Warner Bros. Studios celebrated one of the most beloved comic book characters ever created during a daylong event at its Burbank studios Saturday.
Batman Day at Warner Bros. welcomed hundreds of fans for a special themed studio tour and interactive displays with film props and vehicles to celebrate 86 years of the Caped Crusader.
The event was completed with an exclusive screening of the Joel Schumacher film “Batman Forever” starring Val Kilmer as the Dark Kight, which was released 30 years ago this past summer.
Prior to the screening, Warner Bros. Studio Tour officials hosted a Q&A with executive producer Michael Uslan, who purchased the film rights to Batman in the late 1970s and was instrumental in bringing Bruce Wayne to the big screen.
Uslan was asked about the potential of an unreleased cut of “Batman Forever” that embodied more of what Schumacher had envisioned when he took on the project, and confirmed that there was quite a bit of unused footage from the production.
“Joel did have extended footage in this movie,” Uslan told the packed crowd of Batman fans at the Steven J. Ross Theater on the WB lot.
He stressed that the footage would need restoration, investment and other clerical work to bring it to the public, but didn’t close the book on any future projects that would honor the late filmmaker.
It’s not the first time in recent memory that a director’s cut of a DC superhero film has been teased and discussed in hopes of a re-release.
Famously, Zack Snyder was given the opportunity to release his own cut of his 2017 film “Justice League,” which underwent extensive reshoots and revisions after he stepped away from the production. After a groundswell of support from outspoken fans, “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” was released on HBO Max in March 2021.
Filmmaker David Ayer, who directed the critically panned “Suicide Squad” in 2016, has blamed negative reviews on studio interference and a final cut that he didn’t like, and has publicly called for the opportunity to release his own Snyder-esque revision.
Like Ayer’s “Suicide Squad,” not to be confused with the similarly named 2021 film directed by current DC Studios head James Gunn, both of Schumacher’s Batman flicks from the 1990s, “Batman Forever” and “Batman and Robin,” were not viewed favorably by critics.
Uslan has repeatedly defended Schumacher’s creativity and filmmaking prowess, and has blamed the onus put on merchandising as one of the factors that disrupted the filmmaker’s vision.
During Saturday’s Q&A session inside the historic theater, Uslan urged fans of Batman and the Schumacher films to continue to voice their desire to see more from the ’90s films, whatever that may be, similar to the support raised for Zack Snyder’s labor of love.
“What I say to my fellow fans, and I am one of you, is it’s really important to express your passion in a very nice way and continue to send cards and emails in to the good folks at Warner Bros.,” Uslan said. “Because one thing that I know they are doing now is listening and reading.”
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