'Clayface' Director Wanted to Create His Own Gotham City With a "Retro" Feel

In an interview with IndieWire, Clayface director James Watkins revealed what it was like to create his own version of Gotham for the film, and what the process was like.

“There weren’t mandates, there was no ‘You need to do this, you need to do that. I’ve got a very, very, very brilliant production designer, James Price, he did ‘Poor Things,’ he won an Oscar", the director explained. 

"And we worked trying to design what we felt was the right version of Gotham for our story. This kind of overbearing, overpowering, the cities dominating the people, the slightly retro feel of it. We looked a lot of photography from New York, from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, and tried to copy that in the light, and in the neons, and in the slightly dirty poetry of it. And so we just presented it and said ‘This is what we’re going to do,’ and people were excited by it.”.

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Everything you need to know about Clayface

• 'Clayface': Release Date, Cast, and Everything About DC's Next Film
• Does 'Clayface' Have Any Post-Credit Scenes?

A classic Batman villain, Clayface has had different versions in the comics. The most famous, immortalized by the "Feat of Clay" episode of Batman: The Animated Series, is the one that will star in the horror film directed by James Watkins.

Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) wrote the screenplay for Clayface, which follows an up-and-coming actor named Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) whose face is disfigured by a gangster.

As a last resort, he seeks help from a scientist (Naomi Ackie) with shady methods to try and restore his original face. With a chemical formula, Hagen heals the scars, but is transformed into a scientific freak. Rounding out the cast, in roles yet to be revealed, are actors Max Minghella (The Social Network) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad).

Clayface hits U.S. theaters on October 23.