There's a lot of intrigue and excitement surrounding DC Studios' Clayface movie. The Fall of the House of Usher and Doctor Sleep's Mike Flanagan has penned the screenplay and it's no secret he's wanted to take a crack at the character for several years now.
James Gunn, meanwhile, has confirmed Clayface will be set in the DCU, meaning there's at least a chance we'll see The Brave and the Bold's Batman make a cameo appearance.
The project is one we've heard will boast a lower budget and likely lean a little more into horror than most comic book movies.
Today, scooper @MyTimeToShineH brings word that filmmaker James Watkins is in talks to direct Clayface for DC Studios. After helming the chilling British horror movie, Eden Lake, the filmmaker went on to direct The Woman in Black and last year's well-received - and downright brutal - Speak No Evil remake.
If Clayface is heading down the R-Rated horror route, then we can likely expect Watkins to deliver a spine-chilling take on the villain that will see this movie lean into the grotesqueness of this monster. It kind of feels like a better fit for The Batman Universe than the DCU, no?
Regardless, while the shape-shifting villain has already made his DCU debut in Creature Commandos, there are multiple versions of the character in the DC Comics canon so that may have only been a Clayface (either way, the series was developed before this movie became a reality, meaning Gunn may have to retcon the villain's demise).
The first iteration of this character debuted in the 1940s, mere months after The Joker. At the time, Basil Karlo was little more than a deranged B-List actor and killer who dressed up as the sinister "Clayface" character he'd played in the past. Furious he'd been recast in the monstrous role, Karlo went on a killing spree that saw him target the cast of the film made without him.
Karlo eventually gained shape-shifting abilities but many of you will know Matt Hagen, an adventurer who turned into a monster after encountering a radioactive pool of protoplasm, thanks to his role in Batman: The Animated Series. There, he was portrayed as an actor who used an anti-ageing cream to look younger. After getting on the wrong side of its creator, Roland Daggett, Hagen is doused in a vat of the stuff and transforms into a monster.
The third Clayface was Preston Payne, with Sondra Fuller, Cassius Payne, Peter Malley, Todd Russell, and Johnny Williams all following.
"I didn’t plan on making a Clayface movie," Gunn previously said of the project. "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,'" the filmmaker continued. "So we found a place for it because if there’s quality stuff, we can find a way to work it in."
Clayface arrives in theaters on September 11, 2026.