Joel Schumacher, Director of Batman Films, Dies at 80

[The Deadman]

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/j...or-1234644961/

Joel Schumacher, costume designer-turned-director of films including ?St. Elmo?s Fire,? ?The Lost Boys? and ?Falling Down,? as well as ?Batman? films, died in New York City on Monday morning after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 80.

Schumacher was handed the reins of the ?Batman? franchise when Tim Burton exited Warner Bros.? Caped Crusader series after two enormously successful films. The first movie by Schumacher, ?Batman Forever,? starring Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, Jim Carrey and Nicole Kidman, grossed more than $300 million worldwide but was criticized by many for an unpleasant manic quality ? the result of having two villains, with one of them played by Jim Carrey.

Schumacher?s second and certainly last film in the franchise was 1997?s ?Batman and Robin,? with George Clooney as Batman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as villain Mr. Freeze; the dark vision that Burton had brought to the first two films in the series had been abandoned for what could only be called camp. The movie still had a worldwide gross of $238 million, but was widely considered a failure both commercially and artistically. Quickly crystallizing into a symbol of all that was wrong with the film was Schumacher?s decision to introduce nipples to the batsuit. The openly gay Schumacher was accused of introducing homoerotic elements to the relationship between Batman and Robin; in 2006 Clooney told Barbara Walters that he had played Batman as gay.

Super long article in the link