HBO Max’s upcoming series “The Penguin” is set to start shooting next month with actor Colin Farrell to slip back into his heavy makeup effects from last year’s “The Batman” film to reprise the Oswald Cobblepot role.
Not a lot is known about the series beyond that it will take place just days after the film’s end with a still somewhat flooded Gotham City, and a power vacuum left by the death of Carmine Falcone (John Turturro).
Cristin Milioti also stars as Carmine’s daughter Sofia Falcone which suggests a good portion of the series will be a turf war between the pair. During a recent appearance at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, Farrell spoke with Variety about the genesis of the series.
Turns out it wasn’t planned in any way, Farrell says he had no idea the character would be getting a series when he joined the film. But his desire to explore more with him, and the film’s limited screen time for his character, meant the series would allow him to do just that:
“The only thing I had an idea was that I wasn’t nearly getting to explore the character as much as I wanted to. Because there was all this extraordinary work done by [makeup artists] Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine and his team, and I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes that we did in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.”
Farrell then spoke with producer Dylan Clark about the possibility of exploring the character more, with that including his distinct visual look, which is another big reason Farrell wanted to do it:
“Honest to god, any thought I had about an extended series was to do with [makeup artist] Mike Marino’s work. I just knew there was so much to do with it – age it up, age it down. He’s just such a genius, Mike, so it was his work that was the inspiration, really.”
The limited series is being written by Lauren LeFranc who also serves as the showrunner, whilst the first two episodes will be directed by Craig Zobel. Clark, Farrell, LeFranc, Matt Reeves, Daniel Pipski, Adam Kassan, and Rafi Crohn executive produce.
Colin Farrell opens up about #ThePenguin series: “I just thought it was the tip of the iceberg, pardon the pun, that we were getting to do the six or seven scenes in the film. I was grateful for them, but I wanted more.” https://t.co/x1DAcgp5NH pic.twitter.com/VjxpA3TvAc
— Variety (@Variety) January 6, 2023
