During my collaboration with Tim Maxwell at Neuverse Creative, it was always our intention for there to be two audio adaptations of the original Batman Forever scripts, performed in the style of Tim Burton and then Joel Schumacher.

Since the audio is 99.9% the same script (more on that .1% later), a majority of my thoughts are on the Batman 3 page. But there are still some things to cover here in the Schumacher version.

We thought it would be appropriate to call this one The Schumacher Cut since it features the deleted Batman/Bruce Wayne subplot diving into his past, which is the main reason why people want the cut to be released.

There are moments from the original scripts, however, that were rewritten or weren’t filmed and wouldn’t be in the Schumacher Cut, such as Edward taking the leprechaun outfit or Batman seeing the villains from his past in Claw Island.

But the most important part of the story- the Batman/Bruce Wayne subplot- remains intact and we can confirm, from those who’ve seen it, that all the Bruce scenes we have in here about his past are also in that cut. Until that cut releases, this audio drama is the closest one can experience to weaving the full subplot in with the rest of the film, since even fan edits are missing the moment where Bruce realizes with Chase that Batman is driven by his guilt over killing his parents and Bruce’s “What cave?” moment that reveals his amnesia.

BECOMING BATMAN…AGAIN

I covered in the Batman 3 commentary about how I ended up in the Keaton Batman role. What I didn’t mention is that I auditioned for Val Kilmer’s Batman at the same time! While playing around with doing a Keaton voice, I found it much easier to slip into impersonating Kilmer and how he would say the lines in the movie. I decided to reach out to Tim, asking to record the same lines as Kilmer instead and audition for both versions at once. He was open to it and after I sent it to him, he was gracious enough to cast me as both versions. Something that was both gratifying and terrifying at the same time.

Personally, I think my own voice is closer to Kilmer’s than Keaton’s, so I have a much easier time doing it. And there is the factor that, unlike Batman 3, we actually had an existing Val Kilmer performance to draw from, including the big deleted scene in the Batcave. I spent some time rewatching his performance and was surprised at times to find that my memory of Kilmer’s voice and delivery was different from how he actually said it. But eventually, I decided to stop rewatching and go with my own version, even if it didn’t exactly match up to how he said it in the movie.

I’m grateful to now be the voice of two of the Batmen from my childhood- Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer. While Kilmer was only in one movie, we definitely have more adventures in store for this version!

MANTA RAY BATMAN

As I mentioned before, the script is 99.9% the same as the Burton version that Neuverse previously released, but the main difference I requested from Tim and Simon Mitchell’s narrator was to swap out the narration describing Batman as “Deep Dive Batman” when he goes underwater to save Robin at Claw Island.

While we do have a ton of references to the Burton films in this, it made sense as the movie was meant to have been a sequel. But Deep Dive Batman was so specific to the Michael Keaton Batman.

Of course, there was an alternative. The Manta Ray Batman is the Deep Dive Batman equivalent to Kilmer in the Batman Forever toy line.

So we had Simon say “Manta Ray Batman” instead.

SPECIAL THANKS

Many of the cast members remain from Batman 3, but there are three major swaps.

Tommy Rickard takes on the role of Two-Face, fully emulating the spirit of Tommy Lee Jones and his manic performance from the movie. Having remembered Tommy from previous audios (Rogers in Case of the Chemical Syndicate and Bullock and a variety of others in Batman 89 Shadows), I was shocked to find out that it was him in the role as it’s unlike anything I’ve heard him do on the channel! I’m looking forward to hearing him in future audios as we definitely have plans for him as certain characters.

Austin Garner is the Jim Carrey Riddler, but noticeably performs it in a more understated, menacing way than Carrey did in the movie and closer to what reports have been on his original performance in the Schumacher Cut workprint. It’s exactly what I had envisioned when writing it, where the lines and characterization might be the same but the performance is different!

And then there’s Tim Maxwell himself as the voice of Robin, channeling Chris O’Donnell’s while also sounding like a younger version of him. We’ve joined in on making fun of Chris being too old to be an orphan teenager on Superhero Stuff You Should Know, but Tim finds a way to sound both like Chris while also sound like a more believable teenager. You’ll hear this combo of us as Batman and Robin in the future as well.

Tim, of course, works his magic yet again in the editing. Fans of the film will notice how Tim has matched the score from the movie to their respective scenes during the audio drama. Obviously there are some scenes specific to our version that had to use the music from other moments, but it still matches up well. And the use of Goldenthal’s Batman March is enough to pump up any fan of this version of the character!

Thanks again to Tim and the rest of the cast for bringing this life, as well as the fans for their support!