Project Hail Mary: Lord & Miller Tease New Ryan Gosling Movie

The prolific filmmaking duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller are taking another stab at a live-action movie in Project Hail Mary. The movie is an adaptation of Andy Weir’s 2021 novel and is set to star Ryan Gosling, who plays an astronaut on a solo mission to save Earth. Lord and Miller made a name for themselves by directing Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, and The LEGO Movie, while also writing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and its sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. While they had to exit Solo: A Star Wars Story, Lord and Miller have used that experience to help them in Project Hail Mary.

“The [Solo] experience clarified what was important to us,” Phil Lord told The Hollywood Reporter. “In the case of Hail Mary, it’s kind of radically benevolent. And it’s going to be hard.” Project Hail Mary tells the story of an Earth slowing inching towards doomsday, as an unexpected issue with the sun will leave the planet in an ice age in the decades to come. Science teacher Ryland Grace (played by Ryan Gosling) is tapped to help solve this issue and embarks on a space-bound expedition to save the human race.

Gosling’s Grace spends much of Project Hail Mary alone on a spaceship with no one to talk to, until he encounters an alien that communicates through musical tones. The two share a key relationship in the movie, but since they don’t speak the same language, the directors had to get creative in depicting their relationship on-screen.

“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,” Chris Miller said. “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.’”

Ryan Gosling Gears Up For Barbie

The next project from Ryan Gosling that’s gearing up for a theatrical release is Barbie, starring Margot Robbie. Barbie released its newest trailer yesterday that gave an extended look at Robbie and Gosling, but the latter teased last summer that Barbie isn’t the movie audiences think it is.

Speaking with ET in support of his Netflix film, The Gray Man, Gosling said that the Barbie movie isn’t what anyone thinks — unless it is, though he doesn’t think anyone’s really figured it out.

“It’s not what you think it is. Unless it is,” Gosling said. “And then you know what it is, but I don’t think that’s what you think it is.”

He went on to say that he’s excited for people to see the film but that it’s also “not what you expect” but couldn’t really say much else.

“I can’t wait for people to see the film,” Gosling said. “That’s all I can say, otherwise Mattel will come and box me up.”

Photo credit Jeff Moore/PA Images via Getty Images