Batman Forever - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Batman Forever or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Batman Forever

[ivan]

There had been speculation that the film was a reboot, due to Joel Schumacher taking over as director from Tim Burton and changing the visual style of the film from dark and gothic to more comic book and futuristic, and the recasting of Batman from Michael Keaton to Val Kilmer. The film is not a reboot, and continues on from Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992). Pat Hingle returns as Comissioner Gordon, and Michael Gough returns as Alfred Pennyworth. But Billy Dee Williams had played Harvey Dent in the original film and Tommy Lee Jones plays Harvey Dent a.k.a. Two-Face in this film.

[bryan]

(at around 1h 30 mins) When Riddler and Two-Face invade Bruce Wayne's home, Two-Face flips his coin three times. Although many people believe he kept flipping the coin so he could get the desired outcome to kill Bruce (contrary to the comics where he is a stickler for flipping the coin once and unquestioningly accepting what it says), he was actually flipping the coin to determine the fate of all three people in the manor: Alfred Pennyworth, Chase Meridian, and Bruce Wayne.

[claude]

Tommy Lee Jones's make-up took four hours to apply.

[lena]

Joel Schumacher wanted Nicole Kidman to play Poison Ivy, but he decided that Ivy, Two-Face and The Riddler would be too many villains for Batman. Ivy (played by Uma Thurman) was saved for Batman & Robin (1997).

[leo]

The first part of the film was edited extensively to begin with an action sequence. The DVD features the original opening scene, Two-Face's escape from Arkham Asylum. This was to lead to Bruce Wayne's visit to his business offices, and the Bat-signal he saw there was meant to lead him to leave the office in order to suit up for the fight at the bank. This was followed by Nygma's experiment on Stickley. Batman's meeting with Chase at the Bat-signal was actually much later in the film, just before the scene where the Batmobile scales the side of the apartment building. Chase's reference to Two-Face's coin at the bank was originally a reference to the Circus. This original sequence of the first part of the film is featured in the comic book adaptation as well as in the tie-in novelization.

[lena]

In the novelization by Peter David, it was explained at the beginning that Two-Face escaped prison with the help of a desperate low-life who he hastily killed by cutting his throat.

[ruby]

The Batsuit was so heavy, that Val Kilmer lost five pounds filming the opening fight scene alone.

[cameron]

In October 1993 Robin Williams stated that he was in talks for the role, and commented on his enthusiasm. Williams had previously expressed interest for the role of the Joker in Batman, although he lost out to Jack Nicholson and expressed interest in the role a second time in The Dark Knight, but lost out a second time to Heath Ledger, who was cast. Ultimately in June 1994, Carrey was cast after Williams had turned down the role. Schumacher had known Carrey since the mid-1980s, roughly ten years before he became commercially famous. After Carrey's role in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Warner Brothers and Schumacher felt for him to be perfect for the part. Michael Jackson had previously opted hard to land the role, but was ignored. Matthew Broderick also expressed interest in the role. Carrey went through over 50 different spandex outfits and over 100 different props for his cane.

[sophie]

In the not produced sequel of Batman & Robin, that was named Batman Unchained, Two-Face would have reappeared as a hallucination of Scarecrow's Fear Gas. In the film's unmade original script, Robin, later Nightwing, was to mention (while talking with Harley Quinn) that his parents and his brother were killed by him.

[charlie]

U2 did music for the end of this film. They also had some of their songs in Blown Away (1994) also starring Tommy Lee Jones as the villain.

[marc]

According to Entertainment Weekly, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Linda Hamilton were considered for the role of Dr. Chase Meridian. Robin Wright was also considered for the role.

[camila]

Two characters in this film who were originally supposed to be black became white when Joel Schumacher replaced Tim Burton. Billy Dee Williams, who played Harvey Dent in Batman (1989), was supposed to play Two-Face, and Marlon Wayans was supposed to play Robin, although according to the comics, these characters have historically always been white.

[charlie]

Val Kilmer said of the film - "I've done an absurdly commercial cartoon, and now I'm more likely to get hired for a job I couldn't get hired for before, because I hadn't done enough movies. It's so rare when an actor gets hired because he's right for the role, it just doesn't figure into it."

[fred]

Sandra Bullock and Cindy Crawford were considered for the role of Dr. Chase Meridian.

[lynn]

Rene Auberjonois filmed his cameo as Dr. Burton between seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) which he starred as Odo.

[sophie]

Michael Gough (Alfred Pennyworth) and Pat Hingle (Commissioner James Gordon) are the only actors to reprise their roles from either Batman (1989) or Batman Returns (1992).

[jessie]

Jim Carrey helped design a lot of his costumes.

[oscar]

The customs house used for the Riddler's party was where the Tenenbaums camp out in the film The Royal Tenenbaums.

[harry]

(at around 22 mins) When Edward Nygma/The Riddler is trying out his invention on his supervisor, Fred Stickley, he parodies the title song from Top Hat (1935): "I'm sucking up your IQ, vacuuming your cortex, feeding off your brain." The original lyrics are "I'm putting on my Top Hat, tying up my white tie, brushing off my tails."