DC Studios has again turned Liverpool into Gotham City with the filming of the upcoming blockbuster Clayface
A film set for the DC movie Clayface on Derby Square, outside the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts in Liverpool(Image: Iain Watts)
Liverpool’s “Hollywood of the North” has been given another show of faith with the latest blockbuster being filmed in the city. The exterior of Liverpool’s famous crown court building and the surrounding Derby Square in the city centre was transformed this weekend into a film set as DC Studios again came to town.
Following on from the success of 2022’s superhero film The Batman starring Robert Pattinson, which was almost exclusively shot on Liverpool’s streets, the American film company returned again with their latest project Clayface. The film, due for release in September next year, is the latest production to use the streets of Liverpool as the canvas for its vision.
Liverpool Film Office, the first of its kind in Europe, has facilitated countless productions on both the big and small screen since 1989 marking our city as one of the most used in the world. According to Liverpool City Council, the Film Office has been responsible for driving £168m in investment into the local economy by surrounding over 1,500 productions.
This backing has generated more than 5,200 jobs and has led the city region’s mayor Steve Rotheram to focus on plans to turn Liverpool, the country’s most filmed location apart from London, into the “Hollywood of the North”.
The Batman was filmed in Liverpool in 2020, turning key landmarks such as the waterfront’s Liver Building and St George’s Hall into the dark heart of Gotham City. Speaking to the BBC following the release of the film, production designer James Chinlund said Liverpool’s iconic buildings “fitted like a glove” when creating their vision.
A film set for the DC movie Clayface on Derby Square, outside the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts in Liverpool(Image: Iain Watts)
Producer Dylan Clark added: “Creating a real, authentic-looking Gotham is challenging and Liverpool provided a city square that had immense architecture that was Gothic, that we could put our visual effects on top of.”
The Batman director Matt Reeves, who will act as an executive producer on Clayface, previously said 75% of the production on the 2022 film took place in Liverpool.
DC Studios has again backed Liverpool to become Gotham City, with pictures taken by the ECHO in the city centre showing the transformation. Derby Square was littered with rubbish, fake graffiti had been stencilled onto walls and dozens of tents had been put up.
A film set for the DC movie Clayface on Derby Square, outside the Queen Elizabeth II Law Courts in Liverpool(Image: Iain Watts)
A temporary sign on the court building showed it had been transformed into Gotham Hospital with a large red emergency entrance sign erected over the front door. Vehicles including Gotham Police cars, ambulances and a Gotham Broadcasting Channel news van had also been parked around Derby Square.
Dozens of people turned out this morning, Sunday, to watch the filming. The crew shot multiple takes of doctors and a nurse taking a gurney out of the back of an ambulance and quickly transporting it through the front door.
An actor with his face heavily bandaged and blood staining his bare chest was also seen speaking with the production crew. Dozens of locals gathered to watch the shoot, with some asking the security if the man with his face bandaged was the protagonist Clayface. However, this was not confirmed.
A bandaged actor speaks with the production crew on the set of Clayface(Image: Liverpool ECHO)
Deadline has previously reported that Tom Rhys Harris would be playing the character in the horror-thriller. The film is based on the comic book character which haunts the fictional Gotham City. Speak No Evil director James Watkins is leading the project.
Dozens of production vehicles were parked around the city centre on roads including Dale Street, Castle Street and by the town hall. The ECHO reported yesterday how filming on the Hollywood film started at the former Merseyside Police HQ on Canning Place in the city centre.
Gotham is based on New York and Liverpool has doubled as the real-life US city in other productions including Captain America: The First Avenger and Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them. Liverpool has been used as a location in other productions including Peaky Blinders and House of Guinness, while leading BBC dramas including This City is Ours and The Responder have been based in the city.
Filming for The Batman at St George’s Hall on Lime Street(Image: Andrew Teebay/Liverpool Echo)
Attracting high-profile productions to Liverpool is just one part of the project to boost the economy and enhance the region’s reputation as a leading light in the film industry. The main focus in recent years has been on transforming the historic, but currently dilapidated Littlewoods Building into a world-class film and TV studio campus.
The £70m project, which includes plans to build two new 20,000 square foot studio stages, began in December 2023 and will be used alongside the existing facilities at The Depot, which opened in 2021. Planning permission for the construction phase was approved in October 2024, but developer Capital&Centric told the ECHO earlier this month that “the cost of delivering the project in the current climate exceeds the value of the completed development“.
Mr Rotheram told the ECHO that it was always known there would be a “viability gap” but remained confident funds could be found. He said earlier this month: “It’s not just something for Liverpool, which is great, or the Liverpool City Region. It’s something for the country and there’s a shortage of studio space where we can fill that gap and not just fill it, fill it with something that would be there for probably the next 100 years.”