EXCLUSIVE: After winning practically every single award out there for his turn in The Penguin, Colin Farrell is looking to get back in business with DC: and that’s to star in the title role of Luca Guadagnino‘s Sgt. Rock.
Note, this is a different part of the DC-verse, with The Penguin attached to Matt Reeves’ The Batman sphere, whereas Sgt. Rock is part of DC bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran’s oversee. The two worlds shall never overlap.
Scheduling for the film, which Farrell wants to do, we hear, has to be balanced with his busy fall that includes the second season of Apple TV+’s Sugar and Edward Berger’s movie The Ballad of a Small Player.
Farrell takes over for Daniel Craig, who was originally kicking the tires to reteam with Guadagnino after they made Queer.
Farrell will play Sgt. Franklin John Rock in the World War II-set movie. Created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert, the character first debuted in the 1959 DC issue Our Army at War as a WWII soldier who served in the infantry. The character gained steamed in 1977 when he received his own comic book series; it ran until July 1988. Rock’s talent includes shooting down German fighter planes with a single submachine gun and tossing grenades with great accuracy. When he’s without a gun, he’s a great street fighter, and can survive gunshots. He’s a calm guy with heart, but also has a “combat antenna” able to detect an incoming enemy siege. There was also a toy series in the 1980s for Sgt. Rock around the time G.I. Joe was soaring in comic books and on TV.
The project marks a reteaming of Guadagnino with his Challengers and Queer scribe Justin Kuritzkes. Among all the plates that Guadagnino has spinning, Sgt. Rock pretty much has the pole position over Lionsgate’s American Psycho. Guadagnino also has Amazon MGM Studios’ Julia Roberts and Andrew Garfield thriller After the Hunt later this year on October 10.
Next up for DC Studios is Gunn’s Superman on July 11.
Farrell is repped by CAA, Ilene Feldman Management and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox. The Banshees of Inisherin Best Actor Oscar nominee has taken home Lead Actor TV awards from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice and SAG for his metamorphic portrayal of Oswald Cobb on Max’s The Penguin.
