Short of a major rug-pull from DC Studios, Clayface will not feature the DCU debut of our next big-screen Batman. We have been told not to expect so much as a reference to the Dark Knight, but it sounds like the movie was going to include some kind of nod to the legendary DC Comics hero at some point.
While speaking to ComicBook.com, star Tom Rhys Harries was asked if Matt Hagen and the other Clayface characters are "aware of Batman."
“We have footage... and I don’t know how much I can say," he responded. "But yes, we had discussions about that.”
Harries clearly cut himself off before he gave away too much, but it certainly sounds like he may have filmed a Batman-centric scene that didn't make the theatrical release.
During a recent interview with SFX Magazine (via Screen Rant), director James Watkins revealed that "the shadow of the Bat" will be present in this movie's corrupt, decaying take on Gotham City.
"We looked at a lot of 1980s and 1990s street photography. There was a documentary called Everybody Street, and I looked at a lot of the work of the photographers in it. It captures the bawdy glamor of New York, slightly edgy, slightly eccentric, slightly menacing, richly saturated colors."
"We want the world [of Gotham] to be corrupt," he added. "We want it to be a city where litter doesn't get picked up, where there's a sense of decay, where there's dirt, where the canyons of these places are overbearing. You're in a city called Gotham. So I guess you feel the shadow of the Bat inherently. Because of the nature of where you are."
Tickets pre-sales currently have Clayface flagging 80% behind Supergirl at the domestic box office at the same stage (just over a week from release), but the former had a reported production budget of $40 million, which means it could still turn a profit.
DC Studios’ first-ever foray into the genre, Clayface is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the Gotham City villain. Clayface unravels one man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster in a story that explores the loss of one’s identity and humanity, corrosive love, and the dark underbelly of scientific ambition.
The film also stars Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James. James Watkins directs from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, story by Flanagan, based on characters from DC.
Clayface is produced by Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran, with Michael E. Uslan, Rafi Crohn, Paul Ritchie, Chantal Nong Vo and Lars P. Winther executive producing.