Last week came word from “Star Trek: Picard” and “Castle Rock” writer Marc Bernardin that he had heard on ‘VERY good authority’ that a 170-minute cut of Joel Schumacher’s 1995 superhero blockbuster “Batman Forever” exists.
The report indicated that Warner Bros. Pictures was “unsure if there’s any hunger for what was described to me as a ‘much darker, more serious’ version of the film.”
Variety has now confirmed with a source that Schumacher did assemble a longer cut of the film that was much darker in nature and includes a few new scenes with the villains, but mostly focuses on the emotional and psychological issues that led Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) to decide to become Batman.
The subplot involves Wayne dealing with buried childhood memories tying back to Thomas Wayne’s journal and Bruce’s guilt over his parent’s death. It apparently adds over a half-hour or so of footage to the film’s 129 minute theatrical runtime.
Representatives for the studio tell the trade there are no discussions about distributing a director’s cut of “Batman Forever,” and are not aware if footage for an extended version has even survived – however some of the deleted scenes do appear in DVD and Blu-ray editions of the movie.
Schumacher’s death in June has reportedly sparked a renewed appreciation of his work and his two “Batman” films.
