It was a real M3GAN-palooza last night in hollywood.
Universal Pictures rolled out the black carpet outside the TCL Chinese Theater for the world premiere of Blumhouse’s upcoming horror title, M3GAN. Gerard Johnstone’s film centers on a brilliant toy company roboticist, played by Allison Williams, who speeds up a secret invention after tragedy leaves her the guardian of her 8-year-old niece, Cady, played by Violet. McGraw. The invention: a realistic doll named M3GAN who is paired with Cady to provide comfort and friendship, a decision that sets off a dramatic series of extreme events.
Universal also brought drama to the event, as M3GAN seemed to be everywhere you looked. First of all, it was influencer Kausha Campbell who was among the first VIP guests to hit the carpet and she did it wearing a identical set to what M3GAN wears in the film’s viral trailer.
Then, reps cleared the carpet for a surprise performance featuring eight M3GAN lookalikes dancing to Taylor Swift’s “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” a track that features on the film’s new trailer. The band, who also appeared at the after-party, performed the same dance inside the theater before the premiere.
But wait, there’s more. Über-producer Jason Blum arrived at the premiere dressed in M3GAN, recycling the costume he first wore at Blumhouse’s Halloween party in October.
“I love getting hit on anyway, no matter the occasion, but having the opportunity to wear my M3GAN costume again was a dream come true,” Blum said. The Hollywood Reporter on the carpet. “I begged my [communications] team to allow me to start over, and they finally said yes.
Was it a tough negotiation to get the communications team on board? “I had to do a little hemming and hawing, but they know how much I love wearing the suit, so it wasn’t terrible.”
The glam process wasn’t terrible either. “I’ve done it twice now and the first time took about three hours. This time it was less – about an hour and 45 minutes,” Blum confirmed. ” I got it now. I might even make it a third time for Halloween ’23. Why not?”
If the response to Wednesday night’s premiere is any indication, the costume could be a huge hit by next October. Or sooner, since the film hits theaters on January 6. (The premiere was early to get ahead of the holidays.) Directed by Johnstone from a screenplay by Akela Cooper based on a story devised by Wan and hammered out by Wan with Cooper, the film also stars Ronny Chieng, Brian Jordan Alvarez , Jen Van Epps, Lori Dungey and Stéphane Garneau-Monten.
But out of all those M3GANs, technically there were a few more present. Not to spoil all the magic of the film, but to capture what was necessary for M3GAN’s performance, the filmmakers relied on a real robotic prototype in some scenes while others featured a young actress, Amie Donald. , wearing a mask and gloves. Her voice came to life thanks to the talents of another young actress, Jenna Davis.
Aside from Williams, the actor who spends the most screen time with M3GAN is McGraw, who tells THR that she loved every minute of it. “It was really fun because I had a creepy, terrifying doll that was my best friend and it was a really cool experience hanging out with M3GAN to see how they did it,” said McGraw, who has previously play in The Haunting of Hill House. “They made a real robot and had a puppeteer team that made it blink and move its arms and mouth.”
In another surprise twist, McGraw and Donald ended up becoming fast friends by the end of filming. “We got so close and hung out on and off set, on our lunch breaks. Amie is the nicest person you will meet and she is definitely one of my best friends.
Friendship and professional success also brought Williams to the role. She first worked with Blum and Blumhouse on critical and commercial success get out. “Jason said, ‘I think we’ve got the next one to do with you,'” Williams recalled of how the project came to him. “I was basically ready to say yes before I even read it or heard about it. Then I read the script and I was like, ‘I’m in.’ Then I talked to Gerard and I said, ‘I’m in.’ Then he said James Wan was producing and he got the idea, and I was like, ‘I’m even more into it now.’ felt like coming home because I had such a great experience on get out. It’s good to be back in this group.
But long before the group officially reunited, Blum said they had to make sure M3GAN was good enough to be invited to the party. “The challenge of the film was M3GAN, obviously,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes with special effects before, so we didn’t start pre-production until we had fully mastered M3GAN. We worked on M3GAN for a year to figure out how many practical effects, how much VFX and how much CGI we wanted to use to create it. Sometimes we wanted the audience to forget that she was a robot and other times we wanted them to remember that she was a robot.
No doubt the audience at Wednesday’s premiere had the same problem with so many M3GANs present.