Saturday’s DC FanDome didn’t disappoint. Among many points of interest, we finally got our first trailer for The Batman, Matt Reeves’ much-hyped take on the legendary Gotham City crime fighter. Featured prominently in the carefully constructed tease were Robert Pattinson as Batman and Jeffrey Wright as Commissioner Gordon, among several others like the Riddler and Catwoman. But makeup designer Mike Marino has now confirmed that Colin Farrell’s Penguin was featured in the trailer, too – as has been speculated by fans.
You’ve got to admire the talent of makeup artists. Farrell is rendered almost unrecognizable in the screengrab below. This realizes, and indeed takes to an extreme, the dreams of those who wanted his to be a truly nasty Penguin. Even though this is only the briefest of glimpses at his character, it’s fair to say he’ll be steering clear of Danny DeVito’s Burtonesquery.
Given that only a few months of filming have been completed so far, this was about as good a trailer as could reasonably have been expected. It felt meaty enough without actually giving that much away (because there isn’t that much to give away). Pretty neat sleight-of-hand.
My only gripe was the way they crowbarred yet another popular song into a blockbuster preview. What is it with the last few years and trailer songs? Is it too much to ask for one without the sound of Nirvana, Leonard Cohen, Queen or Johnny Cash (aside from Logan, whose use of his music was sublime)?
Glad I could get that off my chest. It’s probably just a phase that’ll long be done by the time The Batman comes around. Farrell’s Penguin will be doing all kinds of bad by then.
