BATMAN FOREVER: 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION - "Massacre Under the Big Top!"

Hello – and thank you for joining me to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the smash hit superhero movie Batman Forever – which exploded into movie theatres in 1995!

My goal with this fanedit was to present a cut of Forever that aligns more with director Joel Schumacher’s intended vision. By reinserting deleted scenes and alternate takes – as well as drastically restructuring the film to more accurately follow the shooting script by Akiva Goldsman – I believe that Forever can shine as a thoughtful, serious and darkly fascinating character study of the Caped Crusader – while still retaining the larger-than-life, ‘comic-book’ fun and twisted Saturday morning cartoon vibe throughout, of course!

This fanedit uses the earlier 2010 Blu-ray transfer as – despite the bump in fidelity – the newer 2019 transfer that came bundled with the 4K release features some strange colour timing/grading changes that I really dislike. The deleted scenes/workprint footage were sourced from the same release, while alternate/additional takes were primarily sourced from trailers & bonus material/featurettes. The score uses excerpts from Elliot Goldenthal’s work on Alien³, Interview with the Vampire & Demolition Man, alongside the rare recording sessions for both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. As well as Goldenthal’s score, an iconic theme from Danny Elfman’s work on Batman (1989) also makes an appearance.

For a more detailed breakdown of what’s new and different in this edit, please check out the changelog!

Batman Forever: 30th Anniversary Edition was cut, edited and assembled in Adobe Premiere Pro, before being colour graded & visually overhauled with Dehancer in DaVinci Resolve Studio to give the edit a more cinematic aesthetic and feel. Topaz Video AI has been used to upscale the workprint/deleted scenes and additional footage, while Eleven Labs voice AI cloning was used – over real human voice acting – to fill in for missing dialogue takes from the script, deleted scenes and pre-ADR’d lines.

I am not the first to put together a Batman Forever fanedit – and I certainly won’t be the last. So with that said, I must pay respect to the works that came before mine:
• Batman Forever: Red Book Edition by Scaperat
• Batman Forever: The Virtual Workprint by Josh Jensen (& rework by Bobson Dugnutt)
• Batman Forever: Restored by Lucas Valcanti (luc4valcanti)

I would like to thank the following:
Lucas (luc4valcanti) for sourcing the recording sessions for Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, as well as giving me feedback as a fellow Batman Forever faneditor. Without his contributions, this fanedit would simply not be possible.
Onyx (Onyx_Tw), Mindd Kidzag (MinddKidzag), Neil Rickatson of 1995batman.com (NeilRickatson), Damn Fool Idealistic Crusader (DamnFoolCrusade) and Matthew Ballard (moviemattb) for their tireless research, documentation and contributions to the fanedit. Thank you for preserving the legacy of Batman Forever.
RTSchumacherCut (CutSchumacher), Christos (ChrisArfanis), Epic Film Guys (EpicFilmGuys), Kevin Smith (ThatKevinSmith), Joe Black of Blue Means Pregnant Films, SCM (SchumacherCutMN), McFarlane Toys (mcfarlanetoys) and everyone who has contributed to #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut for keeping hope alive.
Akiva Goldsman (AkivaGoldsman) and Michael Uslan (MichaelUslan) for making Batman Forever possible.
Val Kilmer (valkilmer, KampKilmer) for the incredible work he put into the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman. With this edit, I hope that fans will see the depth and richness of your performance.
Joel Schumacher… forever.

Until the fabled ‘Schumacher Cut’ is in our hands, I hope that this fanedit will bring joy to Batman fans around the world. #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut!
Courage now… truth always… BATMAN FOREVER!

Yours,
Jordan (jordanjabroni)