He said he’s seen it, now he talks about it.
On a recent episode of his FATMAN BEYOND podcast/show, Kevin Smith gave a rundown of what was in “The Schumacher Cut” of BATMAN FOREVER. If you’re a longtime reader of BOF, you know that I’ve talked about “The Red Diary Cut” — which I’ve always called it — for years. I’ll point out a few things that KS said about the cut, but you can get a WAY more detailed description of the film in this old article on BOF, BATMAN FOREVER: THE FILM THAT SHOULD’VE BEEN from back in 2005.
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- It opens in Arkham Asylum with Two-Face’s escape (“The Bat Must Die!).
- Batman (Val Kilmer) doesn’t appear in the film until 15 minutes into it.
- There’s a temp score featuring the Elliot Godlenthal score, stuff BATMAN ’89 and BATMAN RETURNS by Danny Elfman, and music from INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.
- The Dick Grayson (Chris O’Donnell) “washing clothes” scene is not in it.
- The entire “Red Diary” subplot is included and comes to fruition and the reason why the film was titled BATMAN FOREVER makes perfect sense.
- Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) confronting the giant bat is included in the film during the third act — it’s the end of the “Red Diary” subplot.
- Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) gets a very short “origin story” at the beginning.
- A lot of the dialogue was looped in postproduction to make it more outrageous and corny-sounding.
- The security guard says nothing in this cut of the movie, so the “Hey, it’s boiling acid!” line was likely done in reshoots.
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There’s some more, so check out what Kevin Smith — as well as the dude who gave the cut to KS (apparently, it’s on a thumb drive) — HERE. And again, if you to really know about it in detail, check out the aforementioned article about it on BOF.
I don’t know if Warner Bros. will spend the money to properly finish it and release it, but I will that if they’re reading, there is indeed a big demand for them to do it. – Bill “Jett” Ramey
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