The Director’s Cut of “Batman Forever” came close

While Akiva Goldsman was at Comic-Con the other day to talk about film production, one of the projects discussed was 1995’s “Batman Forever,” which he wrote.

Rumors have long swirled about a Director’s Cut directed by the late Joel Schumacher. This long-rumored version would have been darker and more focused on the psychological state of Bruce Wayne/Batman, played by Val Kilmer.

Deleted scenes and clips have been posted online over the years, but there’s no indication that this is an official extended version of the film. Then, last year, while promoting his series “The Crowded Room,” Goldsman confirmed that such a version existed and that he had recently seen it.

Now, speaking with Collider, he revealed that the longer version is set to be released at some point:

“Yes, it does exist. There’s a preview called “Preview One.” Most of the stuff that’s available is pieced together. There’s not much that people haven’t seen that you couldn’t put together.

I talked to Warner (Bros). This was a year ago. My fantasy was to try to resurrect (Batman Forever) as a kind of celebration with Joel after he died.

There are some visual effects that need to be completed. There would also be music that would need to be reworked, or even rewritten. The whole thing cost about a million dollars.

They were about to do it, and then Warner got sold again. It’s a whole different DC… Once the new DC world moves forward, I’m going to bat my eyelashes with everyone again and see if we can answer that question again.

He was also asked to describe what the new version looked like, saying it had a more modern sensibility that audiences didn’t want at the time:

“It was darker. Bruce was haunted by his past. He felt guilty. That’s all you read. There’s no mystery about it. It was a more modern take on the story, and it’s not unlike the stories we know now. I saw it. It was recreated.”

The most notable deleted scenes that we know of that are available include a sequence involving Tommy Lee Jones’ Two-Face escaping from Arkham Asylum at the beginning, an extended version of Riddler’s attack on the Batcave, and a subplot involving a red Wayne family journal, which sees Kilmer and Kidman’s characters interacting more and Bruce delving further into his psyche – including a dream sequence involving a massive bat.

The theatrical version of “Batman Forever” is available on Max.