Years ago, after rising through the ranks on genre TV shows such as "Grimm" and "The 100," screenwriter Akela Cooper found herself at a crossroads. A lifelong horror fan, she'd long put off writing the two horror features that had been swimming around in her head — until one day she committed to putting them on paper, working before and after each day of writing on "Luke Cage."
The resulting spec scripts landed her a career-changing meeting at James Wan's Atomic Monster Productions, home of the "Conjuring" franchise. Cooper was hired to write the sci-fi horror film "M3GAN," about an AI companion doll gone haywire, then to pen the giallo-infused "Malignant" — shot first and released on HBO Max last year to cult acclaim — and the upcoming Warner Bros. sequel "The Nun 2."
"M3GAN" — short for "Model 3 Generative Android" — is an uncannily childlike robot invented by Gemma (Allison Williams), who pairs the prototype to her recently orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw) while she market-tests the multitasking BFF, babysitter and guardian as an aid to help busy parents in the pesky business of parenting.
