DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn has revealed during his recent chat with the “DC Studios Showcase Official Podcast” that the upcoming “Clayface” movie from screenwriter Mike Flanagan (“Doctor Sleep”) and director James Watkins (“Speak No Evil”) is an “amazing body horror” tale that is going to be “Rated-R.” Along with the reasoning why he and Peter Safran decided to make a movie about a mostly obscure Batman villain.
Gunn said the reason they decided to make the pic was mainly because of the pitch and script from Flanagan, “‘Clayface’ wasn’t on our checklist but [Mike Flanaghan] came in with a pitch for ‘Clayface’ that was like ‘Whoa, that is so cool, and then he wrote the screenplay…the thing about Clayface is that Peter and I back when we were producing horror movies ‘The Belko Experiment’ and all these things, I mean if we had gotten this script as a horror movie, not being part of the DCU at all, its this amazing body horror film that we would jump at the chance to make. So, it really is just a great horror movie that is a straight, smart, fun horror movie in a genre that I happen to love, body horror…It’s Rated-R”
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Of course, Gunn has long been attracted to the gross-out aspect of body horror with his feature film directorial debut “Slither” (an obvious homage to “Night of the Creeps” and “The Blob“) and his script for the remake of “Dawn of the Dead” directed by Zack Snyder.
While both “Creature Commandos” and “Peacemaker” are mature television entities, this will be the first R-rated feature from the newly formed DC Studios, with Gunn getting his feet wet in the world of DC with the R-rated sequel “The Suicide Squad.” This likely means other DC projects in the future could also be geared toward an adult audience, although it remains to be seen how they’ll react to something like “Clayface.”
For those unaware of the modern incarnation of Clayface, Coralie Fargeat‘s “The Substance” is mostly a gender-swapped version of the animated series version of the Batman villain (said to be inspiring the new movie). As a cosmetic product ends up turning an actor named Matt Hagen, hoping to become a star, into a shapeshifting monstrous body horror creature with the ability to transform into other people (think Sam Raimi’s “Darkman” meets Carnage from “Venom: Let There Be Carnage“).
“Clayface” is gearing up to shoot soon, with British actor Tom Rhys Harries (“The Return”) tapped to star and Warner Bros. giving the project a release date of September 11, 2026. More casting announcements are expected very soon, with “Superman” heading to theaters on July 11 and “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow” set to hit theaters on June 26, 2026.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
