Cameras are still rolling on DC Studios' Clayface movie in Liverpool, England, and some new photos and video clips have been shared online.
While there's nothing too exciting here, we do get another look at that mysterious villain(?) and some of his associates leaving Club Vesuvius, which is a well-known Gotham City establishment run by a former mobster named Johnny Sabatino. Could this be the identity of the bald, well-dressed fella in the video?
It's certainly one possibility, but there's also been some speculation that he might be Roland Daggett, who was introduced in Batman: The Animated Series as a very powerful and very corrupt businessman. Daggett Industries was responsible for the creation of Clayface in the cartoon, so there's a chance this character has been modified slightly as a more-hands on mobster, and the man responsible for disfiguring Matt Hagen's (Tom Rhys Harries) face.
Though we can't imagine this will have any bearing on the movie at all, it's also worth noting that Zatanna is a regular of Vesuvius in the comics.
Clayface will also star Max Minghella (The Social Network, The Handmaid's Tale) as John, a Gotham City detective who becomes suspicious of his fiancé Caitlin's relationship with Matt Hagen. Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Mickey 17) plays Caitlin Bates, a biotech CEO who treats Matt after he's left disfigured by a mobster.
The 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 James 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. Screenwriter Hossein Amini, best known for penning 2011’s Drive, was recently tapped to do some rewrites. The project has been given an official release date of September 11, 2026.
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.".