Universal Slates ‘M3gan,’ From Both James Wan And Jason Blum, For January 2023

One sign of success is the extent to which other studios make a move to somewhat attempt to replicate that success. Days after Scream overperformed over the Martin Luther King weekend with $33.8 million, Universal has dated their own “big” horror movie for the MLK weekend in 2023. Blumhouse and Atomic Monster’s M3gan will now open January 13 (yes, Friday the 13th), 2023. Scream’s successful launch may have destroyed 17 years of tradition, as we’ve been getting grindhouse horror movies on the first weekend of January at least since Michael Keaton’s White Noise opened with $25 million in 2005.  

While directed by Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) and penned by Akela Cooper (The Nun 2 and Malignant), it’s based on a story by James Wan. This means that, for the first time in forever, Jason Blum and James Wan are teaming up. This is the first time the two titans of theatrical horror have worked together since Wan directed the first two Insidious films for Blumhouse in 2011 and 2013. Director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell’s first Insidious, pitched as “What if Paranormal Activity were just a normal movie?,” overperformed in early 2011 with $100 million on a $1.5 million budget. 

It put Blumhouse on the map as more than just the place for Paranormal Activity sequels, worked as a fine “rip-off don’t remake” riff on Poltergeist that spawned four sequels (part 5 is on the way) and ended up setting the template for 2010’s-era horror just as Wan and Whannell’s Saw had done in 2004. While I’m sure Wan and Whannell swapped ideas and gave “notes” on each other’s respective projects, and Wan is listed as a producer on the last two Insidious sequels (which Whannell directed). Heck, and this is neither criticism nor compliment, but Whannell’s Invisible Man and Wan’s Malignant feel like the “prestige” and “shameless” versions of a similar story. Depending on how hands-on he was with Insidious 3 and Insidious: The Last Key, this could mark Wan’s first horror movie outside Warner Bros./New Line since Insidious 2 in 2013.  

I shudder to think (no pun intended) that Universal may be trying to snatch away Wan from the Dream Factory just as they did with Chris Nolan. While I assume relations are/were better between Wan and WB even with pandemic-specific obstacles (like Malignant’s soft-sell theatrical release and The Trench being put into turnaround), a bribe or a nice birthday present may be in order next month. Speculation aside, plenty of filmmakers make movies for different studios, and if Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom kicks all the ass next December then WB will hopefully give him another “get drunk and party all night with the boss’s credit card” project.  

The film stars Allison Williams (Get Out and Girls) as a toy company scientist who develops M3GAN, an AI-enhanced doll programmed to be a kid’s best friend. She ends up using the prototype version as an aid when she ends up gaining custody of her orphaned niece, and I’m sure everything goes swimmingly with this single, overworked career woman realizing the value of maternity while the robot plaything helps everyone become their best selves. I’m kidding, I’m assuming M3gan either breaks its programming or overcompensates in a macabre fashion and kills at least six or seven people. Think “Ron Gone Very Wrong.”  

I am quite happy to see Akela Cooper getting another screenwriting credit, and word that she’s writing The Nun 2 implies that this may be a better offering than the first Nun (just as, relatively speaking, Annabelle: Creation >> Annabelle and Ouija Origins of Evil >>> Ouija). M3gan will open on January 13 concurrently with Sony’s Kraven the Hunter, a week after Damien Chazelle’s Babylon goes wide and just two weeks before M. Night Shyamalan’s Dave Bautista-directed Knock at the Cabin debuts on February 3. I’m curious if that will stick as they are both Universal horror movies, but my wife certainly won’t be complaining about this likely embarrassment of riches.