaged Their Careers Part 5 – The One Who Made Batman & Robin
Graeme Robertson continues his series looking at directors who damaged their careers; next up is Michael Sarne (read the first part on Richard Kelly here, the second part on Michael Cimino here, the third part on George Lucas here, and the fourth part on Michael Sarne here)… Joel Schumacher is a strange addition to this series, […]