Joel Schumacher has been discussing his time at the helm of the Batman franchise, and has responded to some of the criticism levelled at Batman & Robin .
Schumacher seems particularly bemused by the reaction to his version of the batsuit, which infamously introduced nipple-detailing to the Dark Knight’s famous body armour.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” says Schumacher of the response to the suit. “I think that will be on my gravestone. It’s how I’ll be remembered.”
And as for the suggestion that his take on the franchise was too cartoonish, Schumacher asserts that it was the only way to follow Tim Burton’s approach with the first two films…
“I was never able to go into the darkness,” he says. “Because of Batman Returns , families had objected that it was too adult, which is no criticism of Tim Burton.”
“When they offered it to me, I went to Tim and said, ‘This is your franchise and they want me to do it. I won’t do it if you don’t want me to.’ He said, ‘Take it, please! I can’t do another one.’ Even though Batman Forever is really sexy, it was a movie the whole family could see.”
