Colin Farrell is about to spend up to six months playing Oswald Cobblepot for HBO Max’s Penguin series, and that means a lot of time in makeup. It’s a good thing that’s the reason he wanted to do it.
Speaking with Variety recently, Farrell was asked about what inspired him to want to do the series. “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.”
After thinking on it for some time, Farrell went to producer Dylan Clark about the idea. “Honest to god, any thought I had about an extended series was to do with Mike Marino’s work. I just knew there was so much to do with it — age it up, age it down,” said Farrell. “He’s just such a genius, Mike, so it was his work that was the inspiration, really.”
And just how effective was Farrell’s makeup? Enough that he could go to Starbucks and not be recognized.
Craig Zobel (The Mare of Easttown) has signed on to direct the first two episodes of The Penguin. He will also be serving as an executive producer on the project.
The Penguin project has been discussed for some time and was ordered straight to series shortly after the premiere of The Batman in March 2021.
Matt Reeves’ 6th & Idaho Productions, Dylan Clark Productions, and Warner Bros. Television are all working on the series. Daniel Pipski from 6th & Idaho Production will also serve as an executive producer along with Rafi Crohn as a co-executive producer.
IMAGE SOURCE: Shutterstock – Colin Farrell – Tinseltown
