Director Gerard Johnstone Thinks M3GAN Is No More Surreal Than Real Life A.I.

On the surface, a movie like "M3GAN" is totally out there sci-fi absurdity. I mean, a lifelike doll companion and friend whose personality develops thanks to cutting-edge artificial intelligence is the dream for all of us who grew up geeky and unpopular, but the best real-life examples we've seen up to this point are robot dog-things navigating obstacle courses while being cruelly pushed around with broom handles to test their balance, and Disney Parks audio-animatronics that can range from the most amazing thing you've ever seen (the Shaman in the Na'vi River Journey attraction) to disturbing (have you seen the Donald Trump they added to the Hall of Presidents?).

However, we're living in something of an A.I. revolution at the moment, with programs like ChatGPT that can take a prompt and write you just about anything and DALL-E that produces images that would a tall order for even the best illustrators out there with little but a series of carefully thought-out suggestions from the human at the keyboard. The implications are scary, maybe even scarier than an overly protective robot girl who also dances extremely well and runs on all fours from time to time. 

Turns out that "M3GAN" director Gerard Johnstone agrees that the current A.I. trend is mighty unsettling (and also perfectly timed for the release of his movie) and is something they're considering as they move forward with the newly announced sequel, "M3GAN 2.0." 

Speaking with our own BJ Colangelo, Gerard Johnstone was asked if the proliferation of A.I. tools is something that he's thinking about in terms of "M3GAN's" future. While he's not officially confirmed to return for the sequel, it sure sounds like Johnstone is thinking pretty heavily about the sequel. In fact, he even confirms that one of the consultants on "M3GAN," a guy by the name of Peter Abell, was actually involved with ChatGPT's development.

"He was talking about these kind of generative algorithms that you could have a conversation with, and that did exactly what we were setting up "M3GAN" to do. We've been very fortunate that the timing of this movie has worked out so well. I mean, technology is just on this massive upward curve right now. It's just advancing so quickly and we're all struggling to keep up with it and figure out a way to not just regulate it, but to even put it in context. I could do a film treatment using ChatGPT. Because sometimes it's the hardest thing to just put words on a page. And I'm sure you could as a writer as well. It's like you could put in a bunch of ideas you're thinking about for a story and ChatGPT will give you a half-decent first draft."

This opens up the door for a lot of potentially crazy options for Johnstone and his creative team, especially if confirmed returning screenwriter Akela Cooper wants to toy around with one of these A.I. tools to get an actual computer's input on the script or story. 

Gerard Johnstone doesn't come out and say they'd use a tool like ChatGPT in writing the sequel, but he didn't completely toss out the possibility that an A.I. tool couldn't help in the development of the sequel.

If there was ever a movie to consult an A.I. on, it'll be "M3GAN 2.0," I'll say that much, but there's also been a pretty strong backlash from the creative arts community over these A.I. art tools. There's a real concern that programs like DALL-E and Jasper and Starry AI will begin to push production artists out of the business and it's only a matter of time before the ChatGPTs of this world pose a real threat to working screenwriters as well.

Maybe that's not a Pandora's Box this team will want to open, but someone somewhere will do it.

Johnstone was upfront about his own experimentation with ChatGPT and said that the program kept trying to please him, which he felt was strange and unreal, but also kind of appealing. "Sometimes I feel like this movie is no more absurd than what's going on in real life," Johnstone told Colangelo, and he's not wrong. By the time the sequel comes out, we could be living in a radically different world thanks to these emerging and quickly advancing A.I. tools. 

Sounds like ripe material for a horror sequel about an out-of-control A.I., doesn't it?