Project Hail Mary got a soft launch at CinemaCon.
The Phil Lord and Christopher Miller film got a share of the spotlight during Amazon MGM Studios’ CinemaCon presentation on Wednesday night inside the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas thanks in large part to mega star Ryan Gosling. It actually got prime position in kicking off the studios’ inaugural presentation with a cold open that went straight into exclusive footage that lasted several minutes. Once it wrapped, Lord, Miller and Gosling hit the stage to talk about their collaboration.
Based on The Martian scribe Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Project Hail Mary follows middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) who wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. He must figure out how to complete his interstellar mission to save Earth from an astronomical catastrophe completely alone, until he meets a mysterious alien who has traveled light years to save his own species from the same fate. Drew Goddard adapted the novel for the screen.
Gosling stars opposite Oscar nominated star of Anatomy of a Fall Sandra Hüller. Gosling is also producing the film with Lord, Miller, Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor and Weir. The executive producer roster includes Patricia Whitcher, Drew Goddard, Sarah Esberg, Lucy Kitada, Nikki Baida and Ken Kao.
The footage, soundtracked to Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times,” opened with Gosling as a teacher in a classroom of youngsters. He’s approached by Hüller’s character with a dire warning that the Earth is in danger — as is the rest of the galaxy. “I ride a bike to work,” he says in denying the proposition to get involved on the top secret mission. “I’m sure there are better people than me.”
She doesn’t take no for an answer as he’s seems to be forced in the back of a black SUV. The next sequence shows Gosling’s character at the mission’s home base where he again tries his best to pass on the opportunity as Hüller’s warnings become even more urgent. “The sun is not the only star dying,” she relays. “There is a pattern of infection.”
In order to save, well, every planet and everyone, the mission requires an astronaut to go to space to clear up the world ending scenario, “or everything on this extinct goes instinct,” she says, as it’s revealed that whomever goes on the mission may not survive, unless it’s a successful Hail Mary. It’s clear she’s asking for Grace to volunteer for the mission but again, he declines. “Who is going to sign up for that,” Gosling’s character says. “I’m not an astronaut.”
Gosling then delivers a series of lines that are sure to catch on: “I put the not in astronaut,” and “I can’t even moonwalk,” and “Some people are not good at things. You have the right stuff. I have the wrong stuff.”
After the footage played, the trio came to the stage to tease what’s to come, and they ended up charming the capacity crowd with some witty banter.
Gosling got the conversation going by explaining that the project started when they all “fell in love with a book by Andy Weir” (prior to its publication) and then the world did the same. It’s an insanely ambitious story that’s massive in scope and seemed really hard to make and that’s kind of our bag.”
Miller called it “the biggest challenge” the filmmaking duo has ever taken on. Lord took some time to praise Gosling as “the best actor of his generation” who anchors the film with an iconic, funny and brave performance. In one of those witty moments, Gosling then said that he enjoyed working with Lord and Miller who “have a singular vision which is weird because there’s two of them. They are only happy if they make you do the very rare and coveted laugh cry.”
Seriously, though, Gosling said he honestly loved playing the character. “He goes on such a journey as you can see and this is why you go to the movies. I’m not just saying it because I’m in it because I’m a producer on it as well.”
News of Gosling boarding the project as star and producer broke way back in March 2020, and came a little more than a year before the novel was published by Random House. It was brought into MGM during the days when Michael De Luca led the studio, and before the studio was acquired by Amazon.
Project Hail Mary, set for release on March 20, 2026, will mark a return to space for the Oscar nominated actor who played Neil Armstrong in Damien Chazelle’s First Man.
CinemaCon, the annual gathering of cinema owners and Hollywood studios, is hosted in Las Vegas by the newly rebranded Cinema United, which for decades was known as the National Association of Theatre Owners. This year’s edition runs from March 31 to April 3.
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