M3GAN Director Gerard Johnstone on Inspirations

With executive producer James Wan and producer Jason Blum already blue skying ideas for sequels, Syfy got on a Zoom with M3GAN director, New Zealander Gerard Johnstone, to ask about his horror sequel involvement, what he added to Wan and writer Akela Cooper’s original script and to unpack the cinematic homages he wove into the final film.

“I think there is a little bit of RoboCop [in M3GAN],” Invercargill-born Johnstone says. “The movie Gone Girl was very influential on the tone and style that I was trying to do. It was a domestic noir and also had quite a really interesting tone; very funny and dark with an unhinged female protagonist. And Under the Skin was another one. The camera really lingers on Scarlett Johansson, and it gives you a window into the mind of this alien creature. I wanted to treat M3GAN the same way, as a point of difference from Chucky, where that is just so overtly fun and goofy.”

A sequel, titled M3GAN 2.0 is scheduled to be released in early 2025.

Original article by Tara Bennett, Syfy, March 21, 2023.

Photo by Geoffrey Short.