Danny DeVito Prefers Tim Burton’s Batman, but Liked Colin Farrell’s Penguin

April 13, 2022, 12:31pm

Batman Returns star Danny DeVito says he has seen The Batman, and enjoyed the work Colin Farrell did in the role of The Penguin, which DeVito played in 1991. The film has become a huge box office hit, and will drop on HBO Max next week, bringing it to a whole new audience, with Farrell’s performance not only attracting critical and audience praise, but earning a TV spinoff (also set for HBO Max). DeVito’s version of the character, of course, died at the end of his first appearance in Returns, and would not have come back even if Burton had remained attached to the franchise, which he didn’t.

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The actor said he still prefers the “Burtonverse,” though. With Michael Keaton coming back in 2023’s The Flash, maybe we’ll even get to hear what DeVito thinks of that soon.

“I thought Colin did a great job,” DeVito told TheWrap. “Certainly a different milieu. I think it was a more edgy, serious, gangster-y Batman. Of course there’s three Italians who are bad guys in it, the Falcones (laughs). But I feel like in terms of the performances, I thought Colin – who is a good buddy of mine – I think he did a great job in that. You take your hat off to anybody who sits in the makeup chair that long. I did it with The Penguin and loved it.”

When it comes to comparing the two films, DeVito has nothing bad to say about Reeves’s movie, but still prefers the Tim Burton franchise he starred in alongside Michael Keaton and Michelle Pfeiffer.

“My feeling of comparing the two movies, I’m like a Tim Burton fan,” DeVito said. “I like the whimsical, the operatic, the disaffected Pee-wee Herman throws me off a bridge (laughs). That makes me smile.”

You can read the official synopsis for The Batman below.

Two years of stalking the streets as the Batman (Robert Pattinson), striking fear into the hearts of criminals, has led Bruce Wayne deep into the shadows of Gotham City. With only a few trusted allies — Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis), Lt. James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) — amongst the city’s corrupt network of officials and high-profile figures, the lone vigilante has established himself as the sole embodiment of vengeance amongst his fellow citizens.

When a killer targets Gotham’s elite with a series of sadistic machinations, a trail of cryptic clues sends the World’s Greatest Detective on an investigation into the underworld, where he encounters such characters as Selina Kyle/aka Catwoman (Zoë Kravitz), Oswald Cobblepot/aka the Penguin (Colin Farrell), Carmine Falcone (John Turturro), and Edward Nashton/aka the Riddler (Paul Dano). As the evidence begins to lead closer to home and the scale of the perpetrator’s plans becomes clear, Batman must forge new relationships, unmask the culprit, and bring justice to the abuse of power and corruption that has long plagued Gotham City.

Starring alongside Pattinson (Tenet, The Lighthouse) as Gotham’s famous and infamous cast of characters are Zoë Kravitz (Big Little Lies, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald) as Selina Kyle; Paul Dano (Love & Mercy, 12 Years a Slave) as Edward Nashton; Jeffrey Wright (No Time to Die, Westworld) as the GCPD’s James Gordon; John Turturro (the Transformers films, The Plot Against America) as Carmine Falcone; Peter Sarsgaard (The Magnificent Seven, Interrogation) as Gotham D.A. Gil Colson; Jayme Lawson (Farewell Amor) as mayoral candidate Bella Reál; with Andy Serkis (the Planet of the Apes films, Black Panther) as Alfred; and Colin Farrell (The Gentlemen, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as Oswald Cobblepot.