Biography
Born and raised in working-class New York City, versatile Hollywood director Joel Schumacher started out as an art student. After graduating from Parsons School of Design, he worked for several fashion design firms and dressed window displays at a department store. He found work as a costume designer (
Woody Allen's
Sleeper and
Interiors) and screenwriter (
Car Wash and
The Wiz) before turning to full-time directing. After a few TV movies, Schumacher made his feature-length directorial debut with the
Lily Tomlin comedy
The Incredible Shrinking Woman, followed by the Mr. T vehicle D.C. Cab.
Schumacher finally hit mainstream success in 1985 with the Brat Pack classic St. Elmo's Fire, kick-starting the careers of
Rob Lowe,
Demi Moore,
Andrew McCarthy,
Judd Nelson,
Ally Sheedy, and
Emilio Estevez, among others. This was soon followed by the beloved teen vampire flick
The Lost Boys, starring both
Corey Haim and
Corey Feldman. Schumacher also directed music videos at the end of the '80s, including "Devil Inside" by INXS. With the exception of the Americanized romantic comedy remake
Cousins, he seemed to cater almost exclusively to the youth market during this time.
The medical-student thriller
Flatliners introduced Schumacher to starlet
Julia Roberts, whom he quickly cast in his next movie, the aptly named
Dying Young. Both films failed at the box office, so he tried a bit of social commentary with the psychological drama
Falling Down starring
Michael Douglas. The success of his
John Grisham adaptation
The Client led to a TV-series spin-off and another Grisham adaptation,
A Time to Kill. Unfortunately, Schumacher had already become commonly known as The Man Who Destroyed the Batman Film Franchise with the widely panned
Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
Schumacher tried to make a comeback with the disturbing and brutal crime thriller
8MM starring
Nicolas Cage. Fortunately, he made a wiser move back to writing and directing comedy dramas with
Flawless, starring
Robert De Niro and
Philip Seymour Hoffman. After doing some producing, the director teamed up with action extravaganza producer
Jerry Bruckheimer for
Bad Company, a box-office dud featuring the odd pairing of
Chris Rock and
Anthony Hopkins. His Vietnam drama
Tigerland marked the breakthrough performance of Irish actor
Colin Farrell, whom he cast again in his next two features: the crime drama
Veronica Guerin and the blockbuster suspense thriller
Phone Booth. Schumacher then began work on a film version of
Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical Phantom of the Opera. Released with an onslaught of hype in the fall of 2004, the film did little to aid the already-flagging musical revival of the 2000s, and was seen only by the most devout Webber fans.
The director chose somewhat safer ground with the flashy psychological thriller
The Number 23 in the winter of 2007, reuniting with his
Batman Forever star
Jim Carrey. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide