The Scottish firm with Outlander link producing special effects for Batman spin-off The Penguin

The special effects have been created for new blockbuster Batman spin-off series The Penguin

One of Scotland’s leading film and TV special effects companies landed work on a new blockbuster Batman spin-off series under a new drive to bolster the nation’s links with Hollywood.

Glasgow production company FixFX helped create the new effects for the eight-part series, which sees Colin Farrell reprise his role as the famous comic book villain.

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Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin.
Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. | HBO

He played The Penguin in the 2022 movie The Batman, which featured Glasgow on screen after locations such as the Victorian-era Necropolis cemetery and Glasgow Cathedral stood in for the fictional Gotham City.

Funding from the Scottish Government’s screen agency helped the Govan-based outfit secure the work under an initiative aimed at encouraging large-scale films and TV shows to work with Scottish companies.

The Penguin is the first major production confirmed to have benefited from a new Screen Scotland fund, which is being targeted at bringing “post-production” work that would otherwise have go to other countries.

FixFX, which specialises in 2D effects for film and TV, has previously worked on TV series like Sex Education, Stranger Things, Gangs of London and The Buccaneers, as well as the hit Scottish shows Outlander, Still Game and Shetland.

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The company, which was awarded £57,574 from Screen Scotland to help secure its work on The Penguin, has previously worked on projects for Disney, Sony, Netflix, Sky and Apple.

Colin Farrell stars in The Batman spin-off series The Penguin. Colin Farrell stars in The Batman spin-off series The Penguin.
Colin Farrell stars in The Batman spin-off series The Penguin. | HBO

FixFX chief executive Colin Kennedy said: “It is a real privilege to have had our FixFX team working on such a high-profile show as The Penguin. It’s the perfect showcase for the kind of specialist beauty work that FixFX is gaining a reputation for.  

“We worked alongside HBO’s Oscar-winning make-up team to help them refine their amazing work. With their guidance we help bring the character of Oswald – The Penguin - to life.

“This opportunity was secured with Screen Scotland’s support via PGF Project Post fund.”

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Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max
Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max | Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max

Screen Scotland is piloting the PGF Project Post fund as a spin-off of its Production Growth Fund, which secured the filming of the new BBC drama series Nightsleeper and Amazon’s supernatural thriller The Rig.

It is hoped the new fund will help efforts to boost the value of Scotland’s screen sector, which is said to be worth more than £617 million to the economy, with more than 10,000 jobs now being supported.

Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max
Colin Farrell stars in the new HBO series The Penguin. Picture: Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max | Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO Max

Screen Scotland director David Smith said: “Scotland’s studios and locations have been busy across the last few years with the physical production of hit films and shows.

"Big productions like Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein or Douglas Mackinnon’s Good Omens now regularly come to Scotland to work with our renowned crew, and access Scotland’s studios and locations.  

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"The post-production work on big film or TV projects can happen anywhere in the world, it’s not tied to any specific location and very specialised. With PGF Project Post we’ve worked with Colin and the team at Fix, as well as other Scottish facilities, for the first time to win post-production work on films and series that didn’t physically shoot here in Scotland.  

“It is really encouraging that just in this pilot phase of the fund, we’ve managed to attract projects of the scale and ambition of The Penguin to work in Scotland, enabling us to showcase Scottish post-production/VFX talent globally on a critically acclaimed series.” 

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