CASTING:

Auditions were held January 19th, 2008. Leading into this audition, I received hundreds of e-mails from actors interested in auditioning and being involved. From all these submissions, based on appearance and experience, I narrowed it down to the roster of those that ended up attending.

At the time of the audition, Rock/Megaman was the only character casted leaving Roll, Wily, Light, and the 3 live action Robot Masters; Iceman, Elecman, and Fireman.

The casting of Rock dates back to mid-2007 when Jun Naito expressed interest in the project. The thought of him playing Rock didn’t cross my mind until it was out in the open that he was interested. I looked at him…and it clicked. He had the look and screen presence and, on top of that, his acting ability would bring the much needed layers to the portray of Rock I wanted in the film. Also, he remembers and enjoys the Megaman. So, even both a script was written, he was cast in the role of Rock/Megaman.

Three of us were behind the table when watching actors audition; Jun, Adam Lee (friend, past producer, and creative partner), and myself. After the audition, we began narrowing down the actors who auditioned and we each picked our top 3. Within a few days, Jun and Adam had their number 1 choices and it was up to me to make the final, definitive decision. Within that week, I made my said decisions.

For Roll, actress Jeanie Tse was chosen. Out of all the actresses, she had the look, the range, and, above all, a cheerfulness and warmth that would be the perfect representation of how I saw Roll. Jeanie had an adorable quality to her that I knew Roll needed.

Wily went to actor Dave Maulbeck. Dave’s approach showed Wily as someone very colorful yet very dangerous and unstable. Dave’s Wily showed a Wily who had enough and would plausibly want world domination. To top it off, watching Dave work is such a treat. You genuinely have a sense of fun watching him be Wily.

Edward X. Young got the role of Dr Light. The look, the sense of nobility, and the sense of fatherly warmth. Edward had it all. He gave amazing credibility to Dr. Light and would also give the character the depth required.

Elecman went to actor Alan Fung. Is that his real name? Maybe, but despite that, he had the cockiness and sharp attitude that was needed for the character. A great actor with a great look. A no-brainer…even if you may not know his real name!

Iceman….interesting story regarding Iceman. The role ended up with actor Wayne Chang, however, we originally didn’t cast him as Iceman. In fact, we cast another actor and we even began shooting with him but due to some complications and miscommunication, him and I decided it was best for him to part from the project. This, of course, meant having to re-shoot certain scenes. Why did we end up going with Wayne Chang? He’s a professional, he’s a man of determination and intelligence, and he’s a pure talent. An actor of amazing skill. With such a range, he was able to take Iceman and NAIL the role. I am so grateful that we ended up with him because, in retrospect, he was the perfect choice. If you know him, you know Wayne Chang is a legend amongst legends. Also, a kick-butt assistant director when needed!

Oddly enough, when walking from the audition, we had no idea would work for Fireman. As we walked down the street after the audition, we ran into Hugo Salazar, who I was friends with and worked with in a previous fan film. Fate must of put him on that street because we got to talking, scheduled a private audition a week later, and he got the role. Hugo has an amazing range and can play any type of character that calls for much needed intensity so Fireman was right up his alley! Also, a fun guy as the above still shows!

And like that, we had our principal cast.

Costumes and Locations:

In terms of costumes, I knew that I want to do a realistic interpretation of the tradition Megaman costume. This goes for the Protoman costume and the live-action Robot masters. In terms of Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, their wardrobe was completely based on reference stills and source material. The only issue for the bot costumes was budgetary. This meant I would have to balance both my budget and my vision. This is when creative ingenuity had to kick in. Having the costumes look plausible and visually appealing while still fitting in to our budget. Costume designer David Horowitz and I constantly battled this in the months of pre-production. In fact, the costumes weren’t completed until a month after principal photography began. Luckily, we were able to come up with many sensible situations. Remember, as long as it looks good on camera, it doesn’t matter how it was made or what it was made off!

For location, two factors came into pay. Crowd control and visual scale. I knew I wanted to shoot in New York City since the city was diverse in locations and styles. Based on, I had to find the best locations that would be both appealing and reflective of the original game’s design. I originally wanted to shoot in more populated areas with more glass oriented buildings but crowd control came an unrealistic fantasy. In the end, we found the right locations and were able to achieve a style fitting for the film!

One of the biggest concerns that was preventing the film from being made was the location of Dr. Light’s lab. Without such a location, the film couldn’t be shot and we didn’t have the budget to pay the rates to shoot in an actual lab of sorts. Thankfully and heroic, Producer David Horowitz was able to hook me up with his family’s electronics factory. The production of the place was realistic, busy, and versatile in design. I remember going in there for the first with David before the script was written to check it out. This was late-2007. As we walked through the factory, I remember thinking “David has just given hope to getting this film made”. Getting this location was one of the factors that allowed me to give the go ahead with the film and a month later, I did. If it wasn’t for this location, there would be no Megaman. Just to think…the Light Lab would have been completely greenscreened… I’m still thankful for getting that location.

And then came February 10th, 2008…the first day of principal photography….

To Be Continued…

Tags: megaman, movie, retrospective