Career
Early life and career
Schumacher was born in New York City. His mother Marian, of Swedish descent, was widowed when Schumacher was 4. He studied at Parsons The New School for Design. After first working in the fashion industry, he began his media work as a costume designer in films such as Sleeper and developed his skills with television work. He wrote the screenplay for the 1976 low-budget hit movie Car Wash and a number of other minor successes. He also wrote 1978's The Wiz, an adaptation of the stage play of the same name. His film directorial debut was The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981, which starred Lily Tomlin, and he quickly made more successful films, including three "brat pack" works.
The Brat Pack
St. Elmo's Fire and The Lost Boys, considered to be archetypal movies of the 1980s, were two of Schumacher's biggest hits. Their style impressed audiences and their financial success allowed studios to trust him with ever larger projects.
Batman
Schumacher would later replace Tim Burton as the director of the Batman film franchise. He directed Batman Forever in 1995, which was a major summer success despite receiving mixed reviews. He later directed Batman & Robin, which was a critical disaster, and did poorly at the box office. The film prompted Warner Bros. to place the series of movies on hiatus, canceling the next Batman movie Batman: Triumphant. (After seven years, the much darker Batman Begins was released, in a comprehensive reboot of the franchise).
Batman & Robin had a detrimental effect on Schumacher's reputation, forcing him to take on less ambitious projects. On the DVD commentary, Schumacher has admitted that his movie disappointed fans of darker Batman adaptations, saying that the film was made intentionally marketable and kid-friendly. Schumacher, however, is a devoted Batman fan himself and actually would have personally preferred an adaptation of the comic, Batman: Year One.
Many fans have complained about what Schumacher did with the Batman franchise[citation needed]. One of the more persistent complaints was Schumacher's stylistic approach in putting nipples on the Batsuit. He dismissed these issues in the 2005 special edition DVD of Batman Forever, saying that these people should 'get out more'. While others blame Schumacher's homosexuality as the reason for the inclusion of "Bat nipples."
He served as the director for the music videos, Kiss from a Rose, by Seal, and The End Is the Beginning Is the End, by The Smashing Pumpkins (co-directed with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris). These songs appeared in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, respectively.
Since 1998, Schumacher has said he is interested in re-edit Forever to make it closer to as it was originally conceived.[citation needed]
Post-Batman career
Following Batman & Robin, Schumacher went on to direct lower budget films (stepping down from $100 million budget films) like 8MM with Nicolas Cage, and Flawless with Robert De Niro. Neither were big hits, and reviews were mostly negative. In 2000, Schumacher changed gears radically and garnered the best reviews of his career with the Vietnam-era boot camp drama Tigerland, which introduced Hollywood to young Colin Farrell. Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter praised the film as such: "Tigerland lands squarely in the top tier of best movies about America's Vietnam experience."
He lowered the budget and scale once again with the controversial Phone Booth, which reteamed Schumacher with Colin Farrell. The film, already shelved for almost two years, was delayed months further due to the Beltway sniper attacks. Upon release, the film performed well due to the recent popularity of Colin Farrell (who at the time of filming in 2000 was still relatively unknown). Schumacher returned to big-budget Hollywood in 2002 with Bad Company starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock. Phone Booth, although produced before Bad Company, was released afterwards.
Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera was seen as Joel's comeback in 2004. However, it failed to earn a large profit, although making back its budget, and received mixed reviews.[citation needed]
Schumacher has also directed two adaptations of the books of John Grisham, The Client (1994) and A Time to Kill (1996), the latter as the personal choice of Grisham.
The director has just finished The Number 23, which stars Jim Carrey and was released on February 23, 2007.
His next project is vampire thriller Town Creek, with shooting to begin in March 2007.
Sexuality
Schumacher has been openly bisexual through most of his career. In Liz Smith's memoir, Natural Blonde, she states that "He called himself 'A Sexual Outlaw'" and discusses their love affair and subsequent friendship.
He is subtly criticized by Vito Russo in his book The Celluloid Closet for contributing to the negative Hollywood image of gay people.
Filmography
* The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981)
* D.C. Cab (a.k.a. Street Fleet) (1983)
* St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
* The Lost Boys (1987)
* Cousins (1989)
* Flatliners (1990)
* Dying Young (1991)
* Falling Down (1993)
* The Client (1994)
* Batman Forever (1995)
* A Time to Kill (1996)
* Batman and Robin (1997)
* 8mm (1999)
* Flawless (1999)
* Tigerland (2000)
* Bad Company (2002)
* Phone Booth (2002)
* Veronica Guerin (2003)
* Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
* The Number 23 (2007)
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