DOCTOR SLEEP director Mike Flanagan talks about unveiling his CLAYFACE and DC films at Warner Bros.

Clayface is an awesome Batman villain and one of my favorite stories I’ve seen told for the character was in Batman: The Animated Series. Clayface is such a fascinating character and I’d love to see a movie that focuses on the character, and that’s something the director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass) wanted to do.

Flanagan previously shared that he would be “really keen to do a standalone Clayface movie as a horror/thriller/tragedy.” He later shared that he actually pitched that film to Warner Bros., saying, “They didn’t bite into it. Though I’m ready to go at any moment.”

Now, in a recent interview with Script Apart, Flanagan opened up about his meeting with the studio about Clayface being a horror film, and that wasn’t the only DC film they’ve been talking about. He said:

“I went to Warner Bros. to have the DC meeting. It was a general meeting with [producer] Jon Berg talked about there being something in the DC universe that I could be good at… I really do[ed] do Clayface. I went in and said, ‘You know, if you want to do some horror-leaning DC stuff, boy, I’ve got a really good take on Clayface. I’d love to make that movie.’”

“And then if not, I wanted to talk about Scarecrow and Justice League Dark and Constantine. And I sort of threw it all there and then I said, “As a kid, I dressed up as Superman, because that was my hero — Christopher Reeve’s Superman was my hero.” And the meeting went nowhere. [Berg] I didn’t really hold on to any of those things.

It’s a shame Berg never gave Flanagan the opportunity to explore Clayface in a movie or any of these other DC projects. But, who knows… maybe one day James Gunn and Peter Safran will let him make his Clayface movie!

In the comics, Clayface’s real name is Basil Karlo, “an actor who after finding out a remake of one of his classic horror films was being made went berserk and started killing off cast and crew, wearing the villain’s mask from the movie Clayface, until stopped by Batman. Initially devoid of superpowers, Karlo joined a group of other ‘Clayfaces’ and stole their combined powers, allowing him to transform into any shape he wishes.

In Batman: The Animated Series, Clayface was called Matt Hagen, “an actor who worked for Imperial Pictures, once called ‘The Man with a Thousand Faces’, but was disfigured in a terrible car accident. While recovering at a burn clinic, he was approached by corrupt industrialist Roland Daggett, who made him a test subject for a compound called “Renuyu” which he promised would instantly restore his young good looks. In return, Hagen illegally impersonated people for Daggett. Hagen greatly resented this, but was forced to comply, as the chemical Renuyu was extremely addictive and Daggett was the sole producer.