UPDATE: Looks like this has been debunked. Everyone can breathe now.
No, that headline is not a misprint: Joel Schumacher was involved with the creation of three movies in the BATMAN franchise. First, there was BATMAN FOREVER with Val Kilmer. Then we had the debacle that was BATMAN & ROBIN. After that film was critically and commercially panned, plans for the third film, BATMAN TRIUMPHANT, were cancelled. It would be years before Christopher Nolan would bring us BATMAN BEGINS and the franchise would be saved. Now, seventeen years since BATMAN & ROBIN took a shit on the collective face of movie fans, Schumacher wants to give it another shot.
Bleeding Cool reports that Joel Schumacher is working with comic artist Dustin Nguyen to rewrite BATMAN FOREVER, BATMAN & ROBIN, and the unproduced BATMAN TRIUMPHANT as a year long comic series. Schumacher intends to rewrite the three films from scratch and make them one coherent story the way he always meant to.
Schumacher has long since taken responsibility away from George Clooney and anyone else involved with BATMAN & ROBIN saying the failure of the film was completely on him. He told as much to Variety.
Val left at eleventh hour to do “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” It changed everything. George made a noble effort. I was the problem with “Batman & Robin.” 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.
They immediately wanted a sequel, 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.
Mark Protosevich‘s screenplay for BATMAN TRIUMPHANT was said to include Scarecrow as the villain and Harley Quinn as a secondary nemesis. Jeff Goldblum was wanted to play Scarecrow and there were talks to have Jack Nicholson reprise his Joker role in fear toxin hallucinations. Alas, we never saw that, but it will be intriguing to see how this comic develops. Is there any chance that Schumacher can redeem himself?