Colin Farrell explains ‘The Godfather’ influence on Penguin in ‘The Batman’

Colin Farrell has said his take on the Penguin in The Batman was inspired by The Godfather.

The actor, who will be playing the DC antagonist – real name Oswald Cobblepot – in Matt Reeves’ forthcoming superhero film, opened up about his influences, and one character from The Godfather in particular, while preparing.

“[Reeves] mentioned Fredo to me,” Farrell recently told Empire, “because Fredo’s crippled by the insignificance that he lives within, in a family that is full of very strong, very bright, very capable, very violent men. Which is why he commits the act of betrayal that he does, because he’s weak, he’s kind of broken, and he’s in pain.

He added: “There is a kind of fracture at the core of Oz [his name for Cobblepot’s character], which fuels his desire and his ambition to rise within this criminal cabal. Where that rise goes… I would love to get to explore that in the second film, if that was ever to happen.”

In other Batman news, Matt Reeves recently revealed that Kurt Cobain inspired his vision for Bruce Wayne, played in his film by Robert Pattinson.

“When I write, I listen to music, and as I was writing the first act, I put on Nirvana’s ‘Something In The Way’,” Reeves said.

“That’s when it came to me that, rather than make Bruce Wayne the playboy version we’ve seen before, there’s another version who had gone through a great tragedy and become a recluse.”

He added of his Batman: “So I started making this connection to Gus Van Sant’s Last Days, and the idea of this fictionalised version of Kurt Cobain being in this kind of decaying manor.”

The film is due to be released in cinemas worldwide via Warner Bros. on March 4, 2022.