DC's Clayface is the first film in the studio's new slate of projects to be centred around a villain. While Joker (2019) took the route of a psychological thriller, Clayface will be a body horror film.

In an interview with PTI, director James Watkins said, "One of the things that most appealed to me was that notion of a tragic journey of this character. This understanding of him and his journey and how he goes from being Matt Hagen to Clayface."

He added, "It was a really fascinating and extreme journey, I guess everything that I did once I came on board was just to try and dig as hard as I can into every beat of that journey, trying to understand it from Matt's point of view, to see it subjectively, to see how he felt about his world. It's set in Hollywood but I didn't want it to be a Hollywood story. I wanted it to be a story about just a regular guy that everyone can relate to."

Tom Rhys Harries is playing Matt Hagen, who undergoes a vicious attack to his face, which results in him getting a surgery which leaves him with grave side effects that transforms his body into living clay.

Watkins is directing Clayface from a script by The Haunting of Hill House-fame Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini. The Batman (2022) director Matt Reeves is producing alongside DC Studios' co-CEO's James Gunn and Peter Safran.