For years, there’s has scuttlebutt amongst fans that a longer cut of director Joel Schumacher’s BATMAN FOREVER — usually referred to as the “Red Diary Cut” (RDC from here on) — exits.
And when I say exists, I mean a cut that wouldn’t need a whole lot of post-production and $30+ million to complete.
In fact, there was talk 15 years ago that Warner Bros. was going to release this extended/director’s/RDC cut of the film on home video for FOREVER‘s 10th anniversary. BOF even ran an article by a contributor who went by the moniker of “Scissor Puppy” that detailed, um, in detail exactly what was in the RDC.
RELATED: BATMAN FOREVER‘s “Red Diary Cut” — The Movie That Could’ve Been
So with all that said, here’s what Mark Bernardin of the FATMAN BEYOND podcast had to say about it…
I have it on pretty good authority that there exists in the Warner Bros. vault a 170-minute cut of BATMAN FOREVER. I think that it went much deeper into his childhood psychosis and his mental blocks and that it was a more serious, darker version of that movie that was one of the first assemblies that Joel filed with the studio and they eventually cut it down because they were like ‘it’s too dark for kids. We gotta sell these Happy Meals, so maybe let’s not invest ourselves in the trauma of childhood murder. We’ve got Jim Carrey, let him do some shit!
While I am admittedly fond of the BATMAN FOREVER we got in theaters 25 years ago, I’ve long wanted to see the RDC of it as I think it makes it a tad better film. Also, releasing it would be a cool and nice way to pay tribute to Mr. Schumacher who just recently passed at the age of 80. Here’s hoping that WB says, “WTF, let’s release it on home video” in the near future so we can finally see what BATMAN FOREVER could’ve been.
WB, trust me. A LOT of Batman fans would love for y’all to #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut! What’s the problem with releasing a different cut of a movie by the same director that was, you know, actually a hit? And it won’t cost y’all $30+ million either. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
(Thanks to @MOVIEMATTB for the heads up!)
