Editor’s note: The following interview contains spoilers for Episode 2 of “Penguins.”
penguin Only two episodes left as of this week, but it’s already off to an explosive start – but shouldn’t we have expected more from Oz Cobb (colin farrell) Does he aim to rise to the top of the ruthless Falcone gang family? However, bringing down one of Gotham’s most powerful criminal empires isn’t something that happens overnight. In this week’s episode, “Inside Man,” Craig Zobel and wrote Erica L. JohnsonOz is forced to get creative when his original plan to work with the Falcons’ greatest enemy is derailed. Meanwhile, Sofia Falcone, who has just come out of Arkham (Cristin Milioti) are convinced they have a rat inside and take drastic steps to ensure they eliminate those plotting against them.
Prior to the premiere of Episode 2, Collider had a chance to speak with Zobel, who directed the first three episodes. penguinfor another wide-ranging discussion of some of “The Inside Man’s” biggest moments. In the course of the interview, which you can read below, Zobel explains why Sofia’s Arkham scenes may look familiar to fans of the film. matt reeves‘ batmanthis surprising on-screen choice can be credited solely to Farrell, but filming frames for the hijacking scene were tight. He also talks about why Sophia finally came to accept her inner monster, the moment when it was important for Oz to find more humor, and what the final scene means for Victor.rangey ferris) especially others. (Look forward to our chat with Zobel about Episode 3. If you missed our conversation about Episode 1, you can read it here.)
Craig Zobel explains why Sophia’s Arkham scenes look so familiar
Collider: This episode starts off with what at first looks like a flashback of Sophia from Arkham, but then we find out that this is clearly the result…is hypnosis a good way to describe it? ?
Craig Zobel: It’s actually EMVR. It’s kind of… I don’t know how new, but it’s a new therapy, trauma therapy, that’s much more sensory-based than experience-based.
There’s something surreal about a scene like that. At first, we see Sophia remembering the events that happened in Arkham, and think that Al came to visit her, but then we see that a finger on Sophia’s hand is missing, and a red light above the door lights up. You can see that it mimics the lights in a doctor’s office. How do you approach filming a scene like that compared to something more grounded in reality?
Zobel: Well, this is also the first time we see Arkham in the show, and one of the first times we see it. Okay, we’re going to learn more about Sophia — not just as Oz’s antagonist, but in her own right. She will be the character we follow her trajectory. The hope is that you will be purposefully behind it at first and not realize it is a dream until you see his hand. Karina [Ivanov]Our production designer was amazing. that [room] It’s modeled exactly like the location where Batman and the Riddler interview in the movie.. I tried to match that as best I could.
When Sophia comes out of the condition she was in, we see a wound on her throat that we hadn’t seen up until this point, but we don’t know what it means until she wakes up later in the episode. Recover from a nightmare. Not only does it turn out that she’s scratching her own throat, but we also find out that she’s sleeping in the closet of her room.
Zobel: Yes. It’s a bedroom that has probably never been touched since she entered Arkham eight years ago. The only thought there was that she had gotten used to sleeping a certain way and that the bedroom felt so foreign to her that she couldn’t be there.
Whose idea was it for Oz to drink Pepto-Bismol straight from the bottle?
Zobel: Colin. Actually, it was Colin. That morning he texted usSo I thought, “Yeah, that’s great. Get some Pepto-Bismol.” Because that was a very smart thing to do…sure, this is that guy.
The big hijacking scene in episode 2 of ‘Penguin’ was filmed in just two nights.
Considering that Oz is about to enter all the Maroni people in the prison, he holds a meeting and pitches them a plan to hijack the delivery truck transporting the drops. It’s also a pretty big action scene in this episode, and I wanted to hear about how you prepare to do something like that, especially not just filming what’s happening on the street in a car. Especially since you’re shooting a gun. Inside the truck.
ZOBEL: It was definitely a more ambitious element. We were aware that we didn’t have anything like that in the first episode. There is a little bit of tracking, [Oz] The man hides in the trunk, then a fight breaks out and the man is forced onto the school bus. But we I wanted it to feel a little bigger and reflect the character he plays in the movie a little more.. So, it took a while. We found a place under this bridge and it was a very cool place. I thought it would look nice at night because I could see the architecture.
It was one of the empty spaces in the city. It wasn’t suspicious or scary. It’s a place you wouldn’t notice just by driving by, but we gave it a bit of texture and made it a unique space. There were a lot of people who bought matchbox cars and, as they drove them, said, “This is what happens, this car runs like this, this car runs like this.” I really only had time for two nights, soit wasn’t very long since it was night. We didn’t spend the night as long as you sometimes think. In a sense, it was a pretty hectic shoot. The amount of stunt work and, like you said, the amount of lines and dialogue, and the drama in the sense that you really nail down how you’re going to do it beforehand.
When it comes to Oz in the truck, how much does Colin have to give of himself?
Zobel: We felt it would be too dangerous to drive the truck straight during that process. We had the world’s most ancient solutionWe had the grips department and special effects department put a big long two-by-four under the truck and just rock it. In some cases, the oldest methods may work.
What happens during a hijacking is obviously not what should happen, but in typical Oz fashion he escapes as cleanly as possible without anyone knowing the role he played in his failed attempt to orchestrate this. . Except for the Maronites. Later, after a family meeting, he and Sofia were walking down the hallway and there was a moment where he thought, “What are we in this race?”
Zobel: That’s my favorite line from that episode. [Laughs]
How many times have you tried to capture the moment when they walk down the hallway, have a conversation, and then finally stop and she heads upstairs in one take?
ZOBEL: I can’t say how many takes we did, but there weren’t that many. Arrived quite quickly. Sometimes I just love it…Oz is funny to me. It’s definitely one of those times.
The church in this episode is a very impressive location for filming. Where was the location in terms of where you filmed the scene with Oz and Sophia after the funeral?
Zobel: It’s a church in Harlem, and it’s quite old. It’s funny, what’s interesting about that scene is that, as written, it kind of happened on the street. As I was walking through the church, I found this atrium. I was able to redesign the scene Working out of sight of her and all that sort of thing worked out and it was a great opportunity given by a really cool location.
I would also say that I was looking for a place for humor with Oz when he came running across the street. It happened to me about two weeks before the shoot and I was trying to be polite and let the car go and they were trying to be polite and let me go and I was just like, did. “This is a very Oz-like situation.” Most people might not notice that in the show, but it was still important to me to do something like that, because he’s the type of guy who gets frustrated with cars and is like, “I tried.” Because I felt like he was a man. I gave you a chance to go and, umm, you don’t listen to me. “We were always looking for little little things that we could do.
‘The Penguin”s Craig Zobel explains why Sophia embraces her inner monster
The moment that starts off as lighter and transforms is when Sofia’s cousin finds her at the wake and they have a kind of pleasant conversation. Then his daughter Gia arrives and sees the horror in action. What was really interesting to watch, and I feel like what Kristin does especially in this episode, is Sophia leaning into it. I’m curious about how you wanted to capture that scene. Because you see that expression in her eyes, and it flips in her head, and you see that moment when she thinks, . ”
Zobel: Yeah, and she continues to do that for at least the first two episodes. She is a character who is told a lot of stories in the first episode. She knows she has a reputation that she feels she doesn’t deserve. And what we’re seeing is her realizing that she can never shake it or doesn’t believe she can shake it. A person’s heart is determined. They made a decision about her, and I think in the first three episodes she’s really trying to come to terms with it. If no one believes she’s not a monster, Maybe she should at least get the privilege of being a monster..
Finally, when Oz makes Victor dig a grave, it’s not the first time, and it definitely won’t be the last. Oz feels like he’s saying something he’s probably told himself a thousand times, as much as he tries. To teach Victor a lesson.
Zobel: That scene is interesting in that Oz is in a sense having a real soliloquy. We also see that he’s a pretty self-centered person by nature, but not necessarily…when he’s stressed, he cares about himself and how traumatic that is for Victor. I’m not thinking about what’s going on. He just wants to kick the dog because he’s angry. In short, he has bad manners. But I hope this episode is also interesting for Victor in that he’s stuck around. He’s here, he’s participating in this crowd life now, and he’s starting to understand what it’s going to be like. I think that scene is where the doubts begin. He is always in danger, but is it good for him to be in this world? It’s a question he hopes to continue to ask, We’ll find out more about what that means for him in the next episode.
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