Joel Schumacher Takes The Blame For Batman & Robin

It’s been seventeen years since ‘Batman & Robin’ introduced George Clooney as the Caped Crusader as well as those awful bat-nipples. But director Joel Schumacher admits that the campest batman movie in history was all his fault.

“I was the problem with ‘Batman & Robin’,” the director admitted in an interview with Variety. “I never did a sequel to any of my movies, and sequels are only made for one reason: to make more money and sell more toys. I did my job. But I never got my ass in the seat right.”

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Explaining that he never really likes to make sequels, it sounds as though Schumacher may be trying to shift the blame to the studio somewhat but that’s really not the case.

“They immediately wanted a sequel,” he said. “But I said yes. There’s nobody else to blame but me. I could have said, ‘No, I’m not going to do it.’ I just hope whenever I see a list of the worst movies ever made, we’re not on it. I didn’t do a good job. George did. Chris [O’Donnell] did. Uma [Thurman] is brilliant in it. Arnold is Arnold.”

Of course, George Clooney wasn’t the original choice of Batman for the failed film the role intended to be carried on by previous Batman, Val Kilmer.

“Val left at eleventh hour to do ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’,” Schumacher explained. “It changed everything. George made a noble effort.”

Still, I can’t help thinking that even with Val Kilmer in the driving seat, there was nothing that could save the movie from becoming a terrible, homoerotic mess. Not to mention the cheesy visuals and over the top dialogue. Again, that’s probably putting it lightly.

But despite single-handedly ruining the Batman franchise, it seems that’s not what Joe Schumacher thinks he’ll be remembered for and I have to agree. After all, the nippled bat-suit is far more ‘impressive’.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ I think that will be on my gravestone,” he said. “It’s how I’ll be remembered.”

Let’s just hope the nipples never, ever return.

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Picture Credit: Warner Bros.