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Batman/Bruce Wayne - Val Kilmer

With Batman Forever, Warner Bros. wanted to appease the family audience, but more importantly, their merchandising partners, who didn't necessarily want their products associated with characters that crack whips and spew bile. So the film was kinder and gentler than its predecessors, and part of this ''reinvention'' was the character of Batman itself.

Schumacher's effort at reinventing the character was aided by recasting the lead role. ''I though I was making the movie with Michael Keaton for quite a long time,'' he recounts. ''He had a lot of unresolved issues about the last two movies, which had nothing to do with me. So, I did not know I was going to have a new Bruce Wayne/ Batman, but when I saw Tombstone, I did fantasize about Val being in the role, though I didn't think that was a possibility. Then a few months after that, Bob Daley of Warners asked if I ever considered anybody else besides Michael.''

''So I called Val's agent, and Val was in Africa, doing research on a script he was writing about a man who spent time with primitive tribes in Africa. It took three days, and - believe it or not - when they finally found him, he was in a bat cave. Val and I had met on previous movies; and, without seeing a script, without talking to me, he said yes.''

Schumacher felt ''totally'' liberated from the previous films by the new recasting. ''Then we were in a new comic book,'' he explains. ''Of course, when you have a 34-year-old Batman/ Bruce Wayne with Val, it's a different story.''

Ironically, the new Batman, like Michael Keaton in Nightshift, had first gained attention in a comedy, Top Secret (in which he co-starred with Michael Gough, Alfred of the Batman films). Schumacher is fond of pointing out that the term for the film's source material (at least before ''graphic novel came in vogue) is ''comic book'', not ''tragic book'', which he offers as a justification for exploiting the comedic abilities of his star. And as an excuse for an attempt to return to the campy style of the 60's TV series with Adam West. At least ''partial'' this time (in Batman & Robin the turn to camp was full).

Is the humor, then, not an attempt to completely lighten up the Dark Knight? ''I hope not! I think the Dark Knight is aptly named and will always be a dark character,'' says Goldsman. However, he adds, ''Sometimes very serious situations are also very funny. The thing about Gotham City is that everybody is really, really smart. It's a world where, if you have a psychological dysfunction, you create phenomenal machinery in order to work through your difficulty: rather than go to therapy, you build a batmobile and a suit that gives you virtually superhuman powers, and you have a lifelong catharsis. Very smart people I think are also very witty. So this movie has a lot of wit, but the issues themselves we take very seriously. At the same time this movie doesn't edge into horror, so it won't be as dark as some moments in Batman Returns. But I am a tremendous fan of Batman 1.''

More Info About Val Kilmer at Internet Movie Data Base

Robin/Dick Grayson - Chris O'Donnell

After abandoned attempts in Batman and Batman Returns, Dick Grayson finally makes his entrance in Batman Forever, in the form of Actor Chris o'Donnell (Scent of a Woman). That may be hardly cause for rejoicing among those who remember the character as a colorful but extraneous sidekick; however, the filmmakers intended to turn Robin into something more than just a Boy Wonder. ''This is no 'Holy Cheese-cake' Robin,'' director Joel Schumacher insists. ''He's young and angry, and has a story of his own.''

''I grew up watching the TV-show, and Charlie in Scent of a Woman was actually more like the Burt Ward character!'' laughs O'Donnell. ''Joel had this vision of Robin as a circus gypsy, someone who's grown up and been toughened on the road. He undergoes a traumatic experience - his parents die - but when he meets Bruce Wayne, this is the kind of person he resents.

''Joel was very specific about the look: leather jacket, and cut-off sleeves - he wanted him to be kind of sexy,'' O'Donnell adds, referring to Robin's new ''Europunk'' apearrance, which includes an earring that baffled Batman-creator Bob Kane. ''Apparently, he said that he didn't understand it. Don't worry, it's on the left ear!''

Akiva Goldsman elaborates on the approach to the characterization: ''One of the very early ideas that Joel had, when we were working on Client, was that he never wanted a 12-year-old wide-eyed acolyte, whom Batman willingly accepts. He wanted a tough kid who was a more accurate representation of somebody who lives in a circus and who was psychologically and emotionally an island. We came up with the notion that, if Robin is an echo of Batman's past, then Batman is not going to say 'Come on board.' In fact, there's nothing worse than seeing what happened to him happen to someone else, and the last thing he would want is for this kid to live a life as ridden with danger and obsession as his. So what you have then is a lovely conflict, which you always want at the beginning of great relationships.''

That relationship was altered somewhat by the recasting of Batman, O'Donnell recalls, ''Val really changed the dynamics. It became more a big brother-little brother relationship. Originally, it was written a little bit younger, and with Michael Keaton it would have been more a father-son type of thing.''

The film offered an opportunity to share the screen with not only Kilmer but also Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones, but the acting demands were more Bruce Lee than Lee Strasberg. In fact, o'Donnell had to take martial arts training in order to pull off numerous physical encounters, including a fight with world champion Don ''the Dragon'' Wilson. ''I am by no means an expert, but I can take it on camera,'' O'Donnell admits. ''This is a good experience, but from an acting standpoint Scent of a Woman is much more satisfying. Action films are fun, but you spend the whole day doing little inserts and cuts, which can become monotonous. Doing a 10-minute dialogue scene each take with (star of Scent of a Woman) Al Pacino is like heaven.''

Nevertheless, Goldsman considers the newly devised dynamic between Batman and Robin ''one of the best things about this movie. I think it's a terrifically interesting relationship, and Robin gets to be a superhero in a way that has only recently been done in comics.''

Does this mean the celluloid Robin could follow the example of his comic book counterpart and launch his own franchise, as Nightwing? ''That would be cool as a concept,'' O'Donnell admits. ''Obviously, there's a lot more to it, and Robin needs his own gadgets and mode of transportation.''

O'Donnell was content to continue as a sidekick in later Batman films. ''I'd definitely do one,'' ha was saying at the time. ''Someone was asking me where I would like the series to go. I just wish they'd bring Catwoman back; I think Robin and Catwoman could have a serious romance - at least I'd be willing to try.''

More Info About Chris O'Donnell at Internet Movie Data Base

Dr. Chase Meridian - Nicole Kidman

Like Vicky Vale (Kim Basinger) of Batman 1 (1989), Dr. Chase Meridian doesn't play an integral part in the film and ''serves'' simply as a beautiful ornament, simply decoration. Unlike Vicky Vale, her origin is not from the comics but she was created for the film. Her part as a psychiatrist in Batman Forever is not much more important than that of Vicky Vale as a photographer in Batman 1. While doing her job she meets ''accidentally'' both the Batman and Bruce Wayne at different occasions, and (of course, of course) she falls in love with both of them although she can't quite decide who likes more.

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ALFRED PENNYWORTH - Michael Gough

Alfred Pennyworth is the consummate gentleman's gentleman, tending to the needs of both millionaire and manhunter and keeping the duality that is Bruce Wayne and Batman separate and distinct. As the Batman's most trusted ally, Alfred has aided and abetted Bruce Wayne since Wayne's parents were brutally murdered all those years ago, in many ways allowing Wayne the freedom to pursue his obsession of avenging his parents' deaths. In fact, it was Alfred himself, a master thespian trained on the British stage, who taught Wayne vocal mimicry and the art of disguise, skills the Batman has used to great effect in his single-minded war on crime. And it is Alfred who has patiently awaited the return of the Dark Knight each night.

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COMMISSIONER GORDON - Pat Hingle

A man with forty years' police experience in Gotham City, he thought he had seen everything until he had his first sighting of The Batman. In the comics his role is very important, but in the film he plays a small part. Gordon alongside Alfred are the only ones that appeared as the same actors in all of the Batman films. Pat Hingle is a well-known character actor in US, and he has portrayed more American cops than he cares to remember. His credits include On The Waterfornt, Splendor In The Grass and The Ugly American.

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