DC Comics fans, make sure you block off August 22 on your calendar. That’s the day the DC FanDome digital event is being held, and today it was revealed that over 300 guests will participate in it. Among the people on the DC films side of things who will show up is Val Kilmer, the man who brought Bruce Wayne to life in Batman Forever. Wait, could Kilmer’s presence mean the Schumacher Cut is finally being announced?
For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Batman Forever went through a lot of edits before its release in the summer of 1995. Director Joel Schumacher said that the movie was originally over two and a half hours long, but the final product ended up just being a little over two hours. Some of Forever’s deleted scenes have been included as special features on various home media releases, and when watching them, it’s clear the movie could have been much darker than what we got.
Cut to last month, a few weeks after the passing of Joel Schumacher, Castle Rock and Picard writer Marc Bernardin said that he had it on “good authority” that a longer cut of Batman Forever that’s “much darker, more serious” than the theatrical version is being kept under lock and key over at Warner Bros. The studio confirmed the existence of this Schumacher Cut to Variety, but told the outlet that there are no plans for distributing the extended movie, and it’s not even clear if all the unused Forever footage has survived in storage for the last 25 years.
It’s entirely possible that Val Kilmer is just attending DC FanDome to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Batman Forever. It may not be the most critically beloved Batman movie, but it certainly has its share of fans and memorable moments (and some amusing behind-the-scenes anecdotes). Nevertheless, social media is abuzz with the prospect that Kilmer is attending the event means the Schumacher Cut will be announced there.
After all, a segment of the DC fandom has had great luck with getting an extended version of a movie made available to the public recently. For years, Warner Bros was insistent that it wouldn’t release a version of 2017’s Justice League that better reflected director Zack Snyder’s original vision, but then in May, it was announced that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is heading HBO Max. There have also been efforts to get the Ayer Cut of Suicide Squad to the masses, as the filmmaker’s vision for Task Force X’s first movie also heavily differed from what was ultimately shown in theaters.
Granted, the interest in the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever isn’t anywhere near the level of Snyder Cut fervor, but there’s definitely a solid amount of DC fans would sound like they’re game to watch it, assuming all that deleted footage is intact. It would have been nice to have this version of the movie ready in time for the movie’s to-the-day 25th anniversary (June 16, 1995), but hey, better late than never.
For now, this is all just speculation, but rest assured, if Batman Forever’s Schumacher Cut is announced at DC FanDome, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know. You can voice your thoughts on the Schumacher Cut in the poll and comments below, and keep track of the DC Comics movies that are in the works with our handy guide.
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