Summary

  • Gosling stars as an astronaut who wakes up with amnesia on a space station and must uncover his mission to save Earth from an ice age.
  • Phil Lord and Chris Miller drew inspiration from their experience on Solo for Project Hail Mary, highlighting the importance of unconventional characters.
  • Lord and Miller will direct Project Hail Mary in early 2024, following their work on Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and other projects, while Gosling has upcoming films like Barbie and The Fall Guy.

Solo: A Star Wars Story's original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, opened up about Ryan Gosling's long-in-development astronaut Project Hail Mary movie, 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. Gosling plays the astronaut as he wakes up from a coma on a space station with no idea of who he is or what his mission entails. However, as he works to unravel the mysteries of his identity, he realizes he might be the only person who can save the Earth.

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Phil Lord and Chris Miller Talk Project Hail Mary Movie

Ryan Gosling as an astronaut

During a 2023 interview 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 explain how their experiences on Solo: A Star Wars Story influenced how they developed the Gosling-led project, namely in its more unconventional characters at the heart of its story (via The Hollywood Reporter).

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 several projects set before that. In 2023 alone, Lord and Miller served as producers on the Will Ferrell-led comedy Strays and also returned to the world of Spider-Man with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, as well as its sequel Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Also in 2023, Gosling starred in Barbie, where he portrays an often naive and absent-minded Ken who joins Margot Robbie's eponymous doll on her journey of self-discovery. Following Barbie, Gosling takes on the role of veteran stuntman Colt Seaver in David Leitch's adaptation of the 1980s series The Fall Guy, where he stars alongside Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Winston Duke, and Stephanie Hsu. That movie has a 2024 release date.

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, it will be interesting 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.