Joel Schumacher Biography
Born: August 29, 1939
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, Rovi
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