Fully 21 months ago, we noted rumors that Mike Flanagan—prolific horror guy, comic book fan, and general genre expert—had been pitching James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Studios on a movie based around long-time Batman villain Clayface. At that time, Flanagan shot down these reports, calling the whole thing "entirely speculative"—and why wouldn't he? Dude's enormously busy and highly sought after, with, just to name a few projects off the top of our heads, a new version of The Exorcist and a Carrie TV show on his docket. Who's got time for Clayface?
Anyway, Mike Flanagan's got time for Clayface, apparently, as Variety reports that the Haunting Of Hill House maestro has officially gotten the green light to write a movie about the very gooey Batman bad guy. For those unfamiliar with the character, Clayface is a member of the Caped Crusader's rogues gallery who's never gotten a ton of love in live-action, mostly because he'd have been a pain in the ass for past technology to animate. Fans of Batman: The Animated Series, though, know just how effective the character—a failed actor dosed with a serum that allows him to mimic anybody, but which also turned him into a big nasty mud man in constant danger of falling apart—can be. As we said at the time, it's really not hard to imagine Flanagan (who wrote on social media in 2021 that he'd love to tackle the character as "horror/thriller/tragedy") coming up with some really gnarly things to do with a shapeshifter with a tendency for extremely goopy body horror, so news that he's now actually writing the script is pretty exciting.
Interestingly, while Variety confirms the movie is being written, DC Studios reportedly hasn't closed a deal for a director—suggesting that Flanagan himself, who works mostly in TV, but whose past features include Stephen King adaptation Doctor Sleep, might not be the one to ultimately tackle the film. Filming on the movie is expected to start some time next year, so Flanagan's dance card might just be too full to add a DC Comics horror movie to his already full slate.
