A final trailer for Clayface is believed to be on the way (there's been a lot of activity on the movie's social media accounts), but for now, we have a new teaser for the first DCU horror film, which has been given an official R rating by the MPAA.
Clayface will include: “Strong bloody violence, gore, language, some nudity and brief drug use.”
Nothing particularly surprising there after everything we've seen in the previous trailers, and we assume fans can look forward to more male nudity in the DCU after Lanterns and Peacemaker Season 2!
During a recent interview, director James Watkins spoke about following the R-rated Joker and the inevitable comparisons to The Substance.
"Those are both great films, but this is a very different story and a very different universe. It creates its own atmosphere, it creates its own vibe, and the story of Matt Hagen is its own story and I think it’s a compelling one and it takes people on a real roller coaster journey. It’s going to give people a lot of ick and a lot of gore. But there’s also an emotional core that gives it a dimension. When you sit and watch this, and you feel the anima of an audience responding to the film, there’s some comfort in that, I suppose."
Watkins also revealed what influences he drew from for this take on Matt Hagen.
"Everything, the Basil Karlo, Matt Hagen and all the variations. There’s a lot of inspirations from a lot of the various comics. For fans who want to do a deep dive, there are a lot of references. For me, I wanted to dig into the emotion of the character in a deeper way. What I really responded to in all the previous iterations was the sadness, the melancholy, the heartbreak, and give it a tragic dimension, trying to find that journey about Hagen being rejected and trying to find his way. The duality of Clayface is really interesting, he’s antihero but not wholly a villain.
It was recently confirmed that the version of Clayface we met in the Creature Commandos animated series was indeed the same Matt Hagen, so it should be interesting to see if any parallels emerge in this movie.
DC Studios’ first-ever foray into the genre, Clayface is a horror thriller from director James Watkins, starring Tom Rhys Harries in the title role of the Gotham City villain. Clayface unravels one man’s horrifying descent from rising Hollywood star to revenge-filled monster in a story that explores the loss of one’s identity and humanity, corrosive love, and the dark underbelly of scientific ambition.
The film also stars Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan, as well as Nancy Carroll and Joshua James. James Watkins directs from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, story by Flanagan, based on characters from DC.
Clayface is produced by Matt Reeves, Lynn Harris, James Gunn and Peter Safran, with Michael E. Uslan, Rafi Crohn, Paul Ritchie, Chantal Nong Vo and Lars P. Winther executive producing.