Extended editions of DC Comics adaptations have become all the rage these days, even if only one of them has actually become a reality so far. Of course, the mere existence of Zack Snyder’s Justice League shows that there can be tangible rewards, so fans haven’t let the previous failures of the Batman Forever Schumacher Cut campaign throw them off.
Producer Akiva Goldsman confirmed in the summer of 2020 that a 170-minute version of Val Kilmer’s one and only outing under the cape and cowl exists somewhere in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Warner Bros. vault, which was all the people needed to hear in order to mount an online offensive, one that even roped in Ice Cube for reasons that remain unexplained.
Supporters of the #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut movement tried and failed to garner widespread attention back in February, but that hasn’t deterred them in the slightest from trying again.
The footage definitely exists, that much has been confirmed by various high-level creatives that were close to the production, but the studio hasn’t shown any interest in making it a reality. We already got the Snyder Cut, so maybe the WB boardroom doesn’t think fans of the company’s superpowered adventures are worthy of a Suicide Squad Ayer Cut, or a Batman Forever Schumacher Cut.
The new Discovery regime have already been cutting costs and culling members of the old hierarchy, so we’d be surprised if David Zaslav was even interested in funneling more money into a fan-backed call to slap 50 extra minutes onto a movie that released in 1995.
