Quick post here to recommend some Joel Schumacher stuff I’ve been digging this week.
First up, Schumacher gives a fascinating and super honest interview to Vulture about his life and career. It’s an odd mix of questions – some tough digs about his past association with Michael Jackson (The Wiz) and Woody Allen – but he come across as brutally honest and utterly comfortable with film making legacy. At 79 and being seemingly retired from directing I guess he doesn’t need to care much about burning any bridges.
There’s not a whole lot of Batman Forever content – it mostly revolves around the difficulty of Val Kilmer and Tommy Lee Jones on set. It was fascinating though to read about how he’s dealt with negative reviews through the years. He’s clearly grown very thick skin though there’s something to be said about how well he remembers things like Siskel and Ebert’s review of St Elmo’s Fire.
And my other discovery was a podcast called Schumacast hosted by Noel Thingvall and Angie Tusa where they go through Joel Schumacher’s filmography in great detail – covering one film every episode. It’s exhaustive, insightful and very well researched. I’m only a few episodes in but it’s already pushed me to check out Flatliners (1990) which has a lot in common with Batman Forever in terms of production design.
Anyway, they are currently up to Dying Young (1991) so I’ll give a heads up when they get to Batman Forever because I’m sure it will be great.
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