Messages

seeing a lot of mixed stuff (most people not liking the musical aspect). If this doesn't do well it'll be another unfortunate slam to more director-driven riskier films. Hopefully, this won't have a negative impact in The Batman 2

This is a new Batman Returns figure by Spin Master! It's not as tall as kenner and not as short as Spin Masters The Flash line. BUT! It's the perfect size for Kenners Batcave and Spin Masters Batmobile! The likeness is also spot in (better than Mattel or even Kenners old line.

If you can grab one (I could only find mine on Target.com) then I'd say get it if you can!

Its nice to see it seems like WB gave Burton the room to do what he wanted and I think that's reflected in this feeling like a reason to exist rather than an IP refresh.

This one looks promising.
https://twitter.com/jordanjabroni/status/1769609779146539172

Got the deleted line from Alfred. Haven't seen anyone post a clip of it https://streamable.com/80mbug

Also I noticed the one reporter who asks about Grisson before Knox asks his question was overdubbed in the final version, his real voice is in this concert mix and Alfred calls Vicki by name at the end when she looks at the Batsignal

Thanks for that. I like the silence of Alfred in the Final Cut because this is not a normal meeting. Alfred has facilitated an intrusion and is risking his employment. Her arrival by his side says enough, and once he's done his deed Alfred's out of there. In general I don't have a serious problem with the Bruce/Vicki scene taking place in the cave. It's Alfred's attempt at forcing someone into Bruce's life so he may attain happiness, giving more meaning to the line "I have no wish to fill my few remaining years grieving for the loss of old friends. Or their sons."

I also feel like Vicki figured out Bruce Wayne was Batman, came to the manor and told Alfred and Alfred figured "now that she knows"

Got the deleted line from Alfred. Haven't seen anyone post a clip of it https://streamable.com/80mbug

Also I noticed the one reporter who asks about Grisson before Knox asks his question was overdubbed in the final version, his real voice is in this concert mix and Alfred calls Vicki by name at the end when she looks at the Batsignal

Some new things for Vol 2

The book is a very interesting read but here are some snippets related to Joel:
He once said to me at dailies, in front of about twenty members of the crew, "I had a dream about you last night, Paul. I woke up with an erection." Not knowing how else to respond, I simply said, "Thank you.""

On top of physical assault allegations, Schumacher is accused of sexual harassment too. If he said that to somebody, it's very possible he said it to somebody else, and maybe worse. It's certainly a very bad look.

I think you're right to suggest that Schumacher's reputation of being very difficult to work with is perhaps the real reason why Keaton turned Forever down and quit Batman altogether. I must admit that I'm questioning Burton if he helped Schumacher become his successor as the director for the franchise. If these allegations are true, and Burton was aware of them, it's not exactly painting a good light on him either.

Schumacher was a very busy director throughout the Eighties and Nineties. I think he directed nine films just in the Nineties alone. It's possible nobody was daring to speak out against him because he was quite prominent at the time. He might not have necessarily been held in high regard, but he was very much in demand with the studios. I guess the reason why nobody spoke out about him sooner goes to show how much time has changed between the Nineties and right now. In the era of #MeToo and social media, abusive directors and producers are in danger of being exposed more than ever.

Thanks for sharing the extra bit of info regarding Falling Down, much appreciated.

The book does state that people may have reacted differently in the Metoo era but pretty much everyone just tossed it as "Joel being Joel".

Jesse Eisenberg Says His Sundance Jewish Buddy Movie Is 'Not Political' and Gives His Advice to New Lex Luthor Nicholas Hoult: 'Don't Watch Me!'

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/jesse-eisenberg-lex-luthor-advice-nicholas-hoult-superman-legacy-1235878072/




Jesse Eisenberg is officially giving his Lex Luthor advice to Nicholas Hoult, and it's blunt: "Don't watch me!"

During an interview at the Variety Studio presented by Audible while attending the Sundance Film Festival, Eisenberg suggested Hoult should forge his own path and not pay attention to Eisenberg's own work as Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder's DC Universe.

"Whenever you play a role you feel connected to it," Eisenberg added to Variety's Matt Donnelly about playing the DC villain for a short time. "There's no way around it. Any time you do anything, even if it's a movie that's a Hollywood kind of thing, you connect."

The issues with Val Kilmer and Joel Schumacher were pretty well known but I've been reading things that don't put Shumacher in a good light. Eitor Paul Hirschmann (in his book A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away) mentioned that Schumacher was rather inappropriate with crew during Falling Down and even publicly embarrassed him after mentioned a shot was out of focus.

Now, Bob Ringwood has brought some more issues to light, even a case of physical abuse. Its also interesting to note that the Ice Suits were not Ringwood approved and thats what caused him to remove his name from the film.

Thanks for sharing.

This isn't the first time that Bob Ringwood expressed his contempt for somebody he worked with on the set of Batman. He called Kim Basinger a "horrible woman" whenever she was on the set of B89 and expressed his disgust by her behaviour. The Facebook link to his quote isn't working anymore, however, and he never gave any specific examples of what Basinger did either. But if Ringwood is telling the truth, my guess is Basinger may have been a total diva and felt untouchable as she was in a relationship with the producer Jon Peters at the time. Another explanation could be she suffers from agoraphobia, thus making her behaviour much more irrational than she had intended. Who knows?

https://moviechat.org/tt0096895/Batman/58c74efa6b51e905f675e80b/Bob-Ringwood-hated-working-with-Kim-Basinger

Going back to the book you mentioned, I read it was published in November 2019, which was seven months before Schumacher died from cancer. It's more than likely that Schumacher was never made aware of these serious allegations because of his illness. It would've been interesting to see how he would've reacted if he found out Ringwood had accused him of assault.

I'd like to know what Schumacher did behind the scenes of Falling Down that was so inappropriate. Mentioning that he called somebody out for shooting something out of focus doesn't seem too bad out of context, but for all we know, Schumacher could've been a bully. He certainly sounds like one judging by what he allegedly did to Ringwood. Maybe that explains the apparent hostile working environment that Forever might've had, from the Kilmer disputes to Jones and Carrey not getting along. If the director had his own personality problems and couldn't keep everyone in check then perhaps that bad influence is bound to affect everyone. Once again, who knows?

The more I read into the sordid details about what goes on in Hollywood - not only for the last ten years but also for many decades - the more I'm inclined to believe anything is possible. While I'm not inclined to take Ringwood's word for it, I'm not going to call him a liar either.

As much as I enjoy watching stuff, that place is not somewhere I would want to work or live in. Hell no.

https://youtu.be/mna8mZP9eSg

The book is a very interesting read but here are some snippets related to Joel:
He once said to me at dailies, in front of about twenty members of the crew, "I had a dream about you last night, Paul. I woke up with an erection." Not knowing how else to respond, I simply said, "Thank you.""
------
My job is to catch all the mistakes and make everyone look good, from the focus puller to the hairdresser to the director. If I catch an error and there's no way to fix it in the cutting, I call it to the attention of the director, who can decide how he wants to approach fixing it...Joel didn't want to hear about any mistakes. Rather than trust that the comments I made were in the spirit of trying to make the best possible movie, he would take every comment as an attack, a criticism of him. "Why does

everything have to be so heavy with you?" he would ask. (This very much sounds what made Keaton walk away from Batman)
---------

After a while, if something had gone wrong on the film that Joel needed to know about, there would be a discussion about who would be the one to break the news to him. Nobody wanted the job. Not that they were afraid of being fired, but Joel had a way of haranguing you that was really unpleasant. No one wanted to be the target of his razor-sharp wit and acid tongue. He had a black belt in verbal combat.

On the very last day of principal photography, Joel filmed a key scene in the picture...The shot lasts a couple of minutes. Joel shot and printed four takes, which was a lot for him,
and every one of them was out of focus.

Joel wasn't at dailies that day, however. Aaron Spelling had asked him to shoot six episodes of a new series called 2000 Malibu Road, and Joel was scouting locations out at the beach.

"Well," I said to Andrzej, who was there, "what do you think? It looks like it's out of focus to me."

"Yes," he said, "we blew it that time."

I called the line producer and told him about the problem. Joel was to screen the dailies later. I thought no more about it.

The next time I saw Joel was when I presented my cut to him. The lights came on. I waited to hear his reaction. Nothing. Something like "Well done!" would have been appreciated.

There was a long silence. Finally, Joel spoke. "Was that shot of Michael out of focus?" he asked.

I knew of course which shot he meant. "Yes, Joel, it is," I replied. Another pause.

"Why didn't you tell me it was out of focus?"

I was confused, "I thought you would be able to see for yourself that it was."

"I never saw these dailies," he said.

"I didn't know that, Joel." Not a word yet about the cut.

"I only saw these dailies on tape," he said.

Whose fault is that? 1 wondered. He had been busy shooting what he called a "glam-trash" soap opera for TV and hadn't taken the time to screen the last day's shooting of our movie on a big screen in a proper screening room.

"You should have told me," he continued.

"I told the line producer, and Andrzej knew too," I replied, tiring a bit of the way this was going.

"Do you mean to tell me," he asked in deliberately exaggerated tones, "that the editor, the cinematographer, and the line producer all knew this shot was out of focus, and not one of you told me?"

I was tired of this game. "OK, Joel, fine. You want to blame me? I'll take the responsibility for it. It's my fault the shot is out of focus." This was absurd, of course. Focus is the camera department's responsibility. "Is that what you want to hear?" I asked.

Joel was a great enthusiast of a game called NIGYYSOB, an acronym for "Now I've got you, you son of a bitch!" Also known as "Gotcha!" He wasn't about to let this go. "Why did no one tell me?" he persisted.

"Well, Joel, you're not going to like what I'm about to say, but the truth is, you make life so hard for people when they point out a problem to you that no one wants to be the bearer of bad news,"

Long pause. "I reject that," he said. "I don't believe that I am such a frightening person that people working around me are so afraid of me that they can't carry out their professional responsibilities."

"It's not that they're afraid, Joel, it's more like, well, life is too short."

Really long pause. "Well, if that's the case, I will have to do something about it."

The shot remains out of focus.
"