While Matt Reeves’ sequel to this year’s “The Batman” remains a while off, it seems things are progressing on the planned HBO Max series spin-off focusing on Colin Farrell’s take on The Penguin.
Farrell is currently out doing promotional rounds for Ron Howard’s Thai cave rescue film “Thirteen Lives” which hits Amazon this week, and confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that Reeves is heavily involved in the series though he won’t be handling any of the direction:
“Matt’s up to his bollocks, you know, hovering over the keyboard and just planning the story because he’s just so meticulous. He’s so obsessive about what he does, but he’s all over [HBO Max’s] The Penguin [series] as well. I mean, he’s not gonna direct it but he’s all over the structure of the scripts and who’s gonna direct them. And so, it’s exciting.”
He also tells the outlet he’s very game to appear in the untitled sequel in the works, saying:
“Oh my god, you kidding me?! It’s so much fun, are you joking [with] me? I’ve been around the block man. That was an easy sport, I mean… it was a joy.”
Separately, The Direct last weekend quoted a “recent interview” with Farrell in which he reportedly says he has another project he’s working on in the back half of this year, and then he’ll likely start filming “The Penguin” series around February.
He reportedly added: “I read the first script of what I think will be six or eight hours. It was so tasty. I was just kind of: F—, nice.” Should filming begin then, it’s likely the series wouldn’t premiere until late 2023 at the earliest and possibly not until early 2024.
