You know what they say, follow your passions and you won’t work a day in your life. But what if you’re M3GAN producer James Wan and your obsession is creepy dolls? Even better, apparently. That very passion is what brought the movie to life.
The buzz- and meme-creating movie has been getting very good reviews ahead of its release, and producers Wan and Jason Blum recently sat down with IndieWire to talk about how a fixation with scary dolls helped bring the movie to life. Blum shared that he knew all about Wan’s creepy affection for creepy dolls before they even started on M3GAN.
Blum was so aware, actually, that when Wan came calling with an idea about the subject, he was ready to go. “I am very familiar with James’ love of creepy dolls. So when he said he had another idea for a creepy doll, I was very intrigued before we even read the script.”
Wan has a pretty good pedigree when it comes to creepy dolls and puppets. He created the killer ventriloquist doll in Dead Silence and directed the creepy doll Annabelle origin story The Conjuring. He said he just loves the idea of something insentient being alive. Spooky!
“I’m a bit of a creepy doll aficionado. I just love the idea of an inanimate object that looks like it could be alive and may actually have life within it. Whether it’s life that has been imbued by a supernatural entity or you, with your broken mind, project life into it. One is more supernatural and the other is more psychological, but I’m drawn to both aspects of the genre.”
M3GAN is the story of a young girl who’s suddenly orphaned after her parents are killed in a car accident. Her aunt is a toy designer who invents a 24/7 companion for the girl. Then things gets violent. In addition to the creepiness factor, there’s also the technology commentary, Blum said.
“It’s about something that’s on the tip of everyone’s tongue right now. We’re all talking about AI and what it could do. All the great things it can do, which we see in the movie, and all the horrible things it can do, which we also see in the movie.”
What was most important, Blum said, was making sure M3GAN was the right combination of creepy and cute. Blum trusted Wan’s creepy obsession so they took the time to get it right, Blum said.
“The movie doesn’t work unless the character design is right. So both of us decided from the start that we would not start spending money on the movie until we had Megan looking and feeling exactly right. So we did a lot of tests and different things before we even started prepping, to make sure we had the Megan that was in James’ strange mind.”
M3GAN is in theaters now.