Making M3GAN : How everyone's favorite killer robot was brought to life
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It's one thing to program a movie robot to talk and even kill. But how do you get that sucker to dance? That was one of many problems facing filmmaker Gerard Johnstone after he signed on to direct the just-released horror hit M3GAN, about an android who becomes homicidally protective of her young charge Cady (Violet McGraw).
"It was really challenging," says Johnstone, of the M3GAN shoot, which took place in the director's homeland of New Zealand. "They talk about working with children and animals, and we did all of that plus, you know, animatronic puppets and god knows what else. So, it was quite grueling, but ultimately those really tricky films produce good results. It was a testament to the work that everyone had done that M3GAN is just such a strong presence onscreen."
Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures Behind the scenes image from the set of 'M3GAN'
The concept for the film was originally nightmared up by producer James Wan in cahoots with colleagues at his Atomic Monster Productions company.
"One of the things we like to do at Atomic Monster is, at the end of the week, sit around and chat about films," says Wan, whose own horror credits as a director include Insidious and The Conjuring. "At one of these sessions, we came up with the idea of doing a killer-doll movie."
To write the script, Wan recruited Akela Cooper (Malignant) and then he and fellow producer Jason Blum approached Johnstone to direct the film, based on his skillful overseeing of the twisty 2014 horror-comedy Housebound.
"Both of us thought that movie was extraordinary," says Blum. "I'd actually sent him a few projects before M3GAN, which he'd turned down. I was very happy he looked at M3GAN and said yes."
"Ryan Turek [M3GAN executive producer] was a critic at the time Housebound came out, [and] gave us a really lovely review," says Johnstone. "He ended up working at Blumhouse, so he was always trying to find something for me, and this was one of the scripts that he sent me. I thought the potential of it was just great."
"I'm a big fan of Gerard, I love Housebound," says Wan. "M3GAN needed someone who could take Akela's terrific script and execute it in a way that actually works. Because it's not an easy movie to make work."
One of the production's tough early tasks was coming up with the design of M3GAN, who resembles a young girl, and deciding how realistic she should look.
"We actually went back and forth a fair bit," says Wan. "Gerard was pretty instrumental early on about wanting to make M3GAN as realistic as possible. That was something that I support, but I kind of reminded him that what ultimately makes creepy doll movies creepy is the fact that when you look at them, they still look like dolls, that they're not just a human being sitting there. We looked long and hard trying to find that middle ground of a doll that looks realistic at a glance, or from afar, but then, up close, you start to realize it's actually not real, it's synthetic. I think that uncanny valley quality about it is what makes it really, really creepy."
Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures 'M3GAN': Behind the scenes image
It was Johnstone himself who came up with the notion that M3GAN should dance, footage of which would be instantly, and widely, memeified when the movie's first trailer was released last year.
"It was one of those crazy, sleep-deprived, 3 a.m. thoughts," he says. "Wouldn't it kind of be funny if the soundtrack suddenly became real and M3GAN ended up busting a move to whatever music was playing. It was just something that everyone embraced and loved."
Capturing that choreography, and other scenes involving the killer doll, would involve an array of filmmaking disciplines including puppetry, animatronics, and visual effects.
"It definitely was a challenge to bring M3GAN to life," says Wan. "Listen, at the end of the day, she's not real, she's a doll. [It is a] testament to Gerard and his team for bringing so much personality to this inanimate object to the point where she is so fun. Every time she's onscreen, the scene just leaps off the screen, because of all the great technicians and Gerard's filmmaking approach."
"It kind of brought us all together, because it required the collaboration of the full crew," says actress Allison Williams, who plays the creator of M3GAN, a roboticist named named Gemma. "Basically, every department, I feel, was involved. It was certainly a unique performative experience for me, playing scenes with M3GAN. I don't know that I'll ever have that experience again."
Geoffrey Short/Universal Pictures
Johnstone reveals that he had a secret weapon in young actress Amie Donald, who physically portrayed M3GAN in many of the film's sequences, including her dancier moments.
"She was a real miracle find," says the director. "She's a a little farm girl from New Zealand. She just brought so much to it, and she just blew everyone away. She had to do so much and she's a real marvel."
The dialogue spoken by M3GAN was delivered by actress and singer Jenna Davis.
"Amie would do the voice on-set often," says Johnstone. "But we had an American actress, Jenna Davis, do the voice [you hear in the film], largely because we wanted M3GAN to kind of feel like a bigger sister rather than a friend. It was important it felt like a cool big sister that you could buy."
M3GAN hit theaters Friday and will likely earn close to $30 million by the end of the weekend. Both Wan and Blum say they would be happy to make a sequel. Director Johnstone agrees, but admits it might be a little while before he makes more M3GAN.
"This is a film about people who don't spend enough time with their children," he says, "so that's what I'm going to focus on."
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