DC Studios’s 'Clayface' Movie Nabs Director James Watkins
Watkins is fresh off of the psychological thriller 'Speak No Evil'
Pipe down, DC Studios is on a rock solid path with its third DC Universe film Clayface. Just two months after greenlight and being dated, the announcement for the film’s director has come, and it’s Speak No Evil director James Watkins, beating out Truth or Dare director Jeff Wadlow.
When horror maestro Mike Flanagan was first reported to be writing the film, it was said he was abstaining from directing because he was busy writing and directing Universal’s next steps for The Exorcist through Blumhouse and Morgan Creek, which is quite the workload. DC co-CEO James Gunn reportedly met with Watkins Thursday and the final presentation nabbed the gig. Sources say the film is budgeted at $40 million and will emphasize the body horror if not also the bloody revenge. The movie is due to shoot later this year (but still early) and is meant to show the breadth of what the new era can bring, with different budgets and story scales.
Watkins’s most recent effort, Speak No Evil, is a James McAvoy-starring psychological horror-thriller remake of a 2022 Danish film which was received pretty well on critic and audience fronts. He debuted Eden Lake, which starred Michael Fassbender and Kelly Reilly as a couple terrorized by Jack O’Connell. He then directed 2012’s The Woman in Black starring Daniel Radcliffe and 2016’s The Take with Idris Elba. All are considered pretty grounded horror, which this Clayface is aiming for.
Clayface was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, and introduced in Detective Comics #40 from June 1940, making him one of Batman’s earliest foes. This initial version, Basil Karlo, was a washed-up actor who begins committing crimes wearing the claylike mask of one of his former characters. The villain’s well-known shapeshifting abilities were first introduced in 1961. An incarnation who might be equally known is Matt Hagen, thanks to his DCAU iteration incorporating elements of Karlo. Debuting in Detective Comics #298 as a treasure hunter who gains shapeshifting abilities from a radioactive pool of protoplasm, his Batman: The Animated Series iteration voiced by Ron Perlman is an actor who was previously disfigured in an accident. He acquires a beauty cream from a corrupt businessman that restores his face and enables him to change it to that of another person. However he quickly finds himself dependent due to its temporary nature. Further Hagen iterations appear in Young Justice and Teen Titans Go! Further Karlo iterations include Fox’s Gotham, where Brian McManamon played a Karlo revived by Hugo Strange and Ethel Peabody using octopus DNA that ultimately enabled the transformations. Television has introduced original iterations as well, including Ethan Bennett from The Batman who was Ellen Yin’s original police partner mutated by Joker Putty (he gets better, even helping to handle Karlo), and Pennyworth’s enhanced being who poses as high-ranking CIA official Virginia Devereaux. Portrayed by Lorraine Burroughs, she travels with Patrick Wayne to England.
Alan Tudyk is currently voicing both major active animated iterations. He started with Harley Quinn and its spinoff, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, this iteration a classically trained yet terrible actor who gained his abilities from a "terrible pottery accident”, but also the DC Universe’s iteration in Creature Commandos, which as of the end of the first season has not been identified. It’s possible that further appearances in the second season will drive it toward Flanagan’s vision, and whoever ends up playing him. Until we get confirmation on what we’re getting it’s good to cover all bases.
Gunn, his co-CEO Peter Safran, The Batman director Matt Reeves and Lynn Harris are all producers. Clayface is currently set to be released in theaters on September 11, 2026.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline