Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck’s Mike Flanagan has dropped some details on his Clayface script that is currently prepping for filming under the DCU banner at Warner Bros.
The movie will be the third big cinematic movie in the new DC universe after Superman hits this July and then Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow arrives next year, and it will tell the story of Batman villain Clayface, an aging actor who becomes a shape-shifting monster, and it seems that fans of Batman: The Animated Series will already know what to expect from the story.
In Batman: The Animated Series, season one featured a two-part episode called Feat of Clay which saw Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman, play Matt Hagan/Clayface and it seems that Flanagan saw this as the definitive origins of the character.
“That is the perfect [story]! Feat of Clay,’ Ron Perlman, to me, that’s it. That two-parter knocked me out. The short answer is that is absolutely that is what inspired my script. That is the world I wanted to live in. Batman: The Animated Series when I was growing up was my Batman. As much as [Michael] Keaton was my Batman, The Animated Series really was my Batman.”
The Feat of Clay origin story is similar to one of Clayface’s origins in the comics and recently inspired Clayface in the novel Batman: Resurrection, which saw clayface introduced into the world of Keaton’s Batman.
Mike Flanagan’s Clayface movie gets green light for James Gunn’s DCU
However, while Flanagan’s story is what the studio backed for the movie, he’s keen to point out that he’s go no idea what the movie will be as he has no further involvement in it: “I don’t know what they’re doing,” he says.
“I’m not directing it, and that filmmaker will need to make it their own,” he said. “I know that they’re doing work on the script. I’m off doing other things now, I really hope it remains true to the spirit of what I wanted it to be. But it’s not my movie, so I’ll be in the audience with you, anxious to see how it comes out.”
Let’s not forget that the DCU’s first official entry, Creature Commandos, has already featured Clayface, right, portrayed by Resident Alien and Firefly’s Alan Tudyk, so I wouldn’t rule out this movie being the introduction to this version of the character – this being the large, misshapen one who can turn into anyone he pleases – and let’s also not forget that Gunn’s plan for the DCU was to have the same actors portraying characters in animation, games, movies etc, so we could feasibly see Tudyk in the role… and I would be ok with that.
Last I heard, the script was being rewritten by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Hossein Amini with The Woman in Black’s James Watkins directing.
The movie is currently pencilled in for release next September.
WATCH: Full trailer arrives for Flanagan and King’s The Life of Chuck
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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