August 17, 2004
More "Batman" Scene Descriptions
With Chicago filming near wrapped, much of the cast has been back in the UK the last few days for a few more weeks. POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD:
"The sequences that they have been shooting in London have been mostly Arkham Asylum scenes for which they are using the awesomely creepy and immense Kings Cross St Pancras Hospital in London. It's a gothic structure and personally if I was ill and was taken there I'd be pretty sure I wouldn't be getting out alive - seriously creepy.
From a guidebook: 'Note the series of dragons - eagle clawed, crocodile tailed, beaked, in pairs, with each pair different. Also small hanging-down bat-like gargoyles.' - so not much set docoration needed there then! The guidebook doesn't mention that it is also one of the seediest and dangerous parts of London, and is teeming with hookers and drug addicts - lets just say that it has the right atmosphere!
Anyway, they have just shot the scene where Crane transforms into 'The Scarecrow' and apparently it does involve the traditional sack mask! It's not a 'costume' kind of event in the same way that other super heros have made or obtained theirs (thinking Spiderman or Catwoman from Batman Returns), this is linked into the character's madness and as it's happening it's not supposed to register that this is the 'getting the costume' moment of the film, it's meant to be a "purely terrifying moment".
The shot has Crane (Cillian Murphy) tied up and captured with a sack over his head and exposed to the gas accidentally, as he stuggles and screams he frees his arms and in obvious frenzy he tears away at the sack revealing a slit for the mouth and a ripped hole for the eye. A 'concerned criminal' (my mate wouldn't reveal too much on plot) is scared and enquires "Dr Crane?", we get an extreme close up into the eyehole of the sack, darkness, and then the eye opens and a unfamiliar voice whispers "Scarecrow". Concerned criminal is murdered offscreen - apparently we keep on the eye throughout. Sounds pretty cool and my mate is over the moon at how this scene looks.
One other point she let slip, the cinematographer (Wally Pfister) has brought in an antique 1927 russian camera from his own private collection this week for the Arkham shoots! He says it gives a nice 'feel'!
Posted by MK Magazine at August 17, 2004 03:26 PM