'Batman' Director Joel Schumacher Dies At 80
Joel Schumacher started his career as a costume designer who turned into a film director. He is known for directing movies such as St. Elmo’s Fire, Falling Down, and The Lost Boys along with two popular Batman movies. Schumacher was fighting a battle with cancer for almost a year and died at 80 in New York City.
The 80-year-old director brought his sense of fashion into direction and provided fans with many stylish movies throughout the 80s and 90s. Although his movies were not always loved by the critics but they continued to receive love by the audience as he captured the feel of that era successfully.
A Time to Kill director was given the rein of the superhero franchise of Batman, when Alice in Wonderland director, Tim Burton walked out of Warner Bros.’ two enormously Caped Crusader successful movies.
The first installment, Batman Forever had cast inclusive of Jim Carrey, Val Kilmer, Nicole Kidman, and Tommy Lee Jones that grossed at the box office more than $300 million across the globe.
The second installment of the movie was called Batman and Robin which was also the last film that was made in this franchise and released in 1997 with George Clooney who played the Batman and the villain, Mr. Freeze was played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
FILE PHOTO: Film director Joel Schumacher arrives at the premiere of Netflix's television series "House of Cards" at Alice Tully Hall in the Lincoln Center in New York City January 30, 2013.
Interestingly, Schumacher was the first one to introduce nipples to the Batman and Robin's costumes and in 2006, in an interview with Barbara Walters, Clooney admitted that he played a batman as a gay. In fact, the director was open about his own identity of being gay.
After few years when the Batman failed to garner audience’s attention, the director went ahead with Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. The movie was not appreciated by the critics but still it received three nominations for the Oscar.
Schumacher was born in New York City and completed his education at Parsons the New School for Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology. His switch from fashion industry to filmmaking is remarkable.
In 2013, few episodes of the popular series House of Cards is directed by Schumacher and in 2015 he was an executive producer of the series named Do Not Disturb: Hotel Horrors. In 2010, Schumacher received a special award by Camerimage in the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography. Distinguished Collaborator Award was also honored to him at Costume Designers Guild Awards in 2011.
