UPDATE: Though the deal hasn't closed just yet, Deadline has confirmed that Minghella is in talks. THR notes that he will play "a Gotham City police detective who is dating the scientist [Naomi Ackie]."
Original story follows.
Following the recent news that Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Mickey 17) is in talks to join the cast of DC Studios' Clayface movie, we're hearing that Max Minghella (The Social Network, The Handmaid's Tale) is also being eyed for a key role.
According to Nexus Point News, Minghella would play a character named John, "a detective and fiancé to Caitlin Bates, who’s suspicious of his fiancée’s relationship with Matt Hagen/Clayface."
We're not sure if Minghella is actually in negotiations as of yet, but Ackie is now believed to have been officially offered the role of Bates, while Tom Rhys Harries will play Hagen.
Though this is just a rumor for now, the source has been scooping the trades with major casting news for months at this stage, so we're inclined to believe this is on the level.
Clayface's story will reportedly "center on an ascending actor whose face is disfigured by a gangster. As a last resort, the actor turns to a fringe Elizabeth Holmes-style scientist for help. At first, the experiment is a successful but … well, it wouldn’t be a horror movie if the story ended right there, would it?"
Speak No Evil director James Watkins will helm the project, while Gunn will produce alongside Peter Safran and The Batman director Matt Reeves, with Lynn Harris and Chantal Nong serving as executive producers.
Mike Flanagan penned the script, but was reportedly unavailable to direct due to his commitments to a Carrie TV series and the new Exorcist movie. Screenwriter Hossein Amini, best known for prnning 2011’s Drive, was recently tapped to do some rewrites. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.
Though Clayface will be set in the DCU, fans probably should expect many connections to the wider universe, and we'd be very surprised if Batman shows up or is even mentioned.
Safran shared a few new details on the Flanagan script, noting that Clayface is indeed going to be a full-on horror movie in the same vein as David Cronenberg's The Fly, and more recently, we learned that the movie will also take more than a little inspiration from Coralie Fargeat's body horror hit, The Substance.
"Clayface, you see, is a Hollywood horror story, according to our sources, using the most popular incarnation of the villain – a B-movie actor who injects himself with a substance to keep himself relevant only to find out that he can reshape his face and form, becoming a walking piece of clay.".