UPDATE: Interestingly, the DC Studios bio on the new Skydance website refers to Matt Hagen as a "chilling Gotham antihero."
This may not mean a whole lot at the end of the day, since a villainous movie protagonist is sometimes referred to as an antihero, but is it possible that this take on Clayface is being positioned as more of a ruthless crime-fighter than a full-on villain in the DCU?
It was recently confirmed that the scummy, perverted version of Clayface we met in the Creature Commandos animated series was indeed the same Matt Hagen, but we know that continuity isn't necessarily a major concern in the DCU.
Original article follows.
A new theater standee for Clayface has been spotted in the wild, and the massive mound of muck with the (only just) human head may be the closest we've come to seeing the monstrous shape-shifter in his final form yet.
We also have a brief new teaser, and while the final shot of Clayface has featured in a previous spot, the brightness levels have been increased here.
Director James Watkins (Speak No Evil, Eden Lake) previously confirmed that this "towering form with gaping mouth and deep, cavernous eyes" will be kept out of all official marketing for the first DCU horror movie.
“You don’t want to show the shark,” said the filmmaker. “I think people give away too much…I believe in the power of mystery and the power of suggestion and the power of people putting two and two together. I think it’s more fun.”
Star Tom Rhys Harries was also asked about this first big-screen take on the Batman villain during an interview, but all he would is: "It’s [frick]ing sick!”
“I’d have family members or friends of mine who, after time, normalise the fact that they’re talking to me but half my face is disintegrating,” he recalls of encountering people when halfway through the makeup process. "And then they would introduce me to somebody on FaceTime. That was funny!”
Clayface is said to have gone over very well with test screening audiences, drawing comparisons to Joker, Vanilla Sky, The Substance, and, interestingly, The Incredible Hulk
James Gunn recently became very defensive when someone on Threads wrote, "Who the F*ck asked for a Clayface movie?"
"Who tf asked for Back to the Future? Casablanca? There's Something About Mary? Pan's Labyrinth? Fury Road? Weapons? The Matrix? Although it may seem like it, Hollywood isn't a place where the only way to make a movie is the public voting on what IP they want to see that they've seen countless times before. Sometimes someone – in this case initially Mike Flanagan and then James Watkins and Hossein Amini – were inspired by a relatively little known fictional character and crafted what I believe is a very special story around that character. I'd take that inspiration a thousand times over some writer trying to make a buck by writing a listless screenplay about a majorly popular character he or she has no passion or feel for."
Check out the standee and teaser below.
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.