A day after the release of the Child's Play remake's full trailer, director Lars Klevberg shared a version of the trailer on his Instagram that includes his own commentary track. If you were worried about the film being a CGI-fest, Klevberg promises that “80% of Chucky in the movie is done with animatronics.”
In the contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic, Karen (Aubrey Plaza), a single mother who gifts her son Andy (Gabriel Bateman) a Buddi doll, is unaware of its more sinister nature.
“On set, Chucky was controlled and voiced by the lead puppeteer so Gabriel, who plays Andy, could interact with the doll and also improvise during takes.” Klevberg adds: “A lot of Chucky’s behavior is based on researching small toddlers when they were problem-solving.”
Most of you know by now that Mark Hamill will be voicing Chucky in the new film, but Klevberg shares an interest tidbit about Hamill's preparation for the role: “Mark Hamill watched all the Chucky movies back-to-back when he decided to join the movie.”
Klevberg also notes that Bateman's character is directly inspired by E.T.: “When I pitched the movie for the studio (Orion) and the producers, I told them it’s E.T. on acid.”
“There are a lot of E.T. references. The red hoodie is one of them.” He added: “The reference movies I had for this were: E.T., Gremlins, the Swedish Let the Right One In, Attack the Block,and La Haine.”
Orion will release Child's Play in theaters on June 21st.