Mike Flanagan waves off rumors he’s making a Clayface movie, even though that would be cool
Clayface #Clayface
Mike Flanagan projects tend to build up a lot of hype online, for understandable reasons: Flanagan has made a name for himself over the last few years as one of the more original voices working in horror (and especially TV horror), while also having a willingness to tackle big, interesting properties in big, interesting ways. (Looking at you, with fingers crossed, adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower books.)
Still, there’s a time for hype, and there’s a time for tamping down the machine a bit, and Flanagan was forced to do the latter today: Shutting down apparently premature rumors that he’s embarking into the world of Batman-adjacent stories with a film centered on classic goo-faced bat-villain Clayface. That’s all “entirely speculative,” Flanagan wants the Flanafans to know, although he also, uh, didn’t say he’s not interested. Yeah?
All of this comes after a number of outlets, notably Deadline, reported that Flanagan had apparently been in the DC Films offices recently, pitching James Gunn and Peter Safran on a Clayface movie. If you’re not familiar with the character, he’s a combination of a bunch of comic book and horror tropes: A failed actor transformed into a man made of mud, capable of changing his shape to imitate basically anyone. Which sounds like it’d be a pretty excellent, potentially horrific visual spectacle, were Mike Flanagan making a Clayface movie–which, to be clear, he’s not! Yet!
Interestingly, the Deadline report also says Flanagan’s version of the character (if it existed) wouldn’t be a villain; Clayface has always operated deep in the tragic side of the Batman rogues gallery spectrum, so it’d be easy to imagine him becoming a sort of outright anti-hero. But we’re just speculating! It’s all just speculation. Nobody’s making a Clayface movie! Even though it’d be kind of cool if they were.
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