Colin Farrell (Minority Report) is no stranger to superhero movies. In 2003 he played the villain Bullseye in the ill-fated Daredevil movie. Now Deadline reports that Farrell is in talks to appear in Matt Reeves’ The Batman as none other than The Penguin! While this is one of the sillier Gotham City villains, The Penguin was memorably, disgustingly portrayed by Danny de Vito in Tim Burton’s Batman Returns. It’s difficult to imagine even an actor of Farrell’s caliber being able to top that performance. But then again, that’s what people said about Jack Nicholson’s Joker. And then we experienced both Heath Ledger’s version and, now, one played by Joaquin Phoenix.
But this isn’t the only bit of The Batman casting news. Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings trilogy, Black Panther and so many others) is in talks to portray Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred Pennyworth. Since Serkis already collaborated with director Matt Reeves on two Planet of the Apes films, there’s a decent chance he’ll indeed be in the final cast list. Not so with Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) who was in talks to play the Penguin before dropping out. Otherwise, an already impressive cast includes Robert Pattison (Lighthouse) as Batman, Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) as The Riddler, Zoe Kravitz (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Catwoman, and Jeffrey Wright (Westworld) as Commissioner James Gordon.
