The Batman: Colin Farrell says script ‘doesn’t borrow’ from past adaptations

Actor is set to play The Penguin in the forthcoming DC comics blockbuster

Colin Farrell has praised the script for the forthcoming DC comics adaptation The Batman, saying it is unlike any previous Batman adaptation.

The In Bruges star will play Batman villain The Penguin, a role which has previously been tackled by Danny DeVito.

In an interview with SFX magazine, Farrell said that the film would offer something “unique and new”, while retaining familiar elements of the Batman mythology.

“The whole prospect is really exciting,” he said. “I’m ecstatic to be part of that universe. There are certain words that are part of my internal lexicon and those words are Gotham City, Penguin, Joker, Batman, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent... all of those things.

“I have been watching the Batman films with my kids, but this script is something that feels incredibly original. It leans into it but it doesn’t borrow; it’s born of the mythology of that character, Bruce Wayne, Batman and Gotham. But it feels like a treatment and a version that I hadn’t seen before.”

The actor praised the “incredible job” done by director Matt Reeves, as well as the ”devious” portrayal of the Penguin by DeVito, in 1992’s Batman Returns.

He also claimed that Christopher Nolan‘s Dark Knight trilogy was instrumental in attracting him to the project.

‘‘I was obviously a huge fan of what Chris Nolan did with that world,” he said. “He brought it back to life and gave it a kind of immediacy and contemporary significance. For those reasons it’s really cool to be part of it.”

The Batman is set to be released in October 2021.