World's Greatest Detective - Main and Recurring Cast Auditions - 11M, 4F

Jonathan Crane was a professor of psychology at Gotham University who specialised in the study of fears and phobias. During a stint as a psychologist at Blackgate Federal Penitentiary, Crane showed a remarkable ability to make his patients repent and become productive members of society. When one man committed suicide in his home, and another died of a sudden heart attack, it came to light that Crane had been forcing their obedience by injecting them with a serum that hyper-accelerates the brain’s fear centre, bringing their darkest nightmares to life.

Word of these inhumane practises soon got back to the university, and Crane very quickly found himself out of a job and with his once respectable reputation in tatters. Most men would feel angry, embittered, or vengeful, but Crane absorbed the scowls and insults with silent, clinical detachment. He had found a higher calling.

The Scarecrow has almost no human qualities, except perhaps for his insatiable curiosity. He is the true definition of a psychopath, wholly without love or empathy for other living beings or remorse for his actions. Like Josef Mengele before him, to his mind there is no Gotham City, only the laboratory, and there are no people, only specimens. He espouses that science can only advance through sacrifice, that it is inherently inhumane, and to believe otherwise is to stifle those who seek to move forward.

Little happens behind his eyes that does not further his mad agenda. His mind functions like a computer, analysing and recording the results of his cruelty. Now that the Batman — or “Rogue Variable Number Zero-Zero-One” — has entered the equation, he has found not an adversary or nemesis, but a virus in his system to be eradicated.

Voice should be medium-high to low, early-to-late-30s. Devoid of emotion, with clinical precision and a consistent, even tone.

Alfred Pennyworth is a stern, world-weary man from Edinburgh, Scotland. He is not easily caught off-guard or alarmed, but when someone does manage to get the drop on him, he is professional and precise, truly the gentleman’s gentleman. He only lets his caring side out in moderation.

After the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Alfred acted in loco parentis towards Bruce, being his protector and constant companion during the seventeen years abroad. He expresses a great deal of concern for Bruce’s safety, but understands his grief and desire to fight crime. He is very much an integral part of the Batman’s operation, manning the Batcave and being head of the Wayne Manor staff.

Voice should be medium-high to medium-low, aged mid-to-late 50’s. Scottish accent should be specifically from around Edinburgh.

Vicki is a news reporter for Gotham Today! who keeps her eye to the sky and her ear to the ground. Strong-willed and passionate about her job, Vicki would rather focus on hard-hitting, career-defining stories instead of another press conference or lame celebrity gossip piece, and thinks perhaps the wave of colourful renegades who have made Gotham City their playground will present the opportunity she’s been waiting for.

Unfortunately, her insatiable need to stick her nose where it doesn’t belong often puts her at odds with both the Batman and the Gotham City Police Department, especially when she scores an exclusive with those villains who don’t mind spending some time in the limelight. Her recklessness is such that she may even attempt to infiltrate the gangs under different guises, including the sharp-tongued coquette “Blondie de Vere,” in order to make a ground-breaking exposé.

Vicki is typically accompanied in the field by her faithful friend and cameraman, Diggory Sage, and is completely oblivious to the fact Sage harbours affection towards her. Even if she did take notice, Vicki is a career girl through and through with little time to focus on romance. Her relationship with Bruce Wayne, which began after he invited her out to dinner during an interview, is mostly casual and flirtatious. In spite of her journalistic instincts, she does not initially see much going on beyond his playboy exterior.

Voice should be medium-high, late 20s. Driven, high-energy, professional.

Alexander “Alex” Knox is a young and upcoming reporter on Apex 4 News, Gotham’s premiere news service. He’s competent, enthusiastic, and prone to strong emotional responses. However, due to this, he’s often considered by others to be a bit of a pain in the rear, though no one ever says anything to his face.

Knox doesn’t think the mysterious “vigilante vampire” is a threat, but doesn’t want to risk his job and so he toes the company line - that there is no vigilante vampire… unless it makes for good news.

Voice should be high to medium, aged mid-to-late-20s.

Lucius Fox is Bruce Wayne’s friend and business manager, who handles the day-to-day work required to keep Wayne Enterprises running efficiently. He is an entrepreneur, inventor, and a businessman with many years of experience. Fox is quite genial, somebody Bruce finds easy to work with, as they tend to agree on priorities. His sense of humor is soft and subtle. Lucius can enjoy a joke, but isn’t usually the one who makes them.

He takes his position seriously, and has been known to admonish Bruce when he’s distracted at an important moment. He is a reliable colleague, a professional who is rarely caught without a well thought out plan or deal. He is a self-made man and he has made sure never to forget where he came from. He has a wife named Tanya, and five children, Tamara, Lucas, Joseph, Timothy, and Tiffany.

Voice should be medium low-to-low, aged early 50s.

The new D.A. in Gotham, Harvey Dent lobbies for the dissolution of the crime families. He recognises the corruption amongst the police, and becomes an occasional ally of the Batman, whom he believes to be a citizen trying to help, and cites him as evidence of the need for change, but hopes he will eventually retire and allow for a better justice system to protect the city.

Harvey and Bruce quickly become very close friends due to their similar ideals, tastes, and high intellect, and find each other’s company relaxing. They tend to act as each other’s wingman, though Dent is much less flighty about relationships than Bruce, having been married to his wife Gilda for five years.

To his friends he’s loyal and true, and to the rest of Gotham City he’s a hero. A man of the people who does not pull his punches in the courtroom or in his public addresses. He is understandably just as hated by the criminals he fights against as the meddling Detective Gordon and the Batman put together.

Voice should be medium-to-medium low, aged mid-20s. Speaks with a definitive air of culture and education.

The Batman is Gotham City’s grim avenger, her tireless and ever-ready Dark Knight. Appearing only at night, he uses a combination of his shrewd deductive skills, fighting prowess, sophisticated equipment of his own design, and frightening visage to combat the scum infesting the alleys of his city. He speaks only when necessary, and even then, he uses an economy of words.

The general consensus is that Bruce Wayne is the disguise and Batman the true persona. This does not mean that Wayne is by any means fake or hollow. He exists, but is seen by the Batman as a cover to distract the public from the truth. It is a testament to his talent for acting. He may embody aspects of the hero’s personality that are ordinarily stifled. Bruce Wayne can enjoy a joke and have friendly relationships, while the Batman does not.

Bruce appears thoughtful, motivated, and involved in the financial empire he has inherited, yet sometimes slow on the uptake and afflicted by cowardice. He rubs elbows with the jet-set. He can be snobbish and sometimes condescending, yet well-meaning, using the Wayne Foundation to fund humanitarian enterprises in poorer communities. Although he will never forget where he came from and what forged him, Bruce is not haunted by the dangers inherent in his double-life.

Voice should be medium-to-low, aged mid-20s.Due to the seventeen years he spent wandering the globe, Bruce Wayne should ideally speak with an accent that is primarily American but includes little quirks in pronunciation and his use of terminology, in a similar way to Christopher Lambert’s character in the movie Highlander (1986). The difference between his voice as Bruce Wayne and his voice as the Batman should boil down to this and tone, rather than entirely separate sounds.

Arnold John Flass is tall, with a decent musculature and short blonde hair. Much like the Nazi ideal he resembles, he’s an awful, corrupt person (much like the rest of the GCPD). He’s someone who’s joined the police force for all the wrong reasons, and is wont to abuse his power. Thankfully for everyone else, he’s more concerned with his comfy paycheck and next meal than actually being an effective officer of the law.

Flass is married to his high school sweetheart, Theresa, and has three kids. His eldest son, Robert, and fraternal twins Ryan and Diane. He’s old friends with his partner Roman Cavallo, having known each other since kindergarten, and the two families are often together. (For those of you who are familiar with the Power Rangers franchise, Flass and Cavallo are being played here very much as the Bulk and Skull of Gotham City. Flass is the Bulk of the duo.)

Voice should be medium-low to low, late 30s. New Jersey accent.

Gillian Loeb is in charge of the Gotham City Police Department, and is a major contributor to its fall from grace. Taking bribes from both the rival Maroni and Falcone crime families — with neither knowing of the other’s involvement — Loeb has already set aside enough money from his criminal endeavours to retire to a nice villa in the Bahamas, which he intends to do by the end of the year.

The transfer of James Gordon to his department from Chicago has thrown an irrefutable spanner in the works. Gordon’s refusal to be bought or bullied is frustrating, and as much as he tries to keep the young detective and his partner distracted by working to impede their progress, he is too cowardly and not shrewd enough to keep his misconduct a secret forever.

Loeb does not have many friends in the department, even among other dirty cops. He is typically aloof and crass, treating his officers more like underlings than colleagues, a far cry from the blatant toadying he exhibits in front of those who have him in their pockets.

Voice should be low, gravelly, aged mid-to-late 60s. Sounds a bit like Rodney Dangerfield. For a vocal sample, here’s a clip (Warning: content is NSFW).

Earlene Collins is a divorced 38-year-old woman from North Gotham, growing up across the street from the infamous Crime Alley. Her father owned the medical practice in the Alley, working with his partner Leslie Thompkins, until one night he was shot dead heading home. That night, Earlene vowed that she would fight injustice wherever she could.

After a back injury, she was forced onto desk sergeant duty, but this hasn’t diminished her presence on the force. She’s blunt, sharp-tongued, and wholeheartedly believes in treating people how they treat her.

Voice should be medium-to-low, aged late 30s. African-American (please no “sassy black woman” stereotypes).

A former District Attorney, now elected mayor of Gotham City. People who work with her tend to think of her as mean, but the truth of the matter is that she’s attempting to hold together a city that’s ready to pull itself apart, and her office could be infested with any number of criminal plants trying to poison her authority. She is neither gruff nor harsh, but professional and well-pronounced, a holdover from her courtroom days. She is loud not because she is shouting, rather than she is good at projecting her voice.

Grange is skeptical of the existence of the Batman, but openly condemns any act of vigilantism. After being kidnapped by the Mad Hatter along with several other people, she is stunned to learn the Caped Crusader is real, and acknowledges that she owes him her life. This pushes her to come down even harder on the struggling Gotham City Police Department, lighting a fire underneath Commissioner Loeb’s once comfortable seat.

Voice should be medium-high to medium-low, aged mid-to-late 40s. Crisp, professional, and direct, but not mean.

The daughter of immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Renee Montoya is a good cop: respectful of regulations, though not such a stickler as Gordon, yet not as hot-headed and prone to bending the rules as Bullock. She is an active member of her community, including working as a volunteer at her Roman Catholic Church, and is well-liked by many of her friends and neighbours. Street-smart, a quick shot, and deeply versed in the unspoken lore of her city, Montoya nonetheless remains a compassionate, open-minded and caring woman, whose wit is dry, yet never crosses into being acerbic.

Voice should be medium-high to medium-low, aged early 30s. New Jersey accent.

The antithesis to Bruce Wayne: though also born into wealth, Thomas lacks his rival’s worldwide humanitarian interests and esoteric learnings. He suffered abuse at the hands of his father while his mother allowed it to happen, and grew to despise them both, especially after they passed away and left him with nothing. He feigns a persona that makes him appear genuine and caring to his patients, and initially appears to care for his girlfriend, Peyton Riley, but in truth he cares only for his own comforts, and his judgement of others is often quick and condemning.

On the other hand, he is Bruce’s equal in intellect and drive, is as cunning as a fox, tenacious as a hound, and independent as a housecat. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goal: that is, the total ruination of Bruce Wayne (not Batman, specifically Bruce). Even if it means playing a long game, or enacting plans that will only come to fruition after his death (or even because of it).

Voice should be medium-to-low, aged mid-20s.

Jaded, politically incorrect, and somewhat unpleasant to be around, Harvey Bullock gives the impression that he isn’t scared of anyone and will say what he thinks with brutal honesty. He sometimes cuts corners, and typically subscribes to gut instinct and intuition over proper channels and procedure. He is convinced he can tell when someone is bad within a few moments of meeting them, and is quick to cast judgement.

He isn’t just a mindless attack dog, however. Bullock was made a Detective for good reason. He’s brave as a lion, tough as old leather, cunning like a fox, and knows how to think like a crook. He has years of experience and a street-level view on his side. While he isn’t always right, he can often identify a missed detail or highlight when somebody is hiding important information. He is slow to warm up to anybody, and seems more to tolerate them than accept their friendship. He was raised Catholic and is devoted to Lucille, his wife.

Thick is an apt word to describe Roman Cavallo. Both physically and mentally, the man is thick. Between his insatiable appetite and inability to run more than ten feet without falling over breathless, it’s a wonder that he’s still employed by the GCPD. It might be that Flass has something to do with his continued employment.

His wife, Angela - also known as “Big Ang” - is a bit stereotypically “New Jerseyan” in the popular sense (tan enough to be orange, very loud, caked in makeup, and a big fan of wine). But she loves Roman for his rather easygoing nature, and would never leave him, or their daughters, Rachel and Piera. They’re very close with Flass’s family. (Cavallo is the Skull of the duo, continuing on from the Bulk and Skull comparison.)

Voice should be medium-high to medium-low, late 30s. New Jersey accent.