MOB RULE THE PENGUIN

GOTHAM'S UP FOR GRABS IN BRUISING NEW CRIME SAGA BUT WHERE IS THE BATMAN?

- NICK SETCHFIELD

• OZ COBB IS A MAN WITH AVISION.

His own show, how does that sound? Real sweet, right? One of them classy HBO numbers, the kind that scores Emmys. Eight episodes - long form drama, they call it - all about his rise to top dog in this rat-heap of a town. A Gotham gangster epic to make Tony Soprano look like a penny-ante schmuck.

Yeah, put the spotlight on Oz, where it belongs. A shot at respect at last. No chance of that mook with the bat-ears or that doubledealin' cat-dame stealin' his screen time. It's his show. Number one on the call sheet. Name in the title, baby. The Penguin! Sure, it's a little insultin', but it's got a ring to it, right? But listen. Every nickel-and-dime dreamer's got a vision on these streets. To make it in TV you need contacts. Get one of them fancy Tinseltown types in your corner. Creatives, is that the word? Maybe that Matt Reeves guy. He seems connected. Real legit. Why not lean on him? Call in a favour...

"I was doing my deep dive into the comics," remembers Reeves, director and co-writer of 2022's The Batman, a brooding, visceral big-screen take on the Dark Knight and his crime-stained city. "I thought, 'Oh, once this world is established it might be really interesting to go off the main path, in order to tell stories about the characters that are in the movies or related to the movies but aren't the Batman.

"These movies are very much telling the story of Batman's emotional arc, and the story is his point of view. Because they're mystery stories we're learning about other characters as they're involved in the detective story, so we're learning about them through him. A lot of times what happens is you establish the Batman in the first movie and then the next movie is the Riddler's movie or the Joker's movie and the rogues' gallery takes centre stage. I wanted to find a way to keep Batman as the central arc of the movies."