Look back at the past decade in film, search down a list of topics to “this is a bad idea & it’ll never work”. Next to “successes”, you’ll two names over and over: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. That’s right, the minds behind Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs, Lego Movie, and 21 Jump Street. More importantly they won an Oscar this year, for producing Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse. To pile into their good fortune, it appears they’re teaming-up with Drew Goddard for their next feature, Project Hail Mary.
The Hollywood Reporter has the scoop on the trio working together. Apparently, Project Hail Mary is the latest film to be based off the work of Andy Weir. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he wrote the novel The Martian is based on. An adaptation that Goddard happened to get an Oscar nominations for. The difference this go around, is that Goddard has been brought on merely to break the story, with Lord & Miller. There’s no telling if he’ll end up officially being one of the people to pen the script.
For more info on Project Hail Mary, here’s how THR describes the plot:
“Hail Mary centers on an astronaut who wakes up to find himself millions of miles away from home, in a tiny craft with two dead crewmates for company and no recollection of his mission or even his name. But this man will soon discover he is humanity’s only hope for survival from an extinction-level threat.”
The astronaut in question, in the above, is set to be played by Ryan Gosling, showing exactly how high profile this film is. In fact, MGM plunked down a whopping $3 mil, just to secure the film rights. Then, when you consider the tram being out together, it becomes clear the studio smells a hit. In a world where both Lucy In The Sky and Space Force have failed to launch, it’s a risky gamble. Heck, even Gosling’s previous trip to space, didn’t connect as expected.
That gamble might be a move worth taking though, when you consider all the talent involved. Lord & Miller’s success had already been stated. Gosling is an actor praised both for his good looks and talent. Plus, he was in The Nice Guys and that should be stated at every turn. Meanwhile, Goddard has written and directed Cabin In The Woods, as well as Bad Time At The El Royale. Not to mention writing Cloverfield, World War Z and being the mind behind Daredevil on Netflix. So, yeah, people might flock to a film they all work on together.
As with most things these days, it’s difficult to chart when this one will come out. Given the amount of money already involved, MGM will probably want to fast track it. Once filming and production can resume most places, that is. More on this one, as the story develops.
