A Clayface movie is in the works forDC Studios, according toVariety, citing a “source with direct knowledge of the production” who believes “filming is expected to begin early next year.”
One of the key names involved?Horrorfilmmaker Mike Flanagan. Flanagan’s work on the Netflix seriesThe Haunting of Hill HouseandThe Fall of the House of Usherhave endeared him with horror audiences, while his 2019 sequel toThe Shining,Doctor Sleep, has gained a cult following that includes author Stephen King. Of Flanagan, King had previouslysaid, “He managed to take my novel ofDoctor Sleep…and somehow weld it seamlessly to the Kubrick version ofThe Shining, the movie. So, yeah, I liked it a lot.”
Variety’s source has pegged Flanagan as the scriptwriter for the Clayface project. Back in 2021, Flanagan answered a question about working on a DC picture. He said, “Well I’ve wanted to do aSupermanmovie since I was a kid, but I would also be really keen to do a standalone Clayface movie as a horror/thriller/tragedy." So he seems like the person for the job.
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Clayface is a villain with many…faces
Clayface as a character is often considered one of the most bizarre in Batman’s rolodex of enemies. That’s mostly due to the popularity of the 90s animated series where Matt Hagan becomes, after a medical experiment gone wrong, a brown, monstrous mass with the ability to shapeshift. That’s not the easiest sell for mainstream audiences who are used to more grounded Batman villains.
But the original version of Clayface, which dates back to the 1940s, was Basil Karlo, a has-been actor who wears a scary mask, dresses like the Phantom of the Opera who left the theater to join the mafia, and kills people. That certainly fits the mainstream sensibility more than a cracked-toothed mud man.
James Gunn has a vision for DC Studios
This is James Gunn we’re talking about, though. In the MCU, he did the impossible by turning a talking raccoon and a walking tree (with three words in its vocabulary) into household names. HisSuicide Squadfilm had a giant alien starfish as its villain. And Gunn’s DC Studios just released an adult animated show calledCreature Commandosthat features characters like Frankenstein, the Bride of Frankenstein, an amphibian scientist, a flaming skeleton, and a human-sized weasel.
Gunn previous toldVariety:
One of the main things I want to establish is that you can do anything at DC Studios. We can make complete family fare. We can make something that’s for general audiences, likeSuperman. We can make something that’s violent and sexual, like [Creature Commandos]. … It’s about creating a world in which we can tell the story about, you know, one type of character in different genres.
So it will be interesting to see what direction Gunn, Flanagan, and DC Studios take the project. Given Flanagan’s involvement and previous comments, a horror-thriller with tragic developments seems likely.
