Development
The title Gentle Monster comes from the South Korean brand of sunglasses of the same name that director Marie Kreutzer had lying on the table when she was working on the script for the film, which was originally titled Johnny Maccaroni. In 2022, Kreutzer released her historical drama film Corsage, which starred Austrian actor Florian Teichtmeister as Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. On 13 January 2023, it was reported that Teichtmeister had been charged with possession of child pornography. On 15 January 2023, Kreutzer released a statement saying that she was "sad and angry that a feminist film that more than 300 people from all over Europe worked on for years may be tarnished and damaged by the horrific actions of one person". Kreutzer said she was informed of the rumors about Teichtmeister in Autumn 2021, after the filming for Corsage had wrapped, and when she inquired the actor about these rumors via email, he "convincingly assured us (and others) of their falsity". On 5 September 2023, Teichtmeister pleaded guilty and received a two-year suspended prison sentence from the Vienna Regional Court for possessing and processing over 76,000 files depicting the sexual abuse of children. Kreutzer's handling of the case drew criticism in Austria for contradicting her feminist views and her criticism of the misogynistic approach to the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial.
In 2020, Kreutzer started working on a new film under the working title Johnny Maccaroni, which deals with a topic similar to Teichtmeister's case. The project, for which Kreutzer received funding in 2021, is about a woman who is visited by the police one day because her husband published a photo of their child in a dark web chat group in which men share content about how to abuse a child. Kreutzer told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung in January 2023 that she was unsure whether the film would even come about. The project was retitled Gentle Monster. In the closing credits for Gentle Monster, Kreutzer thanks "the haters" who criticized her when Teichtmeister's case became known in 2023.
Gentle Monster was produced by Alexander Gehr and Johanna Scherz at the Vienna-based company Film AG, in co-production with Germany's Komplizen Film and France's Kazak Productions, alongside Sweden's Kjellson & Wik and Film i Väst, and the broadcasters ORF (Film/Fernsehabkommen), ZDF and ZDF/Arte. The production was supported by the Austrian Film Institute, German Federal Film Fund, Filmfonds Wien, Eurimages - Council of Europe, FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Lower Austria Cinestyria Filmcommission and Fonds. It was selected as one of the projects presented at the 2025 Marché du Film Investors Circle initiative, where it was awarded the main ArteKino International Prize.
