Danny DeVito, who played Batman villain the Penguin in 1992’s Batman Returns, has high expectations for Colin Farrell’s take on the character in The Batman, which resumes filming in September. DeVito, who co-starred with Farrell in Disney’s live-action Dumbo movie, which happened to be directed by Batman Returns director Tim Burton, is promoting his latest film, The One and Only Ivan on Disney+. During an interview with Collider, he touched on Farrell’s upcoming turn as the DC Comics villain. “I haven’t spoken to him since, but I’m really looking forward to it,” DeVito says. “I think that no matter what, he’s gonna be great because he’s a great actor. The only thing he has to worry about is that Oswald Cobblepot will show up at his house.”
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Farrell has stated in the past that his role as The Penguin isn’t a significant part of The Batman, but he remains enthused about being part of that universe. In May, he said, “I had only started it and I can’t wait to get back. The creation of it, the aesthetic of the character, has been fun and I really am so excited to get back and explore it. And I haven’t got that much to do. I have a certain amount in the film. I am not all over it by any means. But there are a couple of some tasty scenes I have in it and my creation and I can’t wait to get back. Yeah, I totally feel like it is something that I have not had the opportunity to explore before. It feels original and fun. But I am only at the start of the journey so I can’t wait to get back and really get into it.”
In another interview, he praised the originality in the film’s script. “The whole prospect is really exciting,” Farrell told SFX Magazine. ‘I’m ecstatic to be part of that universe. There are certain words that are part of my internal lexicon and those words are Gotham City, Penguin, Joker, Batman, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent… all of those things. I have been watching the Batman films with my kids, but this script is something that feels incredibly original,” he continued “It leans into it but it doesn’t borrow; it’s born of the mythology of that character, Bruce Wayne, Batman and Gotham. But it feels like a treatment and a version that I hadn’t seen before. Matt Reeves has done an incredible job of keeping it familiar and at the same time unique and new. It’s really exciting to be a part of it.”
Farrell expressed that same excitement in another interview in May. “It’s all exciting,” he said. “To be a part of that universe and just there are certain words that are part of my internal lexicon: Gotham City, Penguin, Joker, Batman, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent, all these things. Tim Burton’s Batman was kind of my — no, I watched the Adam West TV show growing up actually as well. So Batman as a kid, yes very much, not in comic book form but the TV show I watched ardently when I was a child. And then in my teens, I saw Burton’s version and loved it.”
The Batman opens in theaters on October 1, 2021.
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