The Penguin Makeup Designer on How He’d Create Realistic Versions of ‘Weird’ Villains in a Matt Reeves Batman Sequel

While it’s not yet known which villains will appear in The Batman 2 – save for the return of Colin Farrell’s Penguin, but more on that in a bit – the makeup designer who brought both Penguin and Barry Keoghan’s Joker to the big screen in The Batman shared his thoughts with IGN about how realistic versions of “weird” characters like Clayface or Two-Face could be brought to life within Matt Reeves’ Batman Epic Crime Saga.While there have been several incarnations of Clayface (who IGN ranked 73rd on its list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains), the character’s clay-like, grotesque physical appearance and ability to shapeshift have largely remained consistent since the first Clayface, Basil Karlo, appeared in 1940. While such a fantastical ability and countenance may not seem to lend itself to the more grounded approach taken by The Batman and HBO’s The Penguin, Mike Marino, the artist who transformed Colin Farrell into the wholly different-looking Oz Cobb, has some ideas of how to do it citing natural occurring elements.“Since I collect all this stuff, there are so many strange things that happen in nature,” Marino said. "There's so many people that have really weird things that happen to them, to their skin, to their appearance, and their faces swell and they're missing pieces of their face and all of these things that happen, which you would think, if you really saw, what a real dead body looked like, you wouldn't believe that it's real. You'd be like, that looks fake. That's wrong. But it's real.”Marino added, “There's so many outstanding colors that come out of nature and strange textures and bubbles and all this crazy stuff that there's so much room to base a weird character like Clayface or Two-Face, and keep it super real and reference that's out there. It could be completely based in reality. So there's so many things to draw from. So I think that there's really an opportunity to do something new and unique for other characters.”“I do believe as of now, Colin is in the next Batman [movie], so I think that we will be seeing Penguin in that. I can't guarantee you. Don't take my word for it. I would ask Matt Reeves, but I think there's room for other things,” Marino said. “That's a Matt question. I'm here for it. If he wants me to do that and to be involved, I'm game.”

Related Posts