Though a lot of fans remain a little confused about the decision to give this particular character his own solo project, we are getting a Clayface movie from the director of Speak No Evil, James Watkins, with a script from Mike Flanagan.
James Gunn has confirmed that the film will be set in the DCU, but it seems the original plan was to introduce the villain in Matt Reeves' BatVerse.
You may recall the trades noting that Clayface would have a "significant role" in The Batman II prior to the solo movie announcement, and Batman on Film's Bill Ramey believes the character was indeed going to be the primary antagonist of Reeves' sequel before the idea for his own DCU film began to take shape.
If you're wondering how a character like Clayface would fit in Reeves' relatively grounded BatVerse, it's worth pointing out that the original version of Basil Karlo that debuted in the pages of Detective Comics back in the '40s was not a shape-shifter.
We still don't know which villain Robert Pattinson's Dark Knight will go up against in The Batman II, but Barry Keoghan's Joker is expected to feature in some capacity.
Watkins was recently confirmed to take the helm of the project, which is believed to be budgeted at $40 million. The movie has been described as "a Hollywood horror tale centering on a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant, only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay."
Gunn will produce alongside Peter Safran and Reeves, with Lynn Harris and Chantal Nong serving as executive producers.
Flanagan penned the script, but was reportedly unavailable to direct due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series and the new Exorcist movie. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.
Safran shared a few new details on the Flanagan script, noting that Clayface is indeed going to be a full-on horror movie in the same vein as David Cronenberg's The Fly, and more recently, we learned that the movie will also take more than a little inspiration from Coralie Fargeat's body horror hit, The Substance.
"Clayface, you see, is a Hollywood horror story, according to our sources, using the most popular incarnation of the villain – a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay.".
Clayface is looking to shoot in a variety of locales, including Vancouver, Toronto, and New Jersey or Atlanta.