Gerard Johnstone, James Wan And Jason Blum Talk Horror Movies In New M3GAN Feature

“‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we did a killer-doll movie that was Annabelle meets The Terminator? Instead of being a supernatural film, we thought it would be great to do a ‘technology gone awry’ version of that,” James Wan says.

From the most prolific minds in horror—James Wan, the filmmaker behind the Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring franchises, and Blumhouse, the producer of the Halloween films, The Black Phone and The Invisible Man—comes a fresh new face in terror. Produced by Jason Blum and James Wan, M3GAN is directed by award-winning filmmaker Gerard Johnstone (Housebound), from a screenplay by Akela Cooper (Malignant, The Nun 2) based on a story by Akela Cooper and James Wan.

Check out their thoughts on their latest collaboration in this new featurette and see the movie in theaters this Friday, January 6.

M3GAN is Blum and Wan’s second collaboration; the first being the Insidious franchise. To helm the film, Blum and Wan hired New Zealand native Gerard Johnstone, director of the 2014 horror comedy Housebound. “M3GAN has a specific tone that can be hard to achieve,” Blum says. “I loved Gerard’s first movie, Housebound. It was a fine balance between capturing the brooding dread of a haunted-house story but bringing in a quirky sense of humor. For M3GAN, the idea of a robot friend that turns into a killer doll is terrifying, but there’s a dark humor simmering just below the surface of that idea. If you have a director that doesn’t embrace that, the movie will never work, and Gerard understands that in an effortless way.”

M3GAN is classic, scary, scream-in-your-seats horror, but Wan and Blum knew that it was not a film that should be treated in a deadly serious manner. “Gerard brought a tone that walked this fine line,” Wan says. “If it leaned too far one way or the other, the film would collapse. He knows how to get us to scream when we need to and to laugh when we need to—and chuckle at these quirky things M3GAN does.”

It was Johnstone’s idea, for instance, that M3GAN would be dancing while also committing violence in one unforgettable (and instantly meme-able) scene. “There are such absurd moments that Gerard added, which gives it that fun, camp feel,” Akela Cooper says. “I didn’t write M3GAN dancing; I wrote her on a killing spree. When I saw it, I thought, ‘This is so weird, but it works. That makes the death all the more uncomfortable.’”

M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a life-like doll programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. Designed by brilliant toy-company roboticist Gemma (Get Out’s Allison Williams), M3GAN can listen and watch and learn as she becomes friend and teacher, playmate and protector, for the child she is bonded to.

When Gemma suddenly becomes the caretaker of her orphaned 8-year-old niece, Cady (Violet McGraw, The Haunting of Hill House), Gemma’s unsure and unprepared to be a parent. Under intense pressure at work, Gemma decides to pair her M3GAN prototype with Cady in an attempt to resolve both problems—a decision that will have unimaginable consequences.

https://www.m3ganmovie.com/

The film also stars Ronny Chieng (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Brian Jordan Alvarez (Will & Grace), Jen Van Epps (Cowboy Bebop), Lori Dungey (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, extended edition) and Stephane Garneau-Monten (Straight Forward).

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse present an Atomic Monster production in association with Divide/Conquer. The film’s executive producers are Allison Williams, Mark Katchur, Ryan Turek, Michael Clear, Judson Scott, Adam Hendricks and Greg Gilreath.

Rated PG-13 for violent content and terror, some strong language, and a suggestive reference.