Director Joel Schumacher, who helmed two Batman films after rising to fame with hits including St Elmo’s Fire and The Lost Boys, has died aged 80.
A representative for the flamboyant filmmaker said he died in New York on Monday after a year-long battle with cancer.
The director’s first film St Elmo’s Fire helped make a name for the so-called “Brat Pack” group of young actors as it starred Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy in 1985.
Schumacher became one of the pre-eminent filmmakers of the 1990s after directing the vampire horror comedy “The Lost Boys” two years later.
St Elmo’s Fire starred ‘Brat Pack’ actors including Rob Lowe, far left, Demi Moore, second left, Emilio Estevez, third left, and Ally Sheedy, second from right
The Lost Boys starred Jason Patric, left, Kiefer Sutherland, centre, and Jami Gertz, right
The filmmaker went on to inherit the DC universe from Tim Burton after directing Flatliners and A Time To Kill.
His garish take on Batman resulted in two of the franchise’s most cartoonish movies in 1995’s Batman Forever and 1997’s Batman & Robin.
Schumacher also directed the thrillers Tigerland and Phone Booth, as well as The Phantom Of The Opera in 2004.
He more recently directed two episodes of Netflix’s “House of Cards” in 2013.
Schumacher’s 1997 film starred George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin
Schumacher was raised by his mother in Queens, New York, after his father died when he was four-years-old.
He quickly became enmeshed in the city’s nightlife as a teenager.
Schumacher told New York magazine earlier this year: “The street was my education.
“You could ride your bike over the 59th Street Bridge then. So I rode my bike everywhere.
“I was in Manhattan all the time and all over Queens. If you’re a kid on a bike, anything can happen, and predators come out of the woodwork, my God. I looked very innocent, but I wasn’t.”
Schumacher later went on to dress New York department store windows before turning his hand to filmmaking.
