20 Upcoming Movies That Just Made Incredibly Smart Decisions

One of the riskier projects in James Gunn's DC Universe is Clayface - a body horror film centered around the famed antagonist from Batman's rogues gallery.

Though Clayface is certainly a well-known Batman foe, he's hardly the safest choice for his own movie, especially with the tendency for most modern superhero movies to be inherently high-budget, high-risk productions.

But in a surprising move, Clayface will actually only cost $40 million - a practically paltry price tag compared to, say, the $225 million recently spent on Gunn's Superman.

This likely speaks to the film being helmed by a lesser-known filmmaker - Speak No Evil's James Watkins - rather than genre royalty, with an on-the-rise ensemble cast who aren't commanding massive paychecks.

But above all else, it suggests that we're not going to see much of Clayface in his clay form, which would require extensive, costly VFX work. 

Given that Clayface is a shape-shifter capable of assuming anyone's form, he'll presumably just hop from disguise to disguise throughout the film with only some intermittent clay-morphing effects to sell each transformation.

Considering the movie will need to work hard to win over the disinterested casual mainstream, keeping the budget low is definitely a canny choice right out of the gate.