We now know the Batman Forever Joel Schumacher cut runtime after a recent screening of the movie.
What do we know about the Joel Schumacher cut of Batman Forever?
According to a recent report from World of Reel, Kevin Smith — who was one of the original people to speak about the extended Batman Forever cut — screened the extended Joel Schumacher Batman Forever cut to a handful of friends and fans at a private screening at the beginning of the month at Smodcastle Cinema in New Jersey.
The report goes on to mention that the film, which has a runtime of 158 minutes (or 2 hours and 38 minutes), is “slower-paced” and that while it would still need touchups in places like the score and visual effects, the film is allowed to “breathe” in a way that the original did not.
Various people took to Twitter shortly after seeing the project, with one noting that the film presented “a deeper, psychologically-complex character arc” for Val Kilmer’s Bruce Wayne/Batman. Another user confirmed that it was the “superior cut” of the film.
Rumors of an extended Batman Forever cut originally popped up earlier this year, when journalist, writer, and podcaster Marc Bernardin said that he had it on “very good authority” that a 170-minute version of the late Schumacher’s film existed, but that Warner Bros. Discovery didn’t know if there was “any hunger” for it to release.
Since then, fans have quickly taken to demanding the project release, and in an update in June, Kevin Smith announced on his Fatman Beyond podcast (which is co-hosted by Bernardin) that he actually had the film on hand. Smith described the project as longer, and very good.
The original Batman Forever was released in 1995 and starred Val Kilmer in the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Alongside Kilmer, the film also starred Tommy Lee Jones as Harvey Dent/Two-Face, Jim Carrey as Edward Nygma/The Riddler, Nicole Kidman as Dr. Chase Meridian, Chris O’Donnell as Richard “Dick” Grayson, Michael Gough as Alfred Pennyworth, and Pat Hingle as James Gordon.