In a raw audience hype the reappearance ofColin Farrell ’s Penguin , The BatmandirectorMatt Reevessuggested there ’s little room in his visual sense of Gotham for “ full fantastical ” villains who invoke the supernatural — disappointing fans ofone characterin specific : the Gentleman Ghost .
“ What was important to me was to chance a way to take these pop icons , these mythical characters that everybody lie with , and translate it so that Gotham feels like a place in our human beings , ” he explained to SFX Magazine . “ We might labour to the edge of the grotesque but we would never go into full antic . It ’s meant to experience quite grounded . It does n’t mean that you wo n’t see graphic symbol that people have a go at it . That ’s exactly what we desire to do . Gentleman Ghost is believably push a bit too far for us to be able-bodied to find a way to do , but there is a fun path to think about how we would take character reference that might bear on over into a bit of the fantastic and find a way of life to make sense of that . ”
Originally a villain confront off with Hawkman and Hawkgirl , James “ Gentleman Jim ” Craddock debuted in the October 1947 issue of Flash Comics as a flamboyant thief who uses parlour tricks to appear to be an inaccessible life from beyond the grave accent . In later year , the case was retconned to be the genuine ghost of a 19th century highwayman put to demise by a lynch mob . Forced to divagate the Earth until the soul of his killer ( who have since reincarnated as Hawkman and Hawkgirl ) move onto the next plane of macrocosm , the Gentleman Ghost make pass the time harassing various superheroes of the DC universe — including Batman .
© DC Comics
Since a live - activity Batman pic has n’t pit the character against a legitimate supernatural threat sinceBatman Returns(Michelle Pfeiffer ’s undead / primary take on Catwoman , opposite Danny DeVito ’s black slime - spewing Penguin ) , the visually dramatic , highly entertaining Ghost feels like a welcome alternative to the street - level criminals we ’ve seen in bothThe Batmanand Christopher Nolan’sDark Knighttrilogy . Nonetheless , Reeves insists upon his “ grounded ” approaching to the case , cite toThe Penguinseries as part of an “ epic crime saga . ”
As Reeves stated , “ [ The sequel is ] “ move to dig into the epic story about deeper corruption , and it goes into places that he could n’t anticipate in the first one . The seeds of where this goes are all in the first pic . It expands in a way that will show you aspect of the character reference you never acquire to see . ”
concord to Reeves , Batman ’s enemies “ ca n’t be exorcize , ” which would seem to leave out the Gentleman Ghost . “ Batman is constantly battling these forces , ” he says . “ But those forces ca n’t be entirely exorcise . So the next movie delves deeper into that . ”
While we wait for Batman ’s regaining , The Penguindebuts September 19 on HBO and Max .
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