Joel Schumacher

Schumacher was born in New York City and studied at the Parsons School of Design.
First working in the fashion industry, he began his media work as a costume designer and developed his skills with television work. He wrote the screenplay for the low-budget hit Car Wash (1976) and a number of other minor successes. He also wrote The Wiz (1978). His film directorial debut was The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981), starring Lily Tomlin, and he quickly made more successful films, include three "brat pack" works.

Working solidly and building his reputation he had his first large budget feature when he took over from Tim Burton on the Batman franchise - Forever (aka Batman Forever) was a major summer success but Batman & Robin was a commercial disappointment, the proposed fifth movie in the series was stalled and Schumacher returned to less ambitious projects.

Schumacher's Batman & Robin offered a campy description of Batman, which many fans saw as a mockery to the Batman Legend. After Schumacher's failure, the Batman film series was suspended, until a new wave of serious comics-based films such as Spider-Man and X-Men proved to be a huge success. That film damaged hard Schumacher's reputation as a serious director.

He has also directed two adaptions of the books of John Grisham, the second as the personal choice of the author.

Filmography