New details about The Batman has been coming thick and fast lately, apropos of the latest issue of Empire Magazine, which centres on the new Robert Pattinson-starrer. We've already heard about how Zoë Kravitz, the next A-lister to step into the paw-fect (sorry) boots of Catwoman, studied cats and lions to become the iconic antiheroine. And it was explained why director Matt Reeves wanted to make his Batman outside of the DC Extended Universe continuity, citing an "interest in pushing [Batman] to his emotional depths."
On the subject of characterisation: it looks like we can thank Francis Ford Coppola, at least to some extent, for Colin Farrell's characterisation of The Penguin in the upcoming superhero noir. Speaking to Empire (available in print), Reeves rattled off a conveyor belt of influences for bringing the character to life, from Tony Soprano, to Bob Hoskins in The Long Good Friday, to John Cazale in The Godfather. The director says:
"There's a touch of John Cazale as Fredo in The Godfather. He's a mid-level mobster guy and he's got a bit of showmanship to him, but you can see that he wants more and that he's been underestimated. He's ready to make his move."
Yes, we know what you're thinking: does this mean the Penguin's gonna be given the kiss of death? Is Pattinson going to plant a sloppy one on Farrell? Whatever the case, Farrell backed up Reeves' idea of the character, saying:
"[Matt Reeves] mentioned Fredo to me, 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. There is a kind of fracture at the core of Oz, 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."
And here's what he had to say on the fat suit, which needs no further elaboration than the whirlwind of online discourse it has already fuelled:
"Matt had seen the character as classically somewhat portly, rotund, whatever the word. I'd just finished [Andrew Haigh's] The North Water, which I'd put on weight for, and Matt said, 'You look great!' I thought, 'Well f***in' say goodbye to it because I'm about to hit the treadmill. I need to get me health back.'"
The Batman hits theaters on March 4, 2022.