Last month I read something about the latest installment of Hollywood’s Batman franchise coming to shoot in Hong Kong. I didn’t think too much about it until I was running a small errand in my neighborhood and I stumbled upon the set.
The escalator, the main vein into the area was completely blocked off! People were being re-routed onto the street where there were already hundreds of onlookers.
[photopress:Escalator_Hong_Kong_film.jpg,full,pp_image] [photopress:Batman_HK_filming.jpg,full,pp_image]Looking up I could tell that they were filming a scene of Morgan Freeman meeting briefly with someone. I was below the escalator at the time on Lyndhurst Terrace and paused long enough to take a few quick shots of the interaction.
[photopress:Morgan_Freeman_Batman_HK.jpg,full,pp_image] [photopress:Batman_Scene_Hong_Kong.jpg,full,pp_image]I would have thought that it was just a conference with the director, but they were holding a mic above their heads, and filming with a hand held camera, so I presume it was an actual scene in the film.
A day later I was out at night and got introduced to the still photographer and a few other Batman crew members. They mentioned that they would be filming Batman jumping off of The Center, one of my favorite Hong Kong buildings the next night.
[photopress:TheCenterNight2.jpg,full,pp_image]By chance, on my way back from the IFC a day later, I passed by on the escalator, and there were indeed barriers set up with dozens of onlookers staking out The Center.
[photopress:Batman_Center_Hong_Kong.jpg,full,pp_image]I wonder if they will call the city Gotham in the film, or if they will integrate it as a foreign location? Either way, it makes me more interested in catching the movie!
I wandered into that too and stuck around to watch at the exact same time. I managed to stake out a spot on the escalators to get a close up or two of Christian Bale. That scene you saw was where Morgan Freeman and Christian finish a conversation and then part ways. Christian actually walked out of the cordoned off area into the real crowd before the director said ‘cut’.