Following the sad news that filmmaker Joel Schumacher has passed away at the age of 80, many of the actors and entertainers who worked with the director over the years have been discussing his legacy and influence on their careers. One of those to open up about Schumacher is the musician Seal, who has now paid tribute to the director, and shared how he stopped one of his most iconic songs, Kiss From A Rose, from becoming a major flop.

"It was a failure when it first got released in '93 or '94 thereabouts. It was the fourth single from my second album. It went into the charts at No. 60 and dropped to No. 80-something the next week and that was the end of it. It was over. [...] I received a phone call from one Mr. Joel Schumacher. And he's the reason behind this short video I'm making today. He said 'Seal I'm a huge fan of yours, I've just finished making this movie called Batman Forever. And I'm looking for a song for the love scene between Nicole Kidman and Val Kilmer. Do you? have anything?"

Considering the fact that everyone on earth knows at least some of the lyrics, it is difficult to imagine a world where Kiss From A Rose went overlooked. What a sad world it must be. The song featured in Schumacher's first entry into the Batman franchise, 1995's Batman Forever, and led to the song becoming a huge success for Seal, and a karaoke favorite for everyone else. Ultimately Schumacher chose the song as he was looking for the perfect tune for Val Kilmer's Bruce Wayne and Nicole Kidman's Chase Meridian to vibe to, but as Seal explains, things were not quite that simple.

"He called back the next day and said 'I temped it into the love story it doesn't work. But I loved the song so much I'm just going to stick it on the end-credits.' And four Grammys later and another 8 million albums, we 'always knew.' Well, the reality is that nobody knew except for Joel, who had faith in this song."

As it turns out, Joel Schumacher could not have been more right about Kiss From A Rose, with the song going on to become more memorable than the movie that it featured in. Clearly, Schumacher's influence on the cultural landscape is wide-reaching, with the director influencing the movies we watch, the actors starring in them, and even occasionally the music we listen to.

Long before Christopher Nolan's seminal The Dark Knight trilogy, Schumacher brought the Caped Crusader to life in the zany, action-packed Batman Forever. Featuring Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the movie sees the DC superhero battling Two-Face who seeks revenge from him after a courtroom accident leaves him disfigured on one side and The Riddler who has a nefarious plan of his own. This news comes to us courtesy of Seal's official Instagram account.