Michael Goi’s found footage movie, Megan is Missing was mostly forgotten except by hardcore found footage fans until it was rediscovered and went viral on TikTok. Now, with more attention being paid to the 2011 movie, audiences have learned that Michael Goi has been offered the chance to remake his movie, but he turned down the opportunity.
Megan is Missing features the video diary and video chat footage of two pre-teen girls, Megan Stewart and her best friend, Amy Herman, and takes place in the days preceding Megan’s disappearance. Based on true stories of child abduction, the movie takes the audience through Megan’s disappearance and the investigation launched by Amy to find her missing friend.
A thoroughly grim movie about child abduction and the dangers that exist for kids who aren’t careful about the people they interact with online, Michael Goi’s Megan is Missing has a chilling message that sticks with the audience once it’s over. Knowing there was the potential for a remake of this movie is exciting, but also foreboding — what could a remake have done differently, and would it have been a good idea? Goi, the movie's director, doesn't think a remake will ever happen for very specific reasons, and talked openly about why he turned down the previous attempt for his movie to be remade.
In a recent interview with EW, Michael Goi explains that two or three years after Megan is Missing was released, there was a production company in Mexico that wanted to do a remake of the movie in Spanish with Goi to direct, if he was willing. However, Goi turned it down. Said Goi, “No, I just don't want to make the movie again. I don't want to go there again." He also stated that while he didn’t think he would be able to make the movie the same way today, he wouldn’t do anything differently if he were to try and remake the movie again.
Goi also said that while it was unlikely, he could potentially be willing to make a sequel, but only if he were to get some perspective on the people who actually conduct searches for missing children and the emotional toll it takes on them. Bringing up his friend, Mark Klaas, who started the KlaasKids Foundation after his daughter was abducted and murdered, Goi said that if he were to approach the subject again, it would most likely come from him getting together with Mark and adding more perspectives on what he and his foundation do.
Goi’s original idea to make Megan is Missing came out of similar research. The movie was born out of his experience working with a forensics investigator on another project coupled with his feelings about programs like To Catch a Predator, which he felt were sensationalizing internet predators and not being fully honest about the real risks that exist for kids on the internet.
Because of the deeply dark subject matter and the intent he had to create a realistic warning for child abductions, Goi didn’t want to pull any punches with Megan is Missing.
“Everything came from documents, court transcripts, surveillance videos, file photos, all of that from seven different cases. And so in that sense, it's entirely accurate to what actually happened in these individual cases, just the seven cases were melded into one story line.”
He also created the dialogue for Megan is Missing by transcribing audio and video recordings of his friends’ children, interviewing them to get a sense of how they talk and what they talk about. The intention was to create a highly realistic movie that felt like an accurate depiction of real 13-year-old girls. The accuracy of the movie is a big part of what makes it so grim and difficult to watch, but that’s also what makes it so good. However, it's also a big part of the reason Megan is Missing probably won’t get a remake or a sequel, because it would be so difficult to make the same movie today with the same level of accuracy, especially since Goi funded the movie himself.