Imagine if we did a career retrospective on Joel Schumacher? God that could get ugly. The man has been correctly vilified for his two ’90s “Batman” films (“Batman Forever” and “Batman & Robin”) and laughed out the door for several other films along his career including, “The Number 23,” “Twelve,” “Phone Booth” (which was a hot script at the time and he pretty much butchered). Arguably there’s other hot scripts he botched too; “8MM,” from “Seven” writer Andrew Kevin Walker, and it’s something fans would have loved to see David Fincher handle, only he’s thankfully not really into repeating himself. Let’s not be total jerks, Schumacher has some decent work under his belt too, “Tigerland,” “Falling Down” and a lot of ’80s work like the enjoyable “Flatliners,” “The Lost Boys” and “St. Elmo’s Fire“), but there’s not been a lot recently to be thankful for from the costume designer-turned-director.
Regardless, his critics are going to have a field day with this one. According to Pajiba’s usually spot-on Hollwood Cog source, his next gig is the “The Barry White Story.” No, it’s not quite a biopic of the tumescent and suave ’70s soul singer. Instead the pitch that’s out is about the ghost of Barry White, trying to teach some “loser kid” how to score chicks. Uhh, OK then. Apparently it’s from the Hollywood Gangs Production company (“300,” “Everybody’s Fine,” “Immortals”) and it’s said to be in the vein of “She’s Out of My League.” No other details are provided, but at this point, Schumacher’s fallen so far so he’s probably like, “fuck it, why not.” Either way, you’ve been warned.