Sumith Prasad
The filming of Ryan Gosling-starrer ‘Project Hail Mary’ will start in the United Kingdom in June. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are directing the movie, which is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. Drew Goddard penned the screenplay. The film is scheduled to be released on March 20, 2026.
The space movie revolves around Ryland Grace, the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission. The fate of humanity and the planet Earth rely on the success of the mission but Grace is not aware of the stakes. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very long time. After waking up millions of miles from home, he encounters nothing but two corpses for company.
As the narrative progresses, Grace’s memories fuzzily return, only for him to realize that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that’s been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it’s up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And thanks to an unexpected ally, he might have a chance.
The project is Lord and Miller’s first directorial since exiting ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story.’ Their last-released directorial venture is the 2014 buddy cop film ‘22 Jump Street,’ starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum. They also co-wrote the acclaimed animated feature ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ and wrote ‘The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.’
Although Lord and Miller couldn’t ultimately do ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story,’ the experience they gained from being a part of the movie has helped them while helming ‘Project Hail Mary.’ “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,” Lord told The Hollywood Reporter. “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,” Miller added.
The credits of Goddard, the screenwriter, include ‘The Cabin in the Woods,’ ‘World War Z,’ and ‘Bad Times at the El Royale.’ He also adapted Weir’s ‘The Martian’ for Ridley Scott.
Gosling is joining the movie after completing the production of David Leitch’s action-comedy film ‘The Fall Guy,’ which is gearing up for release on May 3, 2024. He is also headlining the cast of a prequel to the ‘Ocean’s’ franchise alongside his Barbie co-star Margot Robbie. Gosling previously played an astronaut, Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle’s biographical drama ‘First Man.’
The United Kingdom has previously hosted the shooting of several space and science-fiction projects, including Gareth Edwards’ ‘The Creator,’ Zack Snyder’s ‘Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire,’ and Apple TV+’s ‘Silo.’
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