Latest news with #Gemma
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
‘M3GAN 2.0' transforms its killer doll into an action hero — with wildly entertaining results
Early on in 'M3GAN 2.0,' Gemma, the visionary robotics designer played by Allison Williams (reprising her role from 2022's surprise sleeper hit) publishes a best-seller with the no-fun title 'Modern Moderation.' She has every reason to preach austerity: her previous project was, after all, a super-intelligent animatronic doll that went haywire with lethal consequences.
Forbes
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
What Happens During ‘M3GAN 2.0' End Credits And How Possible Is A Sequel?
"Megan 2.0" partial poster. M3GAN 2.0 — the sequel to the 2022 horror hit M3GAN — has footage in the end credits. What happens during the end credits and does it mean anything for another sequel? M3GAN 2.0 opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The official summary for the film reads, 'Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN's creator Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of AI. "Meanwhile, Gemma's niece Cady (Violet McGraw), now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma's overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), the ultimate killer infiltration spy. "But as Amelia's self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around. With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original AI icon is about to meet her match.' Directed by Gerard Johnstone, M3GAN 2.0 also stars Brian Jordan Alvarez, Jen Van Epps, Aristotle Athari, Timm Sharp and Jemaine Clement. Note: Spoilers about the ending and end credits are revealed in the next section. What Footage Is Featured During The End Credits Of M3GAN 2.0? End-credits or post-credits scenes generally wrap up loose ends from a scene from earlier in a film — like Brad Pitt's F1: The Movie does — or they can set up a potential sequel. In the case of M3GAN 2.0, there is no post-credits scene and the end credits only show highlights from 2022's M3GAN and the new film, along with a silhouette of M3GAN the AI robot dancing. As for the future of M3GAN the AI android, the sequel makes it clear that the program can function as a disembodied robot no matter how mangled its mechanic makeup gets. As such, there's really no reason to stay in your seats to watch the end credits because there's really no substance to them. Even though there are no scenes in 2.0 that set up another M3GAN (M3GAN 3.0, perhaps?), another movie in the series is in all likelihood something that Universal Pictures executives are considering. M3GAN was a big moneymaker for the studio in 2022 — it made $182 million worldwide against a $12 million budget before prints and advertising, according to The Hollywood Reporter, so they'll no doubt be tempted for a third film depending on how well M3GAN 2.0 does. M3GAN 2.0 is projected by Universal (via THR) to earn $20 million domestically in its opening weekend frame against a $15 million production budget before P&A, which is cheap by Hollywood standards for a major release (Deadline, however, reported that the budget was $25 million, which is still a low number). So, as long as Universal makes enough money to justify another M3GAN film, director Gerard Johnstone is game to make more. The director told THR recently that as AI technology continues to evolve, it will help foster future screen stories. 'I would not be surprised if there's another five of these movies, Johnstone told THR. 'So, who knows, maybe I'll come back for the fifth one.' Lucky for Johnstone, franchise star Allison Williams wants to see more M3GAN movies, too. "We have big aspirations of big dreams, and I certainly don't feel like I'm done making these movies with these people and this tonal landscape and the subject matter,' Williams told THR recently. 'So, yeah, I have been dreaming of a third, for sure.' M3GAN 2.0 opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.
Time Magazine
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Magazine
M3GAN 2.0 Is a Horror Sequel With No Horror
Warning: This post contains spoilers for M3GAN 2.0. M3GAN became a surprise hit in early 2023, earning nearly $182 million worldwide against a budget of just $12 million, due in part to the balance the movie managed to strike between creepy horror and campy comedy. Here was an AI-powered doll who came pre-loaded with meme-worthy dance moves and the ability to spontaneously burst into an a cappella rendition of Sia's "Titanium," but who was also capable of chasing school children into oncoming traffic and fatally wielding a machete. Over two years later, M3GAN 2.0 brings its sassy titular android back for a sequel that delivers on the comedy front, but strips M3GAN of her horror appeal in favor of a more action-centric plot. When a horror sequel featuring the same big bad as the first movie gets the green light, there's generally one of two routes it can go: a new and improved (or, more often, not so impressive) take on the original story or a Terminator 2-style installment in which the villain comes up against an even greater threat. M3GAN 2.0, written and directed by Gerard Johnstone, opts for the latter, a decision that sends the franchise in a new direction by giving M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) a redemption arc following her previous murderous rampage. "For me, it was just so obvious, because the reaction to the first film happened on this global scale," Johnstone told Variety of the reason for the tonal shift. "The technology that M3GAN has is being fought over by various nations. At the moment, everyone's in this race to be the first to get AGI. It felt like a story that needed to play out on a much bigger canvas." In the two years that have passed since the events of the first film, roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a staunch advocate for government regulation of AI, while her now-preteen niece Cady (Violet McGraw) has thrown herself into computer science and the martial arts practice of aikido to work through her trauma. But when a team of FBI agents breaks into their home one night, Gemma learns that not only did M3GAN's digital consciousness survive the destruction of her body, but her underlying tech was also stolen to create a military-grade AI super-soldier named AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno). Oh, and AMELIA has gone rogue and wants to destroy humanity. Naturally, this development forces Gemma to team up with M3GAN and build her a new and improved body in order to try to save the world alongside her colleagues Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) and Tess (Jen Van Epps), and fellow tech activist Christian (Aristotle Athari)—a potential love interest who, surprise, actually turns out to be the person behind AMELIA's creation. While we won't get into the somewhat convoluted details of how exactly AMELIA intends to bring her goals to fruition, just know the movie reads as a satirical cautionary tale about the evolution of AI. Johnstone, however, has said he views the sequel as more of a parenting allegory. "We're not saying, 'Don't build AI.' We're asking, 'What happens when you don't train it right?'" he told Creative Screenwriting. "You don't train kids like dogs. You raise them. That's the same with AI." In the end, an action-packed showdown at a Palo Alto tech campus culminates in M3gan proving she has developed true empathy by sacrificing herself in order to save Cady and Gemma, and eliminate the threat of AMELIA and the mysterious all-powerful Motherboard AI she's after. But worry not, M3GAN 2.0's final moments reveal M3GAN's source code is still alive and well, leaving the door open for future sequels that could fall under a variety of genres. According to Johnstone, the sky is apparently the limit. "I would not be surprised if there's another five of these movies," he told the Hollywood Reporter. "So, who knows, maybe I'll come back for the fifth one."
International Business Times
13 hours ago
- Business
- International Business Times
Google's Launches Gemma 3n to Deliver Smarter, Offline AI to Mobile Devices and Laptops
Technology giant Google is upping its AI game by giving a tough time to its competitors and launching back-to-back AI models. Now the world's top search engine giant has introduced Gemma 3n, an AI model that fits directly on smartphones, tablets, and laptops with no internet connection required. Supporting text, images, audio, and video, it provides AI superpowers to devices you can hold in your hand. As an open-weight model, Gemma 3n can be analyzed and balanced by developers—representing a move to privacy-enabled on-device AI. Google has shaken the industry with Gemma 3n, a super advanced new AI model that delivers on big promises of bringing an out-of-this-world AI experience to regular consumer hardware like phones and laptops. Instead of relying on cloud servers that traditional AI systems use, Gemma 3n operates locally—without an internet connection—providing both speed and privacy. This shift reflects a broader trend in AI, which is away from large, centralized server models to small, efficient personal-device models. 3. Gemma is multimodal, i.e., it accepts multimodal inputs, and therefore, it can read not only text but also images, audio, and video. This has opened up new possibilities for real-time translation, speech recognition, image analysis, and much more, without sending any data to the cloud. What makes Gemma 3n unique is its open-weight design. Unlike proprietary systems like OpenAI's GPT-4 or Google's own Gemini, open-weight models allow developers to download and run the model on their own machine. This leads to more flexible customization, rapid innovation, and more control over privacy. Gemma 3n comes in two model sizes: a 5-billion-parameter model that can be run with as little as 2 GB of RAM and an 8-billion-parameter model that runs effectively with about 3 GB of RAM. Despite their small size, both models deliver performance comparable to older, larger models. Google also included many smart tools in Gemma 3n to help it work well. Another new architecture—MatFormer—helps the model adapt to different devices by using resources more flexibly. Per-Layer Embeddings and KV Cache Sharing are details to further accelerate speed and shrink memory usage, especially for longer video and audio tasks. The model's audio skills rely on Google's Universal Speech Model, which assists with on-device transcription and translation. The vision encoder uses MobileNet-V5 architecture for video processing up to 60 fps, even on smartphones. Google has made the model available to developers and researchers by providing Gemma 3n through services like Hugging Face, Amazon SageMaker, Kaggle, and Google AI Studio. It fosters innovation and application development across other sectors, from healthcare and education to mobile apps and security tools.
UPI
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- UPI
Allison Williams on 'M3GAN' phenomenon: People get her energy
NEW YORK, June 27 (UPI) -- Get Out and Girls actress Allison Williams says she remembers feeling relieved when she saw the adorable relentless monster from her M3GAN horror movies was actually resonating with audiences. "We were like, 'I hope people get her.' She's a very specific vibe. She's like that friend who [says], 'I'll kill him if he's mean to you,' and you're all laughing and she's like, 'No, no, I will.' And you're like: 'I believe you. You will,'" Williams, 37, recently told the crowd at New York Comic Con. Shortly after the trailer for the first movie came out three years ago, people expressed their excitement about it online and M3GAN became an overnight meme sensation. "People got her energy," Williams said. "We were so psyched because we were like: 'OK, she's in good hands. People understand.'" attention all meat sacks: i'll be seeing u on friday. M3GAN 2.0 (@meetM3GAN) June 22, 2025 M3GAN 2.0 -- the sequel to 2022's M3GAN -- opens in theaters Friday. Written and directed by Gerard Johnstone, it co-stars Violet McGraw, Brian Jordan Alvarez, Ivanna Sakhoo, Aristotle Athari and Jemaine Clement. The film follows roboticist Gemma (Williams) as she rebuilds the murderous M3GAN so she can take down AMELIA, a robot weaponized by renegade military defense contractor Christian (Clement) with tech stolen from Gemma. Along for the ride again is Gemma's teen niece, Cady (McGraw), whom M3GAN is determined to protect at all costs. Williams said she learned a lot about technology on the first movie that proved useful when she returned for the sequel. "Animatronics are temperamental, a little high-maintenance," the actress explained. "She's kind of a diva," she added. "When M3GAN rolls on the set -- and I mean it, sometimes she IS rolled onto set -- the vibe shifts in the room and it gets way spookier and it was fun to do it the second time. We were like, 'OK, we know how this is achieved. We know how to do it and, so, now we can have a little bit more fun with it and make it bigger and more expansive." The actress said the M3GAN robot is disturbing even when she is not performing in front of the camera. "The creepiest parts are just M3GAN in repose, wherever she's being held and I'm walking past that tent, the M3GAN tent," Williams laughed. "She's like: 'I will not be with everybody else. I need my own space.' But it's like M3GAN with her costume, without her costume. M3GAN with a body or just a head. Any version of M3GAN is just terrifying and if you look at it for too long, you're like: 'That's gonna move. I'm gonna keep walking.'" After six seasons starring in the TV dramedy, Girls, Williams admitted she did not expect to find herself working steadily in unsettling sci-fi movies. "I am really scared of horror movies and [Get Out director Jordan Peele] was like: 'I need a white girl who is so innocent seeming and so white... the whitest girl the world has ever made. A girl so white she might pronounce the 'H' in white,'" Williams said. "He was like: 'And it's you. I choose you,' and I was like, 'I'm honored.'" She said Peele also told her he thought she was fearless for playing the title character in an NBC musical production of Peter Pan in 2014. "He was like: 'You were Peter Pan on live television. You'll do anything,'" Williams quoted Peele as saying. "And I was like, 'You're not wrong.' ... I hadn't really thought about doing a horror movie just because the ones that I'd seen had lived in my psyche so fiercely and had really altered my ability to sleep." Making Get Out changed her mind, however, and she not only ended up enjoying the movie, but also loving the people she worked with on it and the fans who came out to see it. "I was like, 'This is kind of addictive.' It's amazing to tell stories in this mixture of genres, where you can really play with archetypes and just make new rules," Williams said. "In the Blumhouse [production company] model, you get to support these new filmmakers and their vision, and you get to make the thing that they've been obsessed with making for years and years in that very specific way and I just loved it. It's so fun." The actress said fans who approach her in public seem to recognize her equally for Get Out or M3GAN. "If they talk to me, it's M3GAN," she added. "If they just look at me with fear in their eyes and cross the street, it's Get Out."
