While DC Studios is still moving forward with Clayface, the R-rated horror film centered on the shape-shifting Batman villain, the project is now going through some unexpected changes.
According to TheWrap, Mike Flanagan’s original script is being reworked, this time with the help of Oscar-nominated screenwriter Hossein Amini. Known for writing Drive and co-creating McMafia, Amini is now reshaping the film’s screenplay, adding a new creative voice to the story.
This is an interesting shift for a project that already had DC and horror fans excited. It was previously reportedly that the film was undergoing a full “Page 1 rewrite”, which means they are starting over from scratch.
Flanagan, the mastermind behind The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and Doctor Sleep, originally pitched and wrote Clayface as a dark psychological thriller laced with grotesque body horror.
DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran were all-in on Flanagan’s vision. Back in February, Gunn described the script as “pure f—ing horror, and so real and true, and psychological, and body horror, and gross.”
Safran backed him up, calling Clayface an “incredible body horror film that reveals the compelling origin of a classic Batman villain.” He even compared its emotional and psychological depth to past gritty takes on Joker and The Penguin, saying the story is “equally resonant” and “in many ways more terrifying.”
Gunn also reminisced about his and Safran’s early horror-producing days, saying: “One of the things Peter and I talked about when we first got the [Clayface] script was, ‘If we were producing [DC] movies when we were doing Belko Experiment, and somebody had brought us this horror script called Clayface, about this guy, we would have died to have produced this movie. Because [Clayface] was just a really excellent body horror script. And the fact that it’s in the DCU is just a plus.’”
So why rewrite a script that they were already so excited about? It’s not entirely clear, but I assume Flanagan is too busy working on his Carrie series to return to work on the script again.
James Watkins (Speak No Evil) is attached to direct, and both Matt Reeves (The Batman) and Lynn Harris (Blade) are producing.
Amini has previously worked on projects such as The Alienist, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Our Kind of Traitor, so he has a mixed bag of work, and his involvement doesn’t quite spark excitement.
Regardless, Clayface will be oozing into theaters on September 11, 2026.
