Drew Hancock's 'Companion': Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid film is a clever twist on 'robot goes rogue' story

While Hancock had 'insecurities' as a first-time director, his film has proven to be one of the most exciting of the year so far

From just his feature debut, Companion, it's clear that writer-director Drew Hancock is one of the most exciting filmmakers creating clever and inventive stories for the screen. Companion (in theatres Jan. 31), starring Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Harvey Guillén, Megan Suri and Rupert Friend, is a completely refreshing, unique and exhilarating take on a robot horror/dark comedy story.

In Companion Josh (Quaid) and his girlfriend Iris (Thatcher) travel to a home in the woods to stay with Josh's friends. While he's excited, Iris is quite nervous, especially because Kat (Suri) has never been particularly kind to her. But what was meant to be a fun getaway in the woods shifts when Iris finds out she's actually a companion robot purchased by Josh, "an emotional support robot that f**ks," as Josh describes her.

"I usually have a scene or a character or just a visual, this one just popped in my head fully baked," Hancock told Yahoo Canada about his initial ideas for Companion.

"I didn't really know about Iris or her journey, but I [thought] it would be interesting if it was, a bunch of people came to a cabin in the middle of the woods, tell the self-contained story where one of them discovers that they're a robot going to be shut down, and the rest of the movie is them essentially going haywire."

(L-R) JACK QUAID as Josh and SOPHIE THATCHER as Iris in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)
(L-R) JACK QUAID as Josh and SOPHIE THATCHER as Iris in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release (Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures)

Hancock makes a particularly effective choice for the movie, which is making Iris the protagonist of the story, versus the antagonist like we see in most robot films that try to push a sort of cautionary tale about the potential threat of technology. In Companion, Iris is the one who has empathy, more so than the humans.

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"My first instinct was to make her the villain. ... But then all these AI gone bad movies came out, that it would have just seemed like another one of those," Hancock said.

"I started thinking about Iris and thinking about her showing up to this cabin in that moment where she's standing outside and she's nervous and feeling alienated, and I was connecting with her. I was thinking about all the times I would meet my partner's family and friends, and how nerve wracking that is."

Hancock also didn't want to lean on the tech element of the story so much that the narrative was "bogged down," which resulted in a particularly compelling balance of tech, story and character development. The filmmaker's only research was to establish a believable timeline for when this kind of technology could start appearing, with the result being 15 years in the future.

"The metaphor of someone being in a bad relationship is like you're being programmed, and getting out of that relationship is escaping the programming and kind of erasing it," Hancock said.

"I wanted to put it in the future. I didn't want to make it Minority Report where there's this tech that makes it of a different time. I wanted it to feel timeless. I wanted to feel ageless and not populate the location with screens and tech, and keep it kind of vintage-y."

(L-R) Sophie Thatcher as Iris and Director/Writer Drew Hancock in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION”, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Photo by Matt Infante)
(L-R) Sophie Thatcher as Iris and Director/Writer Drew Hancock in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION”, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Photo by Matt Infante)

While Companion is Hancock's feature debut, he came to the film with extensive experience in the comedy space, including working on Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab’s Channel 101, writing on Blue Mountain State and co-creating the series My Dead Ex.

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With that experience, another element of Hancock's approach to Companion that makes the film stand out is the incredibly funny and well-timed comedy that exists throughout the movie, without compromising the thrills, the gore and the cinematically spectacular moments.

"The irony is that this was supposed to be a writing sample that represented my voice, I come from comedy, and the very first draft had zero comedy in it," Hancock shared. "It wasn't until the second or third draft where I started to be like, OK this just doesn't feel like me. I need to insert my voice."

"I just started sprinkling in comedy, and my particular brand of comedy, I don't write joke jokes, ... I want the comedy to come from the moment. Because life is absurd and it's hilarious, and the idea of these people being in the situation, there's just so much comedy to come from the absurdity of this situation."

Companion actually ended up being filmed in two parts, with a break due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. While it was a tough time for the industry, it did allow Hancock to gain some confidence in his directing abilities.

"As a first-time director, you come in from a place of fear," Hancock said. "We shot sequentially and so we were able to take the time off and edit the first half, ... I was given two weeks to make a rough assemblage of the first half, and it just became obvious, oh, this movie is working. We don't need to do a bunch of reshoots."

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"It gave me the confidence to come back the second time and be like, 'Oh, I know what I'm doing.' It felt like I was making my second movie when we came back. ... All my insecurities were unfounded. ... I just was more secure in my directing and more confident. I think Jack even said that it felt like a different director."

(L-r) SOPHIE THATCHER as Iris and JACK QUAID as Josh in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Warner Bros. Pictures)
(L-r) SOPHIE THATCHER as Iris and JACK QUAID as Josh in New Line Cinema’s “COMPANION,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release. (Warner Bros. Pictures)

Underneath this dark comedy film is poignant messaging about misogyny and control in relationships. But Hancock doesn't tackle these topics in a way that feels like we're just checking a box on a list of buzzy social issues, or is presented in a way that just feels reductive. There's an interesting analysis and constructive evaluation that goes on in Companion, and it's all integrated into the story.

"It was always at the forefront of my mind," Hancock said. "I don't want it to feel like I'm trying to capitalize on a moment. I didn't want it to feel like I was ... overstepping . ... It's, how would you start looking at human beings if your phone looked like a human being?"

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"From Josh's perspective, he objectifies not just women, he objectifies everyone. ... He's so used to thinking of his girlfriend as an object, now he's dehumanized everyone. As a writer, that's the juicy little details that make me excited."

With the release of Companion right around the corner, we already can't wait to see what Hancock has up his sleeve next.