In an interview with Vice published on Monday, Joel Schumacher apologized for being the midwife to the most awful Batman movie ever. Specifically, he said, “I want to apologize to every fan who was disappointed because I think I owe them that.”
For me, the most revealing part of the interview was that Warner Brothers actually wanted him to make another Batman film, even after Batman and Robin failed so spectacularly. But the studio’s reasoning was sound: critics and audiences and even household pets might have hated the movie, but it still generated an obscene amount of merchandising money.
Actually, the merchandising end of things kind of led Schumacher to a mini-existential crisis. To wit: “So I’m in Rio, cutting ribbon to yet another toy store with Warner Brothers merchandise and I just thought…what the fuck is going on?” Well, so there you go.
And of course he addressed the infamous nipples. Turns out he though that putting them on the costumes was a good idea since the rubber-molding technology had gotten so advanced. He wanted the suits to look more “anatomical,” comparing them to “Greek statues.”
Well, then.
I really get the sense that Schumacher, however misguided or delusional, was giving the thing his best, sincere effort. And, hell, it’s not every artist who will actually apologize to their audience for a misstep, so he definitely has my respect there.
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