Fan-favorite director Kevin Smith recently confirmed that the Batman Forever Schumacher Cut features a ton of unseen footage, including an alternate, 15-minute opening scene.
Has Kevin Smith seen the Batman Forever Schumacher Cut?
On his Fat Man Beyond podcast (via Twitter), Smith shared that he had acquired a copy of director Joel Schumacher‘s extended cut of 1995’s Batman Forever.
“You know what I got a copy of,” asked Smith to his podcast co-host Marc Bernardin. “Batman Forever, the fucking Schumacher cut … I probably shouldn’t be talking about this. Warner Brothers is going to take my ticket away.”
Smith did not go into too much detail discussing the Schumacher Cut, but shared that he had already watched it and that it includes an alternate opening. He also revealed that he wants to review the film with Bernardin on their June 19 episode of the podcast.
“I’ve watched it, it’s longer,” Smith confirmed. “You know how the movie starts with … Two-Face busting into the bank and shit like that? That don’t happen for like 15 minutes in the original cut.”
Check out Smith and Bernardin discussing the Batman Forever Schumacher Cut below:
Batman Forever is the third installment in the Burton/Schumacher Batman film franchise. Considered a standalone sequel to Burton’s 1992 film Batman Returns, Batman Forever stars Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman, replacing Michael Keaton in the role. In the 1995 film, Batman tries to stop Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and the Riddler (Jim Carrey) from extracting information from the minds of Gotham City citizens. The DC film also introduced Bruce’s ward Dick Grayson (Chris O’Donnell) to the franchise.
Reports of an extended cut of Batman Forever first emerged in 2020, shortly after the passing of Schumacher. The director’s cut reportedly contains about 50 minutes of additional footage, including Bruce having a vision of a human-sized bat. Warner Bros. has since confirmed the existence of the Schumacher Cut, but has stated that they have no plans to release it at this time. Nevertheless, the DC fandom continues to campaign for the film’s release online through the hashtag #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut.
The theatrical cut of Batman Forever is available to stream on Max.
