….
The call lasted four minutes and forty seconds.
Simon had prepared for longer.
He had mentally rehearsed the extended version; the careful approach, the professional framing, the patient navigation of a management team that would be protective of their client and cautious about anything that smelled like a competing franchise play.
He had his talking points organised in the order he intended to deploy them.
He got through approximately the first one before Christian Isaac's manager; a woman named Patricia Holst. And the first thing she asked was:
["Red Studios approaching a superstar? That's one its first time I guess."]
Simon paused. "We never ignored any superstars. We approach anyone we believe is suitable for the role."
["Much appreciated for you to eye on my client then. But still I am curious what the offer is. I am not gonna lie, Christian would surely be excited to hear the Regal Seraphsail had approached him. Nevertheless, be mindful that we won't be too easy to convince."]
Simon recalibrated the entire conversation in roughly three seconds. "Cant reveal much without prior signing an official NDA. But I can reveal that it is a part of MDCU."
The silence that followed was four seconds long, which Simon spent not breathing.
["...*chuckle, seriously? You dare approach us knowing what is happening?"]
"It would have been your loss to reject us."
["I like confidence. Send the NDA documents along with the character brief."] Patricia said. ["Be sure to impress us as you claimed."]
"I will have it for you by the end of the day."
["One more thing."] Her voice had a quality that Simon categorised as the professional version of pay attention. ["Whatever you've read about negotiations with another party; the timeline you think you're working against. I would suggest moving faster than that timeline suggests. That's the only thing I'm going to say about it."]
The call ended.
Simon set the phone down and looked at the ceiling for a moment.
Then he picked it up and called Regal.
….
Regal answered on the second ring, which meant he was between setups on [John Wick] and had thirty seconds.
"I spoke to Holst." Simon said.
["And?"]
"Nothing. She sure seemed to be a professional and competent manager."
["Well good for Christian then."]
A pause. Not a long one. ["Anywway, I have already prepared the character brief. It should be on its way to you soon from Samantha."]
"Gotcha. And Regal." Simon looked at his notepad. At the name written there. "He actually seemed to be very keen on working with you. I believe it would be an excellent collaboration between you too. You have made the right choice again buddy. Congratulations."
["Lets not get ahead of us."] Regal said.
"I knew you would have said that."
["Whether he says yes formally depends on the brief."] A brief pause, and Simon could hear the set in the background; voices, movement, the specific ambient noise of a production mid-day. ["The brief will be sufficient."]
"And the X Studio situation."
["Handle it quickly."]
"That's your entire guidance? Handle it quickly?"
["Simon."] the background noise settled slightly, which meant Regal had moved somewhere quieter. ["Christian Isaac has been in one franchise for five years playing a character who died in the first film. He has spent five films being a ghost that other characters reference. He is one of the best actors working and the industry has him in a box that gets smaller every time they bring his name up without bringing him back."]
A pause. ["We are not offering him a box. Handle it quickly."]
The call ended.
Simon looked at his phone.
Then at the notepad.
Then at the iPad, where the article about the Black Ranger's potential return was still open on the screen.
He thought about what Regal had just said; one of the best actors working, in a box that gets smaller; and realised that the framing of the entire situation had shifted in four minutes of phone calls.
This was not LIE Studios nervously approaching a superstar and hoping not to be embarrassed. This was offering Christian Isaac the thing his current franchise had been withholding from him for five films.
Room. Actual room. A role that was the entire film rather than the legacy haunting the margins of one.
The urgency was still real. The window was still closing. But the dynamic was different from what Simon had spent a week dreading.
He pulled up the draft email to Patricia Holst and started typing.
…..
The character brief arrived from Regal at 2:14 PM.
Simon read it before forwarding it, which he did with every document that left the building on a major production, and which on this occasion he was glad he'd done because the brief was not what he expected.
It was not a description of Bruce Wayne's physical requirements, his backstory, or his arc through the film's two chapters.
Those were there, but they were almost incidental to the main body of the document, which was something else; a long, precise argument about what Bruce Wayne was actually afraid of.
Not the fear that drove him to become Batman, which was the public-facing mythology everyone knew. The other fear. The one the script was built around examining.
The fear that the Joker might be right.
Simon read the relevant section twice.
He thought: if Christian Isaac reads this and doesn't say yes, he doesn't understand what's being offered.
He sent the brief.
….
The response came at 7:43 PM.
Not from Patricia Holst. From Christian Isaac directly, which was either a sign of how seriously he was taking it or a breach of the normal management protocol, or both.
It was three sentences.
I've read the brief twice. I have one question, which is whether the second chapter of the film… the confrontation sequences? Are those being directed by Seraphsail personally?
If yes, I'm in.
Simon read it three times.
Forwarded it to Regal with no additional comment because no additional comment was necessary.
Regal's reply came back in under two minutes.
Yes. Tell him yes.
Simon typed the response to Christian Isaac, confirmed the directorial structure, and sent it before his brain could construct reasons to add qualifications or caveats, because sometimes the right move was the simple one and this was one of those times.
Then he sat back in his chair and looked at the name on his notepad.
[Christian Isaac | Role: Bruce Wayne]
LIE Studios had never cast at this level before.
The announcement; when it came, whenever Regal decided the timing was right; was going to produce a specific quality of industry response that Simon had only seen a few times in his career.
The kind where people stopped what they were doing and read the thing twice.
He thought about the Black Ranger article still open on his iPad.
He thought about X Studio's timeline and Patricia Holst's careful advice to move faster than that timeline suggested, which he now understood had not been a warning about their negotiating position but something closer to a courtesy.
He thought about Darren in his living room with a homemade mask and a borrowed coat, preparing to play the Joker.
And now, on the other side of that performance:
Christian Isaac.
Simon had been in this industry long enough to know that some casting decisions were correct in the professional sense and some were correct in a larger sense that was harder to articulate; where two specific people in two specific roles produced something that neither would have produced separately, where the chemistry of it was not about likability or complementary personalities but about two performances making the same argument from opposite directions.
This was the second kind.
He was certain of it in the way he was rarely certain of things.
He closed the Black Ranger article.
Opened the Dark Knight production file.
Wrote Bruce Wayne; CONFIRMED in the casting column in the particular clean way of someone closing a question that had been open for three weeks and was now, finally, answered.
Then he picked up his phone and called Darren.
The phone rang four times before Darren picked up, slightly out of breath in the way of someone who had been in the middle of rehearsal.
["What's up."] Darren said.
"We cast Bruce Wayne." Simon said.
["Yeah? Who?"]
Simon let it sit for exactly one second longer than necessary, because he had earned this moment and intended to spend it correctly.
"Christian Isaac."
["...."] The silence on the other end lasted long enough that Simon checked the call was still connected.
["Simon."] Darren said finally.
"Yes."
["Christian Isaac."]
"Christian Isaac."
Another silence. "The Black Ranger."
"Former Black Ranger. Current Bruce Wayne."
The sound that came from Darren's end of the phone was not a word. It was the sound a person makes when their brain has received information it needs a moment to process and the processing is not going smoothly.
Simon smiled at his desk.
Worth it. Completely worth it.
"You're welcome." Simon said.
["I didn't thank you."]
"Preemptive."
Darren laughed; the short, genuine kind. Then: ["I need to go back to rehearsal."]
"I know. But the laugh still needs work."
A pause.
["I'm hanging up now."] Darren said.
"Good luck with the laugh."
The call ended.
Simon set his phone down and looked at the production file, at the name now written in the casting column, at the shape of a film that had been an open question three weeks ago and was now, piece by piece, becoming something real.
He made a mental note, not for the first time, to never make Regal Seraphsail his enemy.
Then he opened the next item on his list and got back to work.
….
.
[To be continued…]
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