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M3GAN is getting a deadly SOULM8TE as Blumhouse and Atomic Monster announce a new spin-off movie from the 2022 killer robot hit
Forget Basic Instinct, this standalone erotic thriller promises to be Basic AI Programming Gone Wrong
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The 1990s are back, and in the worst way possible — which is to say, gloriously — thanks to the news that Atomic Monster and Blumhouse are working on a spin-off from 2022’s amazing killer robot movie M3GAN that is (get ready) a return to the erotic thriller genre that gave the world movies like Basic Instinct, Body of Evidence, Sliver, and Poison Ivy. But this time, with robots.
The movie, described by Atomic Monster and Blumhouse as “an original film that expands the M3GAN universe,” will be called SOULM8TE and will be written and directed by Irish filmmaker Kate Dolan, whose previous work includes episodes of Irish crime drama Kin (shown on AMC+ in the US), as well as horror movie You Are Not My Mother; she’s working from an earlier screenplay by Rafael Jordan, based on a story from Jordan, Ingrid Bisu (co-writer of Malignant) and Atomic Monster’s James Wan.
Blumhouse’s synopsis of the movie already sounds like a winner: “In this erotic thriller, a man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. The film is in the tradition of the 90s domestic thrillers but with a modern, technological twist.” We are in.
"Fundamentally, I view this film as an exploration of relationships and loneliness," Dolan said in a statement about the project. "Despite technological advances, there are enduring human truths we cannot escape, and I am looking forward to delving into those depths."
SOULM8TE may share a universe with M3GAN, but it’s not a sequel to the earlier movie; that is already in the works, with both Allison Williams and Violet McGraw returning for M3GAN 2.0, set for release June 27, 2025.
Instead, SOULM8TE will be released through Universal Pictures on January 2, 2026. We’re already counting the days.
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