From Ireland comes a new super talent who's got Hollywood phone lines abuzz. Already famous in England and much of Europe, his days of walking U.S. streets unrecognized are severely numbered.

At a time when fourth leads on WB sitcoms (not to mention Brentwood real estate agents and Beverly Hills dentists) have publicists, Cillian Murphy, whose burgeoning movie career has taken him from the zombie-dodging summer sleeper 28 Days Later... to a major role as the villain in Memento director Christopher Nolan's forthcoming version of Batman, does not. That may change with time, but it's clear that Murphy, a stage-trained Irishman with a healthy disdain for hype is less than comfortable with the notion of paying someone to get him press.

And besides, why should he spend the money when he's getting so much ink for free? Indeed, from the hubba-hubba spotlight pieces in Jane and Elle, to the hip fashion spread in GQ, to the slice-of-life profile in the New York Times, Murphy, 27, has generated a steady stream of newspaper and magazine coverage thanks not to a flack with a fat Roledex but to the quality of his work—and, of course to the blue of his eyes, the angle of his cheekbones, and editors' unslakable thirst for on-the-rise talent.

Although Murphy (whose first name is pronounced Killian) is a good sport about all the attention, he doesn't take it too serious. "I've made like ten movies," he says, "and I've been labeled an up-and-comer for years. It's just something with which people tag you."

He relates this in the bar of a Sunset Strip hotel where he is staying during a quick trip to L.A. on the dime of yet another magazine that wants to do a photo shoot with him. Dressed in a faded T-shirt, jeans, and scuffed boots, he has just walked back from a meeting at the Chateau Marmont, stowed away his iPod, and ordered a Heineken. With the exception of the '80s tunes braying from the speakers, everything is bliss.

"I'm a music snot, man," he says with a laugh, fairly shuddering as Squeeze's "Pulling Mussels From The Shell" segues into Duran Duran's "Wild Boys." At the moment, Murphy, who grew up on the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, and Van Morrison, is big on Kings of Leon and the White Stripes. "There's also some great music from Ireland right now," he says. "I really like Damien Rice, the Thrills, and Simple Kid, who's from Cork, my hometown."

The son of a school supervisor father and French teacher mother, Murphy and his younger brother had a band of their own for a while, named Sons of Mr. Green Genes after a song by one of Murphy's heroes, Frank Zappa. After a year and a half of work toward a law degree, he dropped out and gravitated toward the nearby Corcadorca Theatre Company, where he was cast in the play Disco Pigs, which became an unexpected hit. More plays and small film roles followed, culminating with 28 Days Later..., a welcome comeback for Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, and a star-making vehicle for Murphy as a dazed Londoner fighting to survive in the aftermath of a population-decimating virus.

He went from London to Luxembourg to shoot the critically-praised period drama Girl With a Pearl Earring, which opened in December, about a shy housemaid (Scarlett Johansson) who inspires one of the most famous paintings by Flemish artist Johannes Vermeer (Colin Firth). Murphy, nearly unrecognizable with shoulder-length hair, co-stars as Pieter, a young butcher with whom Johansson's character becomes involved.

"For me, the film was an opportunity to do something completely different," he says. "Playing a 17th century butcher in Delft was a world away from 28 Days Later... And to try to do that convincingly, and to work with Scarlett and Colin, was too good to pass up.

Murphy will next be seen in the March release Intermission, a winning Dublin-set roundelay of petty crime and romantic betrayal with an ensemble cast that includes Colin Farrell, Kelly Macdonald, and Brendan Gleeson [sic]. "It's authentic to Ireland in that it deals with attractive rogues, a lot of whom are imperfect and have deep flaws," he says.

Of his countryman Farrell, to whom he has inevitably (and erroneously) been compared, he says, "What I like about Colin is that before he became successful, he was exactly the same person he is now. What other 27-year-old wouldn't want to be drinking and shagging women and whatever else he does? I don't understand the fuss. Fundamentally, he has to be judged on his performances. And there you won't have a fault."

Although Farrell has been working in Hollywood for years, Murphy only recently made his American debut, with a small role as a soldier in Cold Mountain, opposite Jude Law and Natalie Portman. Batman will be his first major role in a Hollywood film. He was on the short list to play the Caped Crusader, but the role ultimately went to Christian Bale. Director Nolan was so taken with Murphy that he cast him as one of the bad guys instead.

"It's kind of fashionable to knock Hollywood," says Murphy, who will tour Ireland as the lead in a stage production of the classic J.M. Synge play Playboy of the Western World before he begins Batman, "but there's nothing I like more than going to the cinema with a big vat of popcorn and watching a blockbuster movie."

And lest anyone question his motives, the decision to take on Batman was made according to the same criteria he always uses. "One of them is diversity, and the other is a level of quality in the actual word on the page. When you insist on those things, I think your choices become very clear. Obviously, financial reward can blur your vision, but you have to stay smart about it. I'd love to retire knowing that I never made a movie that would make me cringe, although that's probably impossible to achieve. The flip side is to make one movie that achieves high art and is an enduring piece of work. If there were just one, that would be enough. Not that I have a career plan or anything like that, but those are the things that I set my store by. They're my mission statement."