Mike Flanagan Writing 'Clayface' Movie At DC Studios
Basil Karlo is getting his big break! Or is it Matt Hagen? A director announcement is allegedly imminent
Comic book villain-starring fare is certainly in a place right now. As far as DC Studios is concerned, recent outings have been balanced. Joker: Folie à Deux was a massive disappointment at the box office, but The Penguin has been a ratings success for HBO and accruing awards nominations. So they probably weren’t too reserved to second-guess greenlighting a Clayface film written by Mike Flanagan, director of Doctor Sleep and creator of Netflix’s The Haunting, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This is according to a source with direct knowledge of the production.
Plot details were too scarce to share at this stage, plus the greenlight was only reported and not announced directly by the studio that would probably elaborate. Notably, filming is expected to begin early in 2025, which means whether it’s in the new DC Universe or not, it’s likely positioned after Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Flanagan originally tweeted in 2021 that he was “really keen to do a standalone Clayface movie as a horror/thriller/tragedy”, before pitching to DC Studios last year. The reason Flanagan isn’t attached to direct is because he already has a lot on his plate, writing and directing Universal’s change of plans for The Exorcist through Blumhouse and Morgan Creek, with a return to King adaptations, specifically a Carrie series for Amazon MGM Studios on top of that. However the hunt for a director has already happened, with an announcement declared imminent.
Clayface was created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, annd introduced in Detective Comics #40 from June 1940, making him one of the earliest Batman rogues. 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 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 on Batman: The Animated Series and voiced by Ron Perlman, Hagen is an actor who was previously disfigured in an accident and acquires a beauty cream from a corrupt businessman that restores his face and enables him to change it to that of another person, but quickly finds himself dependent due to its temporary nature. Further Hagen iterations appear in Young Justice and Teen Titans Go! However there are still a lot of Karlos. On Fox’s Gotham, Brian McManamon played a Karlo revived by Hugo Strange and Ethel Peabody using octopus DNA that ultimately enabled the transformations. Television has brought two original iterations of Clayface, 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 known as the Clayface who appears in Harley Quinn and its spinoff, Kite Man: Hell Yeah!, a classically trained yet terrible actor who gained his abilities from a "terrible pottery accident, but will also voice who should be the new DC Universe’s iteration of the character in Creature Commandos, which would lend to the Flanagan film being an Elseworld iteration, according to the mission of said new main universe regarding portrayals. The past year also introduced Karlo iterations in Suicide Squad Isekai voiced by Brandon Hearnsberger and Jun Fukuyama, and Batman: Caped Crusader, voiced by Dan Donohue where in his one appearance thus far his typecasting as villains leads him to use an experimental face-altering serum. After being rejected by an actress he accepts his disfigurement and murders the serum’s creator and his co-stars. While the character has not previously appeared in live-action films, Karlos have appeared in The Lego Batman Movie voiced by Kate Micucci and Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold by Kevin Michael Richardson.
Source: Variety