Watched B&R with my daughter recently, and she ate it up! She had no trouble accepting it for the ridiculous movie it is! I couldn’t help but laugh along with her.
That said, Schumacher was a very versatile director, so I have no trouble at all believing he could’ve delivered whatever kind of fifth Batman movie the studio wanted… including a dark, cerebral thriller!
Schumacher went on record after Batman & Robin’s release that his next Bat-movie was going to be much darker, and shy away from everything people didn’t like about Batman & Robin.
Batman Triumphant would have featured Scarecrow (with Howard Stern or Jeff Goldblum in the role) and Harley Quinn as the villains, with possibly David Duchovny as Batman (he confirmed at the time of his rumored casting that he had gone in for costume fittings).
Based on everything I’ve read, seen and heard across all media, Schumacher really was invested in Batman as a whole. Sure, Batman & Robin is a (tremendously fun) mess, but he did care about the property and want to do right by it.
I think Batman Triumphant would not only have been Schumacher’s apology for Batman & Robin (which he did apologize for during its Special Edition DVD commentary), but his best Batman movie as well, due to the potential that it had.
If you’ve seen Flatliners, you know he could very easily handle the hallucinations and bizarre imagery Scarecrow would have brought on.
Plus, “Batman Triumphant” is the best Batman movie title that (so far) never was.
I remember hearing rumors on the nascent Internet back then that Howard Stern was going to play the Scarecrow; that would have been interesting to see.
Tbf to Shumacher he was doing what WB wanted him to do which is essentially toy commercials on the big screen. I feel like if he was allowed to do something with the characters it could at least be okay.
I don’t think that’s accurate. Tim Burton didn’t have that issue when he started the franchise. And I don’t think anyone at WB said, “You know what would sell more toys?! Nipples!”
I would love to have Scarecrow played by Nicolas Cage with Jim Carrey returning as the Riddler for an Arkham Asylum film. It would have old and new villains as well even.
Nicolas Cage was also rumored, which would have been awesome!
Probably because the producers at the time wanted a darker batman film and even then WB was kind of not all the way on board. Either way WB considered Returns a disappointment money wise so they decided to replace Burton to make the next one more “mainstream” and more accessible to kids since McDonald’s shut down Returns tie in promotion due to the film not being deemed appropriate for kids.
If you go on YouTube and look up fan trailers for a fifth Batman film, there’s some really creative stuff people can do with existing clips.
Two I’ve seen come from the user TheEntity’sLair. One is called Batman Triumphant: Darknight trailer which has Jeff Goldblum as Scarecrow and Terrance Stamp as Man-Bat. It seems to be a more dark and somber trailer with Clooney’s Batman struggling with coming back.
The second is called Batman Triumphant: Unchained, Mad Hatter Trailer, with Rowan Atkinson as the Mad Hatter. This one has a more gothic feel and seems to focus on Hatter’s obsession with Batgirl. What I love about this one is it shows that the Hatter uses Nygma’s old “box” technology and upgraded it to suit his requirements. That’s a nice touch!
I don’t know about posting YouTube links here, but if you search for them they’re easy to find.