Colin Farrell is in negotiations with Warner Bros to play the Penguin opposite Robert Pattinson’s Batman.
According to Deadline, the actor could be returning to the comic book world for the first time since his role as Bullseye in 2003’s Daredevil. In the new interpretation, called The Batman, Pattinson will play the Caped Crusader as a detective in a neo-noir take on the character.
“His morality is a little bit off. He’s not the golden boy, unlike almost every other comic-book character,” Pattinson said about the character to the New York Times. “There is a simplicity to his worldview, but where it sits is strange, which allows you to have more scope with the character.”
The Cloverfield director Matt Reeves is behind the project which has also recently secured Paul Dano as the Riddler, Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon. Today it was also revealed that Andy Serkis is in talks to play Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne’s butler previously brought to the screen by Michael Caine in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy.
“What’s exciting about Batman is how it relates to now and also how personal it can be,” Reeves told the Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “It’s very much a point-of-view-driven, noir Batman tale. It’s told very squarely on his shoulders, and I hope it’s going to be a story that will be thrilling but also emotional.”
Farrell was last seen in Disney’s live-action Dumbo and next year he stars alongside Matthew McConaughey in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen and sci-fi drama After Yang.
Production on The Batman is set to start late this year or early 2020 with a 2021 release date. Next year also sees the release of the sequel Wonder Woman 1984, as well as Birds of Prey, starring Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn.
