After entering the industry as a costume designer, Schumacher wrote screenplays for "Car Wash" (1976), a modest ethnic comedy, "Sparkle" (1976), an old-fashioned Black musical and "The Wiz" (1978), the notorious musical flop. Schumacher made his feature directorial debut with "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" (1981) starring Lily Tomlin. Though not all reviewers were convinced by the film's feminist aspects, many were struck by its striking design sense and peculiar color scheme. Most of his subsequent output has been mainstream Hollywood fare: "brat pack" vehicles including "St. Elmo's Fire" (1985) and two well-done entries, "The Lost Boys" (1987) and "Flatliners" (1990); "Cousins" (1989), a saccharine romantic comedy derived from the popular French film, "Cousin, Cousine" (1975); and "Dying Young" (1991), a glossy weeper starring Julia Roberts and Campbell Scott.
"Falling Down" (1993) presented an opportunity for an ambitious change of pace. A bespectacled Michael Douglas wore a severe crew cut as the "Last Angry White Man" cutting a violent swath across the sweltering streets of south central Los Angeles. What could have been a "Taxi Driver" for the 90s became, under Schumacher's soothing hands, sort of a 'Travis Bickle Lite'. Less filling and less unsettling than a serious film, very little is at stake in this attractively photographed, well-acted, and remarkably innocuous vigilante movie. It was the number one film of its opening weekend but soon fizzled. Schumacher chose a more conventional follow-up: a slick legal thriller adapted from a bestseller and boasting a respected cast. Adapted from the John Grisham novel, "The Client" (1994) starred Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones and promising newcomer Brad Renfro as a street smart 11-year-old who knows too much about a mob-related assassination. The film was a solid success that won Sarandon an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Schumacher has also worked in TV with limited success. He honed his directing skills on TV-movies and ventured into producing with pilots and short-lived series. Schumacher even played a part in Drew Barrymore's aggressive comeback campaign by casting her in his fleeting (but some say fabulous) primetime soap, "2000 Malibu Road" (1992) which he executive produced and directed the pilot and the three subsequent episodes.
Fans were surprised to learn that smooth operator Schumacher was selected to replace confirmed eccentric Tim Burton as the helmer of the heretofore surefire "Batman" series. Significantly, neither filmmaker previously possessed a reputation for adventure acumen. Schumacher was handed Warner Brothers' biggest asset because of his reputation as a stylist who gets his films completed on time and under budget. He is also known for his ability to work with major stars under trying circumstances. While still a blockbuster, Burton's "Batman Returns" (1992) was deemed a commercial disappointment. Worse still, some parents found it too disturbing for the kiddies. Schumacher's assignment was to make a lighter and more fun "Batman" movie that would help keep the franchise alive. He would only accept if his friend Burton approved. He did.
The new helmer was aided in his mission by a new star, Val Kilmer (replacing the departing Michael Keaton), a tough and buffed Robin (Chris O'Donnell), and two accomplished scene-stealers as villains. The superhot Jim Carrey was cast as The Riddler and the seemingly ubiquitous Tommy Lee Jones played Two-Face. Budgeted at $80 million, with another $20 million for promotion, "Batman Forever" (1995) rode a massive wave of hype and anticipation as one of the blockbusters to beat in the summer of 1995. The former costume designer and set decorator was afforded an opportunity to flex those old muscles again on a massive scale. Even more lavish and art directed than its illustrious predecessors (it boasted a 62-person design crew), the film abandoned the somber tones of the Burton films in favor of vivid comic-book colors. Batman and Robin's costumes were also revised from earlier incarnations to give them a pumped up body-conscious look complete with nipples and codpieces, Schumacher innovations both. Audiences (and many reviewers) embraced the new model thereby affording Schumacher his biggest hit up to that point in his career.
Schumacher's version of "The Client" had so impressed John Grisham that the author personally selected Schumacher to helm "A Time to Kill" (1996). Adapted from Grisham's first (and many feel best) novel, the film centers on the effects of a murder trial on the residents of a small Southern town. Schumacher selected the virtually unknown Matthew McConaughey to play the leading role of a crusading lawyer and surrounded the novice with veterans Samuel L Jackson (as the murder suspect), Sandra Bullock (as a law student), Donald Sutherland (as the lawyer's mentor) and Kevin Spacey (as the prosecuting attorney). Critics raved about the performances and Schumacher's sensitive handling of the racially-charged story. Warner Bros.' Batman franchise seemed alive and well until the fourth installment "Batman & Robin" (1997), with George Clooney now assuming the cape, proved to be a loud and confusing mishmash--with all sorts of over-the-top gay fetish allusions and campy jokes that made the 1960s series look positively straight-laced; Critics and fans were disappointed and plans for a fifth segment were scuttled for several years. Schumacher's career didn'tr suffer quite as badly as the Batman franchise, but the Hollywood heat was officially off, especially after making the grim, ultra-morbid snuff-film thriller "8MM" (1999) with Nicolas Cage.
Some critics and moviegoers, however, responded to his follow-up, "Flawless" (1999), a part-thriller, part-character study which paired a wildly flamboyant drag queen (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) with his neighbor, a disabled, homophobic cop (Robert De Niro) in script crafted by Schumacher himself. The director's well-received Vietnam War drama "Tigerland" (2000) put his career back on firmer footing, as well as introducing both Hollywood players and audiences to future superstar Colin Farrell. The actor would re-team with Schumacher for "Phone Booth" (2002), a high-concept, smartly directed thriller--with Farrell as an arrogant p.r. agent trapped by a sniper in a New York telephone booth--that showed off Schumacher's visual skills at their glossy, crowd-pleasing best. The director took on a more intimate story, the real-life tale of a crusading Irish journalist who runs afoul of organized crime, in "Veronica Guerin" (2003), wisely eschewing his trademark razzle-dazzle directorial style in deference to the powerhouse acting of star Cate Blanchett. Once that period of restraint was finished, Schumacher was free to indulge himself in all his directorial excesses when he was tapped to helm the big screen adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Weber's enduring Broadway musical hit "The Phantom of the Opera" (2004). The director's baroque style was a perfect fit for the melodramatic sturm and drang of the material, and the film packed a powerful visual punch on the big screen; however, even with the impressive spectacle the film wasn't as absorbing as the stage version, due in part to the lackluster casting.