A director’s cut of a Batman movie exists, why isn’t it out?

I’m always really excited about a director’s cut. In the best case scenario, you have Blade Runner, where a theatrical miss transforms into a certified classic. On the other end, you have something like Midsommar, where the cut material is mostly exposition that adds world-building but isn’t game-changing. 

For every director’s cut that sees the light of day, many never emerge from the studio’s vault. That’s currently the case for Joel Schumacher’s version of Batman Forever. Existence of the Schumacher Cut wasn’t widely known until after his death in 2020, when Variety broke the news of a “much darker, more serious” take with a 170-minute runtime. The original is 122-minutes. So we’re talking nearly an hour of additional material. 

In 2021, Akiva Goldsman, Forever’s screenwriter, met with executives at Warner Bros. to push for a release of the Schumacher cut. Talk died down for a while, until 2023, when Kevin Smith, on an episode of his podcast, Fat Man Beyond, told his co-host that he got a copy of the film. “I’ve watched it. It’s longer.” A few weeks later, he actually screened the film for an audience. 

The latest update comes now, in 2024, as Akiva Goldsman spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub and essentially recapped the known information. But he did add: “Once the new DC world is moving forward, I will bat my eyes with everybody, again…” 

It’s always perplexing to me why studios hesitate with this kind of thing. It’s a Batman movie. A beloved one. Of course there will be an audience for it. It’s a project people will watch for decades to come. If you know someone higher-up at Warner Bros., keep asking them, nicely, to push for the Schumacher Cut. 

Batman movies explained by Film Colossus

• The Batman
• The Dark Knight
• Batman v Superman