Popverse's top stories of the day

• Lore Corner: Let's talk about that WILD reveal in the Marvel's Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man finale
• WATCH:  Watch Nickelodeon’s official SpongeBob SquarePants 25th anniversary celebration from NYCC 2024!
• MEMBERS ONLY:  For Your Consideration: Emilia Pérez is a controversial awards frontrunner, but its musical heart has proven herself for decades and shown up in Pixar movies, Mariah Carey diss tracks, and moving ballads

The mud will flow — straight to the big screen, it seems, with the news that DC Studios’ Clayface movie might have acquired its director, in the shape of the man behind last year’s English language remake of the horror movie Speak No Evil.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that James Watkins will direct the live-action Clayface feature written by Mike Flanagan, currently set to be the third DC Studios feature to go into production following Superman and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. The feature, a surprise addition to the DC Studios line-up last year, has a screenplay from Flanagan, who has reportedly been interested in the long-lived DC villain for some time. (The character first appeared way back in 1940’s Detective Comics #40.)

Watkins is one of a number of directors who have been rumored to be circling the project since news of it first broke last year; Flanagan’s current commitments, which include a reboot of the Exorcist franchise for Universal, meant that he was never intended to be attached to the project in any capability beyond writing. Before 2024’s Speak No Evil, Watkins had worked on 2016’s Bastille Day, 2012’s The Woman in Black, and 2008’s Eden Lake. He’s also directed an episode of Netflix’s Black Mirror, and all eight episodes of 2022 television adaptation of spy thrilled the Ipcress File.

Clayface is a fascinating curio in the DC slate; it's known that the movie will be live-action, and part of the shared DCU setting of Superman and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, but it's unclear whether or not the Clayface of the title will be the same character that has already appeared (and almost died, but apparently survived) in the very first DCU project, 2024's Creature Commandos. (That's him in the image at the top of this post.)

No cast has been set for the movie, but that is likely to change very quickly; the feature, which will be produced by DC Studios’ James Gunn and Peter Safran, as well as Lynn Harris and The Batman director Matt Reeves, has a release fate of September 11, 2026. Expect production to ramp up very quickly, with a release date that close.

Enjoy our guides to how to watch the recent DCEU, the Arrowverse, and James Gunn's upcoming DCU.