There was a second on the set of director Matt Reeves’ movie “The Batman” that “freaked everybody out,” recalled prosthetic make-up designer Michael Marino. That haywire occasion was Colin Farrell strolling round and saying hey to the solid and crew because the Penguin.
“Everybody began speaking about how they wished there may very well be extra scenes with him, however the script was locked,” Marino informed IndieWire. Nicely, it turned out that Reeves was already in discussions with HBO brass about an Oswald Cobb origin story that will bridge the hole between “The Batman” and “The Batman Half II” (at present slated for an October 2026 launch).
“The Penguin” made its HBO premiere within the fall of 2024 with Lauren LeFranc creating and working the compelling collection, which tells the story of how Oswald (Farrell) seized energy through an intimate character examine that’s extra crime drama than comedian guide. Increasing the Gotham world required meticulous consideration and care from the collection’ artistic staff — particulars that will carry over from the primary Reeves movie whereas pointing audiences in new instructions.
Marino joined the collection to solidify the established look he created for Oswald, including to the unnerving character when the story known as for it and adjusting different areas to accommodate a tv schedule. Visible results supervisor Johnny Han was additionally eager on the turnaround time. “I actually consider in an iterative method, the place we work in massive, broad strokes earlier than we get too deep with it,” Han defined.
Within the movies under, watch how prosthetic make-up designer Michael Marino, manufacturing designer Kalina Ivanov, and visible results supervisor Johnny Han lit the fuse to probably the greatest tv dramas of the 12 months.
The Prosthetic Make-up of ‘The Penguin‘
Prosthetic make-up designer Michael Marino oversaw the bold activity of remodeling the film star-handsome Colin Farrell into the sadistic Oswald Cobb, a glance that required creating facial prosthetics, a bodysuit, wig, and dentures. It was a problem Marino initially took on whereas filming “The Batman” after which fine-tuned for “The Penguin.”
Marino drew inspiration from real-life and fictional gangsters, like Fredo Corleone from “The Godfather,” whereas additionally together with visible clues to Oz’s duplicity. “The character is a little bit bit like a two-face, he’s a liar. So I made one aspect of his face a little bit bit extra loopy, and the opposite aspect of his face is a little bit bit extra regular,” Marino informed IndieWire.
Marino added additional nuance through the main points. “On this aspect of the face the place his nostril is, I did a really refined form that mimics the beak of a penguin,” Marino defined. “It’s very, very refined, however these subtleties a viewer sees subconsciously.”
The staff additionally took on the duty of designing a prosthetic clubfoot, which is a beginning defect that causes a foot to show in and beneath, making it troublesome to stroll, in addition to a full prosthetic physique go well with for a nude scene that sees Oz tied to a chair. “All of us constructed this complete factor,” stated Marino. “He will get in like pants and a shirt form of factor, and arms. After which the make-up is glued and related to the neck and all these hundreds and hundreds of hairs are all around the physique.”
Watch the video above to find out how Marino and his staff used prosthetics and sensible make-up strategies to carry Oswald Cobb to the small display.
The Manufacturing Design of ‘The Penguin‘
“I might say the design lived between fantasy and actuality,” manufacturing designer Kalina Ivanov informed IndieWire about creating the detailed environments of “The Penguin,” which included establishing the gritty streets of New York, seedy underground golf equipment, sprawling cathedrals, and estates of the super-wealthy.
A frightening activity in her work was fabricating the poorer neighborhood of Crown Level, which had been bombed and flooded by The Riddler (Paul Dano) in “The Batman” (2022). “The sensible set was two blocks lengthy, and it had an entire little patch of shops that had been closed,” Ivanov informed IndieWire. “We had been in a position to create the companies that Lauren [LeFranc] and I felt essential to point out… After which, from the unbelievable analysis that we did on FEMA and Katrina, we created the piles of vehicles, the way in which the water would rush them, the way in which it piled them up, after which we additionally added the complete system of Katrina signage that tells you what’s deserted, what’s contaminated.”
Ivanov additionally designed units for Oswald’s backstory, which is proven by means of a lot of flashbacks, together with one at a jazz membership together with his mom Francis (Deirdre O’Connell). “We discovered this membership that had the stage and a really trendy bar, so we coated the murals with drapes and we constructed the columns in that. I can use the Henri Rousseau work as a result of they’re very naïve, and there’s all the time a predator lurking in them,” she stated. “And I insisted on this gigantic chandelier as a result of we would have liked to point out one other form of destruction, and I felt the reverberations from the bomb can take the chandelier down. So I had carte blanche to utterly rework the house, make it really feel very acceptable to the jungle of Gotham.”
Within the video above, learn the way Kalina Ivanov conceptualized the town of Gotham in all of its superb element for “The Penguin.”
The Visible Results of ‘The Penguin’
The motivation for visible results supervisor Johnny Han and the VFX staff was an “consideration to element,” which, for Han, made the “present shine.” The method was to “match the visible tone and look of [‘The Mantman’]” that was “grounded and based mostly in actuality.”
In mapping the poignant scene the place Victor (Rhenzy Feliz) watches the town’s seawalls crumble whereas standing on a rooftop, a dynamic mix of sensible and visible results fine-tuned the emotional second. “We had a sensible location for lots of the scenes main as much as the occasion, and we needed to only maintain it actually private,” Han informed IndieWire. “We then constructed the identical set on stage to do our work with Victor and the bombs going off, and it’s not so essential to see the bombs. It was essential to listen to the bombs and to really feel the sunshine of the bombs. We put all these 10K tungsten lights as a result of we had been actually massive on getting the fiery coloration temperature of these lights.”
Exhibiting the flooding streets was “achieved in-camera” with a subdued tone to the motion. “We ran it as one lengthy shot. It’s all the time dearer to do it that approach, however that approach, it was really a steady simulation, like a chunk of footage to offer the editor,” Han defined.
Illuminating the ultimate sequence of the collection as Oswald dances together with his girlfriend Eve (Carmen Ejogor) required the creation of a complete digital constructing and surrounding atmosphere. “It’s a CG construct of that resort, tremendous detailed. Dwell-action Oz, live-action mid-ground metropolis, CG and map portray, distant metropolis, Bat sign and sky, that was all hand-painted in order that we might tweak it completely,” Han stated of the stirring scene that means the Caped Crusader will not be far-off.
Watch the video above to see behind-the-scenes footage of how the visible results division realistically grounded the complicated visuals of “The Penguin.”