Behind the Scenes of Max's Batman Series The Penguin

  • 2 weeks ago
It's time to go behind the scenes of "The Penguin," a limited crime drama series coming this month to Max. Created by the talented Lauren LeFranc, this series promises to captivate audiences with its gripping storyline and complex characters. At the center of it all is Colin Farrell, who delivers a mesmerizing performance in the lead role. "The Penguin" delves deep into the origins and rise of one of Gotham City's most infamous crime lords, exploring his ruthless ambition, strategic mind, and the dark, gritty world he navigates.

The Penguin Cast:

Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Clancy Brown, Michael Zegen, Rhenzy Feliz, Michael Kelly, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Deirdre O'Connell, James Madio, Scott Cohen, Theo Rossi, Carmen Ejogo, François Chau and David H. Holmes

Stream The Penguin September 19, 2024 on Max!

Category

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TV
Transcript
00:00I
00:02Really wanted the story to begin the week after the movie where the penguin who is completely underestimated
00:09grabs for power in this power vacuum I
00:14Loved
00:15Playing the character in the film and designing the shape of Oz's body and his costume and the whole thing was such a team effort
00:22So only have six to seven scenes in the film. I thought is there any world we can do more
00:26The way the penguin functions in the Batman is that he's a little bit of a red herring
00:31What I really wanted to do was build that story out
00:33So that's really the birth of the show Oz was not in the movie that much
00:37So there was ripe opportunity to really explore him in a deeper way
00:41And really get to try and understand his psychology
00:45And so it's an extension of the Batman film
00:49It's exploring a very different world
00:50Whereas the Batman lived in the upper echelons of the social structure of Gotham
00:55This is down in the gutter
00:59The world ain't set up for the honest man to succeed
01:03There should be a beautiful story with a happy ending
01:06But that ain't the way the world works
01:10We get to see a different side of Gotham those that are really affected by the corruption of the city
01:16To me what was very important is this idea of the high and the low the idea of the parts of the city that are insulated
01:25And then the people who are struggling just day to day to get by
01:31The penguin is really looking at the profound corruption of Gotham. It's a kind of a dark American dream story, really
01:42There are many gangs within Gotham and they're all vying for real estate and they're all vying for the drug trade
01:50I
01:53Thought about who should be a potential antagonist against Oz what Matt established in the movie is that Carmine Falcone
02:00Who dies in the film has a family?
02:05There's Alberto Falcone and there's Sophia Falcone
02:08My father's been dead a week. You want to take what's mine?
02:12Carmine knew that Sophia was the smartest
02:14He wanted her to really carry on the family Dylan and I were very excited about how we could embody this rise to power
02:21Of Oz in this battle of wills and who is gonna come out on top
02:27You know what people underestimate you but not me
02:37Oz always struggled in his life
02:40So he's savvy in some ways in relation to the cruel
02:43Mathematics of how the world works
02:46What is it you're really after us? Oh, what's mine?
02:52When I first started to dissect Oz and figure out what was driving him
02:57My realization was I think he wants to be loved and revered
03:03To me that the deeper root issue would come from his mother. I wanted to write an interesting
03:10Complicated tough-as-nails broad and so I created Francis for that
03:15What you did wasn't impulsive was instinctual this city isn't it to be you a sweetheart
03:24What are you gonna do to get it
03:27Morally corrupt individual that is Oz seeking ambition in the city. That was always sort of the blueprint for the character
03:36And
03:37Inside of that was an exploration that is deep emotional
03:42Disturbing and also exciting in an entertainment way much like all great gangster movies or television shows
03:52Over the course of the show these characters become larger than life in multiple different iterations. They all face with the same
04:01Decisions that we all have to make they just choose different actions that we could never choose
04:07Oz knows the world is a cruel place and you either get to live beneath the cruelty as a victim of it
04:13Or impose the cruelty on those who deserve it more than you
04:16these characters have been through tremendous trauma and the idea about how all of that resonates against a place and that
04:23Gotham is this place where?
04:25people can live these forsaken lives
04:28And it creates these lives of tremendous
04:32Desperation and it creates an emotional violence that ends up spilling out into the world of that city in physical violence
04:38I think all of that
04:41To me is an exciting way of taking something. That is this familiar pop
04:46Iconic mythic place fictional place and trying to find a way to make it relate to the real world
04:57You

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