Again in 2021, filmmaker Mike Flanagan let it’s identified on social media that he was curious about making a “standalone horror/thriller/tragedy” film that will middle on the Clayface character. Some time after that, he confirmed that he had met with veteran DC film producer Jon Berg to pitch a “horror-leaning” tackle Clayface, in addition to concepts for the DC properties Scarecrow, Justice League Darkish, and Constantine. The assembly “kind of went nowhere.” However then, in March of 2023, Deadline broke the information that Flanagan had scheduled one other Clayface pitch assembly, this time with DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran. And on the finish of final yr, it was introduced that Flanagan is formally writing a Clayface film that will likely be a part of the DC Universe movie franchise that’s being overseen by Gunn and Safran. A couple of months in the past, Converse No Evil director James Watkins was employed to take the helm… after which, in a shocking flip of occasions, since Clayface was solely greenlit primarily based on the energy of Flanagan’s script, Drive author Hossein Amini was introduced in to do what has been known as a whole rewrite. A few weeks in the past, we heard that George MacKay (1917), Tom Blyth (The Starvation Video games; The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), Jack O’Connell (Sinners), and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus) had all learn for the title position within the movie. Now, Deadline has heard who has been forged as Clayface… and it’s not any of the actors listed above. As a substitute, it’s Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries who has signed on to star within the movie.
Harries’ earlier credit embody the Apple TV sequence Suspicion, the Netflix sequence White Traces, Uberto Pasolini’s The Return (starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche), the Gerard Butler film Kandahar, and Man Ritchie’s The Gentleman.
Throughout an interview with i09 some time again, Gunn admitted that he had no intention of creating a Clayface film as a part of the DCU till he noticed Flanagan’s script. He stated, “I didn’t plan on making a Clayface movie. 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.’ So we found a place for it because if there’s quality stuff, we can find a way to work it in.“ Batman: The Animated Series made its debut back in 1992, and the fourth and fifth episodes of the show were a two-parter called Feat of Clay, which showed “the transformation of a disfigured actor into the villain known as Clayface.” In an interview with ComicBook.com, Flanagan confirmed that his script was impressed by these episodes of Batman: The Animated Sequence.
Deadline reminds us, “Clayface is shape-shifting villain in the Batman comics and got his introduction as part of Detective Comics #40 in June 1940. The original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. Clayface has a body seemingly made out of clay and has appeared over the years in various films, series, animated works, video games and other forms of media.”
Watkins and Amini are working to get Clayface prepared to begin filming on October 1st, aiming for a September 11, 2026 theatrical launch date. Filming will happen at Warner Bros Leavesden studio within the U.Okay. James Gunn and Peter Safran are producing the movie alongside The Batman director Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris. Chantal Nong serves as an govt producer.
What do you consider Tom Rhys Harries signing on to star in Clayface? Tell us by leaving a remark under.
