Back in 2021, filmmaker Mike Flanagan let it be known on social media that he was interested in making a “standalone horror/thriller/tragedy” movie that would center on the Clayface character. A while after that, he confirmed that he had met with veteran DC movie producer Jon Berg to pitch a “horror-leaning” take on Clayface, as well as ideas for the DC properties Scarecrow, Justice League Dark, and Constantine. The meeting “kind of went nowhere.” But then, in March of 2023, Deadline broke the news that Flanagan had scheduled another Clayface pitch meeting, this time with DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. And at the end of last year, it was announced that Flanagan is officially writing a Clayface movie that will be part of the DC Universe film franchise that’s being overseen by Gunn and Safran. A few months ago, Speak No Evil director James Watkins was hired to take the helm… and then, in a surprising turn of events, since Clayface was only greenlit based on the strength of Flanagan’s script, Drive writer Hossein Amini was brought in to do what has been referred to as a complete rewrite. Gunn has assured that the script is still “all Mike’s story” and any changes are minor – and now, he has described the film as a “complete horror film.”
During an interview with i09 a while back, Gunn admitted that he had no intention of making a Clayface movie as part of the DCU until he saw Flanagan’s script. He said, “I didn’t plan on making a Clayface movie. Mike came in. He pitched this wonderful idea. I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t believe you got me to want to make a Clayface movie.’ But he’s got to write the script and who knows how that’s going to work. He goes and he writes the script. First draft is great. Second draft is even better. And then I’m like, ‘Let’s do it.’ So we found a place for it because if there’s quality stuff, we can find a way to work it in.“ Batman: The Animated Series made its debut back in 1992, and the fourth and fifth episodes of the show were a two-parter called Feat of Clay, which showed “the transformation of a disfigured actor into the villain known as Clayface.” In an interview with ComicBook.com, Flanagan confirmed that his script was inspired by those episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.
Deadline reminds us, “Clayface is shape-shifting villain in the Batman comics and got his introduction as part of Detective Comics #40 in June 1940. The original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. Clayface has a body seemingly made out of clay and has appeared over the years in various films, series, animated works, video games and other forms of media.”
Assuring CBS Mornings that not every DC Universe film will look or feel like his Superman movie, Gunn said (with thanks to Screen Rant for the transcription), “We’ve got Clayface, which is a totally different thing. Although it’s in the same universe, it’s a complete horror film. That’s one of the things we want to do – there’s not a company style. It’s not like every movie is going to be like Superman. The artists – the directors and the writers – each one will bring their own sense to it… That’s what we want to bring to the films because we don’t want people to get bored. We want to invigorate people.“
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