DC's Clayface Movie Officially Coming Courtesy Of A Director With Proper Horror Movie Bonafides

A special kind of comic book movie is beginning to take shape, with reports from The Hollywood Reporter (and originally My Time To Shine) that DC's Clayface project has found a director. James Watkins, who had audiences shifting in their seats with his 2024 "Speak No Evil" remake has been appointed to helm the film. Already a pretty good handler of horror, he'll be working off a script penned by Mike Flanagan, the creator behind "The Haunting of Hill House," "Midnight Mass" and "Doctor Sleep." It's the latest big leap in the film's development after Warner Bros. finally gave the DC spin-off the green light, an idea Flanagan had been kicking around since 2021. 

In the comics, Clayface has been a name taken by many law-breakers who have all been on the hit list of Batman. Originally debuting in 1940, Clayface was first Basil Karlo, a down-on-his-luck actor who becomes a vengeful serial killer. Over the years, various other Clayfaces arrived in various forms. The Clayface that most Bat-fans will be more familiar with, thanks to "Batman: The Animated Series," is a self-sentient pile of mud that could transform himself to look like anyone, as well as go all T-1000 and create weapons. Currently, there's still no confirmation of the Dark Knight dropping in this new movie, but Watkins' involvement gives us an idea of the kind of film we're getting, and it might not even need the Caped Crusader to make an appearance.

With "The Penguin" ruffling feathers as one of the surprise hits of 2024, and "Creature Commandos" delivering an anarchic but excellent introduction to admittedly another kind of Suicide Squad, there's a lot of promise in the bad guys of the DCU. Clayface, however, could be a villain to mix things up even more by heading the first DC horror movie, and it could either be a standalone story like "The Joker" movies, or maybe even part of the Matt Reeves Batman saga. 

Whatever the final film looks like, it's an idea bubbling with potential, particularly considering the talent involved. Flanagan is a well-established master at scaring us while also bringing emotion into the mix. Watkins, however, has two immensely unsettling entries that show the darkest sides of human nature. Besides "Speak No Evil" there's also his directorial debut, "Eden Lake" from 2008. Starring Michael Fassbender, "Yellowstone's" Kelly Reilly, and Jack O'Connell (who is soon set to bare his fangs in Ryan Coogler's "Sinners"), it's a movie that /Film even filed as a horror that went too far. Smush these two creative forces together, and "Clayface" could be another spin-off story we didn't know we needed.

Filming begins later this year, and "Clayface" is scheduled to hit theaters on September 11, 2026.