Midnight Mass Creator Pitched a Clayface Movie but DC “Didn’t Bite”

Mike Flanagan seems to have a knack for making thoughtful horror that connects with the audience on a visceral level — but he isn’t above wanting to do a superhero movie. Unfortuntaely for him, at this point, his pitch for a Clayface stand-alone movie is a non-starter.

“Well I’ve wanted to do a Superman movie since I was a kid,” Flanagan said earlier this year. “But I would also be really keen to do a standalone Clayface movie as a horror/thriller/tragedy.” Unfortunately, it looks like that was a non-starter — at least so far.

“They didn’t bite on that one,” Flanagan tweeted this week. “Though I’m ready to go anytime.”

It isn’t immediately clear whether Flanagan officially pitched the idea to Warner Bros., or if he is just talking about the fact that he publicly discussed his desire to take it on, and so they could have responded to that if they wanted. Fans and the press have taken it to mean that he formally pitched the project to Warners, which would indicate a lack of interest rather than a lack of awareness in the idea.

There have been a variety of different versions of Clayface, with most of them having turned into a giant mud-like monster with the malleable ability to transform their appearance into disguises or weapons. The original version of the character, Basil Karlo (who made his debut early in Batman’s career in 1940’s Detective Comics #40), was a disgruntled actor who became Clayface based on a character he had played in a movie, wearing this mask to kill.

“I said, ‘Let Joker be the first, then let’s get f***ing great filmmakers to come in,’” Phillips said last year, of the idea of more villain origin movies. “Instead of trying to live in the shadow of [Marvel Studios], let’s do something they can’t do. I said, ‘Let’s just strip that all away. It’ll be liberating.’”

By the end of its run, Joker had brought in over $1.074 billion at the global box office and nabbed countless awards including Best Original Score and Best Actor for star Joaquin Phoenix, his first win. Despite that success, no other film of that nature has been announced or even rumored to be in development.

Would you be up for a Mike Flanagan-helmed Clayface movie? Let us know in the comments.