“Who?” Murphy questioned.
“A good kid with good traits, Adam. The kid who played the role of Kevin in Home Alone. I think he would suit the role. He is very adaptive to roles, flexible and has the right amount of potential to do as I say. His contact is on the list, contact him if possible,” Ian said to Murphy.
“This will be a great debut for Scarlet Johnson if she does the role correctly, it will be a huge boost for her career,” Martin said while looking over the list of names.
“Yeah, let’s see. I can’t let her do the role badly. So she’ll have to do it well, anyway, back to the locations, we would need more….”
The conversation lasted for two hours, and they discussed everything from scratch. Ensuring that all of the cast, set crew and everyone else would be present to go to the locations within three days was Ian’s plan.
The Batmobile would take at least a month to be fully finished with all its technicalities. And because Ian didn't want the shooting to be delayed he decided to start shooting young Bruce's scenes.
That was the rough plan of what was in Ian’s mind, but would it all go smoothly?
-
After an entire week, the location was set-up and ready to start shooting Batman Begins. During the week, Ian held two to three meetings to get prepared with all the costumes and props and to talk with every character and their role.
During one of those meetings, Ian had to meet Adam, and Elina, who was chosen to play the role of Rachel’s younger version.
Elina had the same nose-cut and almost the same eyes as Scarlet Johnson, but it was a given that no actor would be perfectly cut out for the role, and adjustments would always have to be made; it was the same here. For starters, Adam’s hair needed to be dyed black.
“Hey Adam. It’s been a long time,” Ian said as Adam walked into the office wearing a black t-shirt with blue jeans.
“Hey Ian, how are you doing?” Even before the shootings had started for Home Alone, Ian had asked Adam to call him by his name. Adam still hadn’t given up that habit and was in the office with his mother, Michelle.
“I’ve been doing fine, hello Michelle,” Ian said, extending a hand for Michelle to shake, which she politely took.
“I will stay outside so you both can discuss; it was nice to see you again, Ian,” Michelle said and walked outside after patting Adam’s head.
“Did you read the script?” Ian asked. The conversation felt like Deja vu at first for Ian.
“Yeah, I did,”
“Did you like it?” Ian asked.
“Yeah, Bruce sounds like a cool kid but very innocent. He adores his parents and is much closer to his dad. I like the character,” Adam said. Listening to his words, a smirk appeared on Ian’s face. He knew Adam would be the perfect actor to do the role, and it looked like he was right.
“Exactly. And, do you want to meet Elina?” Ian asked.
“Who is Elina?”
“Rachel? Your friend? She is here today, outside. You can call her in,” Ian said, and Adam nodded with a shrug while running outside the office. A chuckle left Ian’s lips, noticing how cute Adam was.
Elina and Adam came in hand in hand, but Adam quickly sat where he was before.
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“Elina, meet Adam, your co-actor for the movie,” Ian said.
Elina was a B-grade actress whose mom was the ex-wife of a producer. She started acting when she was five and did two dramas. She was suited for both the roles she did, and since Ian was aware of how many good reviews the little superstar got, he immediately got Murphy to call her to audition.
During the audition, Ian made Elina portray different emotions on the spot, and she succeeded while confirming her role in the Superhero movie as young Rachel.
“Hello Adam, I’m Elina,” Elina said in a small voice while Adam smiled at her.
“I’m Adam. Nice to meet you,” Adam said.
[...] In no time at all, they were friends and were playing outside the office while Ian, Murphy and their moms started discussing the formalities that should be taken before taking them to the set to start shooting.
“Murphy will arrange all the documents needed, and we will have a week to start the shootings. Will that be fine?” Ian asked.
Both of the women nodded and agreed. After a while, Ian brought both the kids into the office and explained how their characters would be.
If the entire thing were explained to a normal kid, it would have been much more challenging to make sure they remembered certain things he said. Still, since both had experience working and acting with directors, they understood the need to know the characters in depth before acting as them.
“Do you think you can pull this off?” Ian asked the two kids, who were looking at him without blinking.
“Yes, sir.”
“Yeah,”
They both answered in sync.
-
Ian was now on the set. The shooting began two hours ago, and both understood the scene because it was the seventh time Ian was trying to get a perfect shot.
“Sound set!” Ian commanded.
“Camera set!”
“Action!”
The scene started with the noise of distant children’s laughter which came closer as the sunlight flickered through the trees and kids ran through a summer garden. The camera kept smoothly rolling from exactly where Niko wanted, as Ian had mentioned.
A boy who seemed to be around eight years old ran by, chasing a girl. The boy was Bruce Wayne. And the girl was Rachel Dawes. The camera kept moving behind the boy when he reached a Victorian greenhouse. He stood in the doorway and panted.
Ian noticed the facial expressions and how Bruce was slightly bent to maintain his posture of tiredness.
After a while, young Bruce peered down rows of plants on long trestle tables.
“Now,” Ian commanded.
“Rachel?” He questioned without letting Ian’s command affect his performance.
There was no response from Rachel. Ian watched from the screen how talented Niko was to take the scene as he wanted. Everything was set perfectly to suit the image in his mind, and he was feeling overly excited with every second passing.
From the little monitor, he kept watching.
There was no sign of Rachel, the person the little guy was looking for. Sunlight streamed through wrought iron and glass. Young Bruce walked forward cautiously. He was grabbed from behind and pulled under a table by a young girl who looked to be around 10. Rachel Dawes. She put her hand over Young Bruce’s mouth.
“Cut!” Ian commanded through the mic.
“Elina, good job, but can you show a little more emotions; Emotions like you don’t want anyone to hear you and the tension of your hiding game. Could you give me some more? Can we try again, or do you need a break?” Ian asked slowly. Since they were kids, he didn’t want to sound harsh to them or act harshly.
“One more? Okay, let’s start,”
Ian gave out the commands to start acting once again.
This time Elina successfully performed just like how Ian wanted her to. It was time to move on with the scene, Ian thought, seeing how good the last shot was.
“And… Action!”
“Rachel? Master Bruce?!”
The camera was focused on Bruce and Rachel but showed a woman striding past the window. She was Mrs. Dodson, Rachel’s mother, and also the housekeeper of Wayne Manor.
“Bruce… Go!” Ian commanded through the mic, which was a signal to Bruce to continue with his dialogues.
“What’re you doing?!” Bruce whispered.
“Kidnapping you. They pay a lot for precious Brucie,” Rachel replied in a smug voice yet whispered. They both were looking face to face. Hearing her words, young Bruce stared at her, wide-eyed.
Without saying anything, she smiled, and he visibly relaxed.
“Now!” That was Ian.
Young Bruce stood and bolted out from under the trestle table.
“Owww!” Adam’s head got hit on the table. His hand went to his head, and he sat right where he was.
“Cut!” Ian stopped the shooting for a while.
Everyone gathered around him and checked if Adam had a severe injury. After checking and confirming that he was fine, Ian had to end the shootings for the day and let him go home with a bag of ice on his head.
“I’m sorry, Ian, I should have been more careful,” Adam said.
In Ian’s mind, he regretted that he didn't take any safety measures before having Adam and Elina act under the table.
“It is not your fault Adam; let’s continue tomorrow. I hope you will be fine,” Ian said and patted Adam’s back.
Adam nodded and ran towards Michelle, who came to take Adam from the set. Ian had apologized to her and wrapped the work up, hoping tomorrow would be better and more efficient.