Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s original directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller open up about Ryan Gosling’s long-in-development astronaut movie, Project Hail Mary, offering new details about the movie’s story. Gosling joined the project as a star and producer when Metro-Goldwyn-Myer acquired the adaptation rights to The Martian author Andy Weir’s 2021 sci-fi novel ahead of its release in 2020. Project Hail Mary follows a teacher-turned-astronaut tasked with saving the Earth from a potentially catastrophic ice age by journeying to a far-off galaxy.
During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Lord and Miller offered the first proper update and story details for Project Hail Mary in two years. The directing duo explained how their experiences on Solo: A Star Wars Story is influencing how they develop the Gosling-led project, namely in its more unconventional characters at the heart of its story. See what Lord and Miller shared below:
Phil Lord: “The [Solo] experience clarified what was important to us. In the case of Hail Mary, it’s kind of radically benevolent. And it’s going to be hard.”
Chris Miller: “Having one of your main characters have no face and speak through music is a challenge that’s crazy enough that we would want to take it on When we were doing Spider-Verse the first time, there was a lot of nervousness at the studio that people wouldn’t understand the concept and that it would be too confusing. And our attitude was, ‘Audiences are smarter than you think.'”
What’s Next For Phil Lord, Chris Miller, and Ryan Gosling?
While Lord and Miller are set to team up with Gosling and The Martian‘s Drew Goddard to bring Project Hail Mary to life with production eyeing an early 2024 start, the directing duo have a number of projects set to release beforehand. Lord and Miller served as producers on the Will Ferrell-led comedy Strays, which sees Ferrell voice a dog out for revenge on a neglectful former owner and is set to release on August 18. The directors also returned to the world of Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man adaptations with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, as well as its sequel Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Meanwhile, before Project Hail Mary begins production, Gosling will star in Barbie, where he portrays a good-hearted, but often naive and absent-minded Ken who joins Margot Robbie’s eponymous doll on her journey of self-discovery. Alongside starring as Ken, Gosling will also lend his musical talents to the movie, performing a new original song for its soundtrack. Following Barbie, Gosling is set to portray veteran stuntman Colt in David Leitch’s adaptation of the 1980s series The Fall Guy, where he will star alongside Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, and Stephanie Hsu.
Project Hail Mary will be Lord and Miller’s long-awaited return to theatrical directing following their departure midway through Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s production, as such many fans of the pair are sure to be excited to see what they do next. With many of their projects sitting in development alongside the likes of Gosling’s Wolf Man reimagining, one can hope the sci-fi adaptation makes its way to the screen sooner than later.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
