With the Snyder Cut of Justice League finally coming to the world, could the Schumacher Cut of Batman Forever be next?
Marc Bernardin, the co-host of the Fatman Beyond podcast as well as a writer on Castle Rock, Star Trek: Picard, has let a genie out of the bottle that appears to be gaining some steam. It seems that there is indeed a much longer cut of Batman Forever.
The theatrical cut of Batman Forever clocks in at 121 minutes, the Schumacher Cut – according to Bernardin’s sources – checks in at 170 minutes. Variety has gone on to confirm with its own source that Schumacher did have a longer cut of the film at one point that opened with Two-Face (Tommy Lee jones) escaping from Arkham Asylum. This scene has been known for years.
The longer version of the film also includes a deeper dive into the mind of Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne and includes this scene of him confronting a giant bat.
Following the recent passing of Schumacher, this extended version of Batman Forever has become a hot topic, but don’t go holding your breath quite yet that it will appear.
Variety spoke with representatives for Warner Bros. about the film, and they said that there are currently no discussions about releasing it. There is also a potential issue that it isn’t entirely clear if a copy of this cut still exists 25 years later.
At this stage, it seems safe to say that, yes, the 170-minute version did exist at one time, but if it still does is an entirely different question. And without Schumacher to oversee touching up color correction, the score, and so on, it may be difficult to motivate anyone to work on it.
Of course, if the Snyder Cut of Justice League, and the Donner Cut of Superman II have taught us anything, it’s to never say never.
