Kaylee, The Apprentice Assassin

Bruce Von Stiers

Kaylee is an assassin. Well, that's not quite accurate. She is an assassin in training. Or an assassin's apprentice if you will.

Kaylee is the lead character in a short film titled, appropriately enough, The Assassin's Apprentice.

When we meet Kaylee, she is practicing some martial arts under the watchful eyes of her mentor, Pete. While he's there, the boss, Miranda, gives orders for Kaylee to undertake her first solo mission. .

This sets things in motion. Kaylee is supposed to kill some bad guy named Blanco. But as this is all unfolding, I began to wonder about a few things. Was Kaylee up to the task? How many kills did she need under her belt before becoming a full-fledged assassin? These questions weren't really answered but would make for a great backstory.

Instead of driving to the target in congested LA traffic, Kaylee decides to run to Blanco's location. She is assisted by a drone that keeps track of her and navigates a path for her. Kaylee scales gates and walls, hops fences, jumps over park benches as she runs toward the target's location. The drone tweets things, some of which are taunts towards Kaylee. It seems that the screenwriter wanted to infuse a bit of humor with the drone ragging Kaylee. And a later scene with a pratfall is somewhat comical.

Things went more than a bit sideways on the mission, but in the end it was successful. There are several scenes that help set up the final scenario. Those include Blanco and his bodyguard meeting two women at the bar where the kill is supposed to go down. And one where Kaylee is supposed to change into a slinky outfit. That includes high heels, which come into play later in the film.

Tarah Paige is Kaylee. As an actor, she has about forty screen credits. As a stunt performer, Tarah has stunt doubled for Mica Boorem, Maggie Lawson, Anna Camp and Reese Witherspoon. She was also the stunt coordinator for this film.

Robert Pircardo is Pete. I remember him as the holographic doctor on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But he's been in a whole bunch of other stuff, from China Beach to The Flash, racking up about two hundred-fifty screen credits.

Miranda is played by Marina Sirtis, who starred in Star Trek: The Next Generation. She has well over one hundred screen credits, including the recent Hallmark Channel film, Love's Greek To Me.

Rico E. Anderson is Blanco. Appearing in over a hundred films and television episodes, he starred in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Renegades.

Other people appearing in the film included Dan D. McCann as Blanco's bodyguard and Sasha Travis as the lounge singer at the bar. Jennifer Durst, Reka Rene, Katherine Roberts and Luis E. Carazo had supporting roles in the film.

The film was directed by Russ Emanuel. He directed feature films such as Chasing The Green and American Wisper. The production company for the film is Russem Productions, a company that Emanuel founded in 2002 to promote his films, while the production company for the film is Innomagic Productions.

Paul Hickman was the screenwriter for the film. He has been the producer for several short and feature films. The film was edited by Emile Haris, who also edited American Wisper and Chasing The Green. The director of photography was Ray Karwel, who most recently worked on the film State of Desolation.

Other people involved in the film included Vasalis Mileis who wrote the original score and Tommy Kraft who was the visual effects and credits supervisor. There was also production designer Lauren Ivy and key costumer Nina Minnelli.

This film was meant to be sort of a proof of concept for a trio of films. According to a statement from Emanuel, several of the actors signed onto the project with that in mind.

The Assassin's Apprentice was a fun film. It showed humor in a genre that normally is dramatic and violent. There is a bit of violence and blood, but not until the final scenes. The drone giving Kaylee a hard time is kind of silly, but still fun. Kylee is not your typical assassin in training. She tries to go her own way, which in turn causes a bit of humorous consternation for her mentor, Pete, and the boss, Miranda.

The film has earned a bunch of awards at film festivals, having won its first award at the World Premiere at the Independent Filmmakers Showcase IFS Film Festival, US for Best Short Thriller. It won Best Fight Choreography from the Golden State Film Festival, Best Action Short from the Lucky Strikes Film Festival and Best Thriller from the Indie Best Film Festival.

The film is still making its way through the film festival circuit. Emanuel is currently working on incorporating this film and its sequel The Assassin's Apprentice 2: Silbadores of the Canary Islands into the third film.

If you'd like to find out more about The Assassin's Apprentice, visit the official website for the film at www.TAAMovie.com . Or visit Russ Emanuel's production website at https://www.russem.com/

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© 2024 Bruce E Von Stiers