How 'SOULM8TE' Director Kate Dolan Rescued Her 'M3GAN' Spinoff From Studio Purgatory

It seemed like the ideal opportunity. For her first studio film Kate Dolan, an Irish filmmaker who had made a splash with her stylish short film "Cat Calls" and independent feature "You Are Not My Mother," would get to make an original film that harkened back to a bygone era and also be an expansion of a lucrative franchise, buoyed by superstar producers James Wan and Jason Blum and the marketing might of Universal Pictures. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and Dolan's "SOULM8TE," a nifty erotic thriller with a very contemporary twist, was nearly derailed by . . .