….
Who is gonna play Bruce Wayne?
That question had been sitting on Simon's desk for three weeks and they even went for open auditions like usual; industry-wide search that LIE Studios was known for their talent scouting.
But even after multiple rounds the results hadn't been productive; yes, there were a few genuinely impressive talents, but none of them had felt perfect.
Simon knew the feeling.
He had been in enough productions to recognise the moment when a casting decision clicked into place, and the specific quality of yes, obviously, why did it take this long that followed the right person walking into the right role.
It hadn't happened.
Week one, week two, week three, and the Bruce Wayne slot remained open, and now it had become a worry so much so that it was starting to affect the mood of the entire production team.
The most concerning part was not the empty slot itself.
But the fact that even Regal seemed slightly hesitant, which was enough for them to understand the gravity of the situation.
Even if his choices had mostly been unconventional, it was at least better than not having choice at all.
However, Regal had been visibly uncertain for this particular role.
Like he was searching for someone, but couldn't find the person.
If Regal didn't know, the situation was genuinely difficult.
Simon had communicated this to the team without saying it directly, because saying it directly would have made everyone more anxious and anxiety on a production was a resource drain he couldn't afford right now with [John Wick] already running at full capacity.
Then, last week, right before the second schedule block of [John Wick], Regal had called him.
He had a name.
Simon had leaned back in his chair with the relief of a man who had been waiting for good news and was finally receiving it, and wrote the name down on the notepad in front of him, and looked at it.
And then he sat with it for a very long time.
….
Christian Isaac.
Simon set his iPad down on the desk and looked at the name he had written, which he had now looked at approximately forty times in the past seven days and which continued to produce the same contradictory response every time
A genuine jolt of yes, absolutely, of course followed immediately by a wall of this is a problem.
Christian Isaac was a superstar.
For the first time ever; Regal had actually proposed a superstar to be casted in LIE Studios Production as a main lead.
This was BIG!
Huge news….
The man had an aura that translated across every medium simultaneously, the physical presence that certain actors had and couldn't manufacture if they didn't, and a specific quality of authority on screen that made you believe, within thirty seconds of him appearing, that whatever was happening in the frame mattered.
Simon couldn't help but think of how crazy Hollywood would go, once it was made official, actually even the fact that he approached him would be enough.
However, there is actually a huge issue.
Christian Issac is a superstar without a doubt, but he is also-
-the poster boy of the [Power Rangers] franchise.
Right. He was the Black Ranger.
A quick synopsis would be even though [Red Ranger] is the first film of [Power Rangers] franchise, 'Balck Ranger' character had a crucial impact in the first film.
In fact, his character had overshadowed the Red Ranger in the film.
He played the mentor role for the Red Ranger, and he was an OG Ranger even before any of the later Rangers.
However, he dies in the first film itself.
But even after almost five films later, whenever his name was taken in the film; audiences go bonkers.
Pixy Studios had built an entire emotional franchise around a dead character, which was either extraordinary storytelling or extraordinary manipulation and was probably both.
And it had only become more after [Power Rangers] they decided to try and copy Regal's interlinking of films with other super hero characters.
"Curse the timing Regal. Why couldn't it have been a week early?" Simon rubbed his forehead.
This really is a tricky situation.
According to the article Simon was looking at on his iPad for the third time this morning, it was almost certainly about to get more complicated.
It was titled: Is Black Ranger Coming Back?
Yep. The headline had appeared four days ago and had been shared widely enough that Simon had seen it from three different sources before he went looking for it himself.
The reporting was the careful kind…
But still there is no official confirmation, the specific texture of industry coverage that knew something without being able to say it yet.
Pixy Studio had approached Christian Isaac about a return, the discussions were advanced and the chance of a deal was close are pretty high too…
Simon rubbed his forehead.
If the deal closed, and the article's tone suggested when rather than if, then the contractual terms around it would be ironclad in the way that major franchise returns always were.
Exclusivity clauses, franchise protection language, the whole machinery of a studio that had learned, from watching what Regal had done with the MDCU, that letting your assets appear in other people's universes was a form of brand erosion.
Pixy Studio would not leave a loophole.
There would be no concurrent Batman, or dual franchise presence, nothing that confused the market positioning of their returning legend.
Which meant the window was closing.
…and Simon had a specific, finite amount of time to do something that LIE Studios had never done before: approach a genuine superstar for a role, and succeed at it, or watch the opportunity close and explain to Regal why the most important casting decision in the Dark Knight was back to being an open question.
He muttered something under his breath that he would not have said at full volume and set the iPad face-down on the desk.
Then he picked it up again.
He looked at the article, the name he had written on his notepad…
Honestly, Christian Isaac was correct for this role in a way that went beyond the usual casting logic.
It wasn't just the physicality, though the physicality was undeniable.
The authority, though the authority was exactly what the role needed.
It was something about the specific combination of controlled grief and physical capability that Isaac had demonstrated across his filmography.
He is a man capable of carrying something enormous and functional about it, dangerous about it; which was a description that fit both the Black Ranger and Bruce Wayne so precisely that it felt less like casting and more like pointing at the obvious.
Obviously, Regal is also aware of this article.
Regal had also, characteristically, seen it at the worst possible moment and proposed it with the timing of someone who was either strategically brilliant or genuinely unbothered by the logistical disaster he was handing other people.
Probably both again.
Simon looked at the article one more time.
The window was real and it was closing and he had to move before it did, which meant making an approach that was unprecedented for LIE Studios.
And to an actor who was almost certainly mid-negotiation with his current franchise, for a role in a film that hadn't been publicly announced yet, in a timeline that had no room for the usual back-and-forth of major casting negotiations.
He made a mental list of everything that could go wrong.
The list was long, and he also made a second mental list of what it would mean if it went right:
Christian Isaac as Bruce Wayne opposite Darren as the Joker, the first time LIE had cast at this level, the announcement alone enough to generate the kind of industry response that didn't need a marketing campaign behind it because the news was the marketing.
And underneath all of the professional calculation, something smaller, less dignified, and more selfish was.
He wants the best to cast opposite to his friend Derren and only then would he feel the pressure in his bones and deliver such a performance.
…also it would be fun to see his friend freak out.
"Hhaha."
Simon would very much like to be present for that moment.
He closed the article, opened his contacts, found the number for Christian Isaac's management and looked at it for a moment.
Reminded himself, not for the nth time and certainly not for the last: Never ever make Regal an enemy.
Like under any circumstances, then he made the call.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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