Some people believe that Joel Schumacher should have never touched anything having to do with Batman. These same people may also believe that after BATMAN FOREVER, Schumacher should not have gotten another chance. He humiliated Batman by giving his costume a set of hard nips. Yeah, sure, fighting crime does get exciting but we don’t have to see the excitement.
Regardless of his Batman attempt, one person that Schumacher knew would do good with the superhero is Christopher Nolan. During press for TRESPASS, the director said this of his peer, “Chris Nolan is one of my favorite directors. Years ago I was doing press in Paris, and I was with Eli Richbourg. We were looking for a movie that wasn’t in French . . . and we saw this British film called ‘Following.’ It’s in black and white and it’s Chris Nolan’s first film, and . . . I just thought it was the work of a brilliant young director. So I always had him in the back of my mind, thinking, ‘We’re going to hear from this guy, big time.’ Then I saw ‘Memento’ and the promise was fulfilled very fast.”
Schumacher was not at all surprised by the success of THE DARK KNIGHT, “I think Chris Nolan is brilliant and I think Heath [Ledger] was extraordinary [in ‘The Dark Knight.’]. Chris is a master and he’s so young, and god knows what’s coming from him now.” The director looks forward to the final installment of Nolan’s Bats series, “I always look forward to what he’s going to do next. Unlike some of my peers in the business, I am inspired by films I love, not jealous of them. When I see a film that disappoints — and I’m sure I’ve made some of them — that kind of depresses me. I don’t go to the theater to dislike a movie, and I don’t think the audience does either. Actually, it’s critics that go to a movie to dislike it,” he laughed. “They don’t go as fans.”
Despite the shit Schumacher gets for both of his Batman movies, he feels like each director to take on the hero has made a stamp of their own. “I think that Tim Burton’s Batman movies are so Tim Burton. And I think ‘Batman Forever’ is really my movie.”
I might be in the minority here but I like BATMAN FOREVER. Can’t say the same for BATMAN & ROBIN. I also have no shame in stating that I love Burton’s Batman films. BATMAN RETURNS deserves some kind of medal or something.
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