Clayface Opens Friday as James Gunn Denies Supergirl and Batman Rumors

DC Studios' Clayface hits theaters on Friday, October 23. It's shaping up to be the strangest DCU release yet. James Watkins directs the R-rated body-horror film from a screenplay by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. Tom Rhys Harries plays Matt Hagen, the man who becomes Clayface, with Naomi Ackie and Max Minghella co-starring (Wikipedia). Warner Bros. moved the release from September 11 to a week before Halloween. It's the third film in the new DCU.

The review embargo lifted on Wednesday, October 21, after a strange week. Early buzz from the October 13 Los Angeles premiere was positive. Collider's Steven Weintraub called it "an awesome addition to the DCU" and a hard R (Cosmic Book News). Then ComicBookMovie.com's Josh Wilding posted a 2.5 out of 5 review to Rotten Tomatoes on the night of October 19, calling it "DC's Morbius moment." It was gone by Tuesday (Cosmic Book News). Wilding says he saw it at a paid public screening in the UK, so he never agreed to an embargo. Rotten Tomatoes hadn't posted a Tomatometer score yet at the time of writing. One of the first post-embargo reviews, from Flickering Myth, gave it two stars.

Boxoffice Pro's long-range forecast had the opening at $23 million to $33 million domestic. More recent projections put it closer to $20 million, though Deadline reports presales picked up this week (ComingSoon via AOL). Budget reports land between about $30 million and $40 million, so even a $20 million start would be respectable for a villain-led horror movie.

What did James Gunn say about the DC rumors?

On October 16, Gunn used Threads to knock down a whole pile of rumors at once. He denied reports that Milly Alcock had been fired as Supergirl and that Man of Tomorrow had a bad test screening. He also shot down the idea that Matt Reeves was leaving The Batman Part II, telling fans they "just have to stop listening to BS" (Dark Horizons). That last rumor grew out of news that Steven Soderbergh is finishing the final weeks of filming while Reeves deals with a family matter (Cosmic Book News).

Gunn also said he was showing co-chief Peter Safran his first director's cut of Man of Tomorrow that same day, a month early (Comic Book Co). Man of Tomorrow is dated for July 9, 2027.

Clayface is a villain origin story with no Batman in sight. That makes it a real test of whether the DCU can sell its weirder corners. I'd argue that's exactly the kind of swing a new universe should take early, while expectations are still flexible.

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Header image and still are official Clayface images from DC Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures, via DC.com.