‘Absolute Disaster’: Batman & Robin Star on Why the 1997 Movie Failed

Nearly 30 years after Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin premiered, and ultimately bombed at the box office, actor Chris O’Donnell has explained why the superhero flick failed to win over critics and the audience’s hearts. In a recent interview, he shed light on the reasons that led to the George Clooney-led movie’s downfall, while also sharing an interesting behind-the-scenes tidbit.

Chris O’Donnell breaks down Batman & Robin’s failure

During his recent appearance on a podcast, the Scent of a Woman star revealed that Joel Schumacher’s second Batman feature failed primarily due to two reasons.

Chris O’Donnell started by highlighting the studio’s desperation to make a sequel to 1995’s Batman Forever. “Warner Bros. just got greedy on it,” he remarked on I’ve Never Said This Before with Tommy DiDario. “I mean, they used to wait three years before they would do a sequel, and that was kind of the pattern. The first one we did, Batman Forever, was such a huge success that they said let’s do another one.”

Another move that seems to have backfired on Warner Bros. was their decision to mimic the production routine of 1993’s The Fugitive.

O’Donnell explained, “At the same time, The Fugitive had just come out, and that movie was an absolute disaster when they were making it, but they just kept throwing money at it. They fixed it up, they figured it out, and it was like one of the greatest movies. They just thought, you know, let’s just go to production. ‘We’ll wing it. We’ll figure it out.'” Instead, Batman & Robin turned out to be “very campy” and a “mess,” leaving Joel Schumacher “devastated.”

The Golden Globe nominee also revealed that, despite having multiple scenes with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr. Freeze in Batman & Robin, he did not share the stage with the action superstar at all.

“You know, I was never actually on camera with Arnold. Not once. I’m in scenes together…He had a double that was so good you couldn’t tell it wasn’t him. That’s so funny. Arnold only did close-ups,” O’Donnell exclaimed.

Originally reported by Apoorv Rastogi on SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net