Despite recently stating that he's done with major franchise/IP projects for a while, Resident Evil director Zach Cregger would still jump at the chance to make his DC-based Henchman movie should the opportunity arise.
Last year, THR, reported that the potential project (the script is believed to be finished) focuses on "a low-level henchman in the Gotham crime world who gains notoriety after managing to incapacitate Batman through a stroke of luck." The trade added that "The Dark Knight could appear briefly in the movie, while Harley Quinn and Joker are in the project as well.
Cregger has not yet pitched it to DC Studios, though the company is said to be aware of his interest."
Cregger later confirmed some of these details, while debunking others.
"It's a script called Henchman. It's about a normal guy," he told Men's Health. "It's about a pharmacist who lives in Gotham City, and he gets accidentally sucked into this incredible power play between Batman and The Joker. And he finds himself a very integral part of something. And, so, it's a weird movie. It's someone living on the periphery of all the stories in Gotham that we know of and it's about some random. I'm not the world's biggest Batman guy at all, but I just liked this story. I liked this character. I liked what happened to him, so it was just fun."
Cregger then clarified that some details are "getting blown out of proportion online," explaining that "it's not a Joker and Harley Quinn script" and he's "not talked to James Gunn about it."
It's not clear whether this is still the case or if Cregger has since spoken to Gunn or someone else at DC Studios about his script, but he recently told A Shot Magazine that he does still want to helm the movie.
"I like small, intimate stories that are relatively simple. Just like an ant pushing a grain of sand. Something that is just, you can wrap your head around the problem that this character has, and I'm not dealing with these giant tectonic plates of politics and lore and all those things."
He added: "We've seen so many Batman stories, but to see it from just a bystander who's on the edge of everything, I don't know, I'm so fascinated by that."
It's certainly an intriquing idea with a lot of potential - especially with Cregger behind the camera - but, if Clayface's box office prospects are any indication, it's probably fair to say that DC fans are starting to get a bit fed up with these smaller-scale, "Batman-adjacent" type stories - they want to see Batman.
That said, a lower-budget Gotham-set tale about a low-level Joker goon does sound like something that would pique Gunn's interest. Cregger has a lot of other projects on his to-do list, so maybe Henchman is something that could be revisited after The Brave and the Bold... whenever that may be.