Warner Bros. sent Batman News a press kit for Clayface that included a new interview with Clayface producer (and The Batman director/writer) Matt Reeves. In the interview, Reeves explained where the idea for a Clayface movie came from -- and it actually predates DC Studios co-CEOs James Gunn and Peter Safran.
After The Batman, Reeves had the idea of doing origin stories for Batman's Rogues' Gallery. He was particularly looking for ways to do "really cool, smaller horror films". Around that time, Mike Flanagan came to him with the idea for a Clayface horror movie. The two started developing Clayface, and then James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC (the co-CEOs started in November 2022).
Reeves and Flanagan pitched Clayface to Gunn and Safran, they loved it, and wanted to make it part of the new DCU they were working on. Check out the full interview with Matt Reeves below.
How did the concept for CLAYFACE begin?
MATT REEVES: After THE BATMAN, I was very excited about this idea. THE BATMAN was not a Batman origin story, but what it did—because it was his first appearance in the city—it was an entree into origin stories for the Rogues’ Gallery. After the movie, when we started working on the script for the next Batman, we began thinking it’d be really exciting to develop a bunch of stories that could be genre stories that related to the Rogues’ Gallery characters and explore their origins. And one of the things I got very excited about was the idea of looking for ways to do really cool, smaller horror films.
And [Screenwriter] Mike Flanagan came to me and said he had been a huge fan of Clayface—especially the iteration that came from the animated series—and had a passion about doing a horror story with Clayface at the core. So, we started developing it. And as that story started coming together, becoming this sort of tragic love story—THE FLY meets this horror thriller—James [Gunn] and Peter [Safran] took over DC Studios, and that was one of the first things we pitched to them. They loved it so much, they wanted to make it one of the DCU movies. And we got very excited about the idea of taking this story into the DCU.
This origin story is interesting to me. If Gunn and Safran hadn't came in to start the DCU, would Clayface have just been its own thing like Joker? It's hard to imagine a CGI monster in The Batman's realistic and grounded Gotham. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
I don't know how this movie is going to turn out, but it makes more sense to have something like this in the Reeseverse (as seen in The Penguin) than in the DCU
jrvc yeah but I just don't see how a CGI monster would fit into the Reevesverse. That Gotham is very realistic and grounded.
Chris yep, that's true, but I was referring more to the setting and tone of the movie, but yeah I can see how going full cgi could be a sore spot in that universe
jrvc gotcha, the setting of the movie looks like it'd fit in perfectly to the Reevesverse!
jrvc Perhaps but I think Reeves saw the writing on the wall when Gunn and Safran came in that this was the only way it was going to get made. So instead of being selfish about it he obliged and helped develop it in the DCU. I think its a poor reflection on Gunn and Safran that they didn't let the project develop in the ReevesVerse like originally intended. I think in general thats why we've seen multiple projects in the ReevesVerse get shut down (Arkham show, GCPD show, potentially Catwoman and/or Poison Ivy show), because Gunn and Safran would rather that money be spent on DCU properties. Maybe thats just me being cynical. I hope I'm wrong because I have very little interest in what Gunn is doing with the DCU, I find the ReevesVerse far more compelling.