“M3GAN” has already become a breakout hit to start 2023 but it turns out the PG-13 movie was much more brutal in earlier cuts of the film…
Horror films and superhero movies were the biggest films at the box office in 2022 and it appears that trend is continuing in 2023. The latest proof comes from “M3GAN” — the killer doll film produced by James Wan that just opened in theaters that earned more than $30 million in a single weekend, which crushed early estimates for the movie.
The film was ultimately released as a PG-13 movie largely because the original trailer went viral, especially on TikTok due to the creepy dance that M3GAN performs during one part of the film. The plan obviously worked based on early returns and Universal has already started development on a sequel.
But it turns out original screenwriter Akela Cooper, who previously teamed with Wan on the 2021 breakout hit “Malignant,” had much darker plans for “M3GAN” but the decision to edit the movie to make it more accessible to a younger audience forced them to remove a lot of the blood and gore.
Thankfully, Cooper says there may eventually be an unrated version of the film that will get unleashed, which will display the brutal nature that M3GAN eliminated the obstacles in her way.
“No shade to Universal, love them, and I understand that once the trailer went viral, teenagers got involved and you want them to be able to see it,” Cooper explained when speaking to the LA Times. “There should be an unrated version at some point. … I heard it is on the books.
“But yes, it was way gorier. Her body count in the script was higher than in the movie. It wasn’t a Gabriel [in ‘Malignant’]-scale massacre, but she did kill a bunch more people, including a couple of characters whom James was like, “I like what you did with those people, but I want them to live.” I was merciless, but again, that is me. My humor is extremely dark.”
That will be music to the ears of hardcore horror fans, who have been treated to a lot of hard ‘R’ rated films over the past couple of years that also raked in a lot of money at the box office including “Smile,” “Barbarian” and independent hit “Terrifier 2.”
It remains to be seen when an unrated version of “M3GAN” could arrive, although chances are with an eventual physical release on blu-ray and 4K, it seems like only a matter of time before that killer doll is truly unshackled and unleashed upon the world.
