Ryan Gosling plays middle school teacher/savior of humanity Ryland Grace in Project Hail Mary, a new sci-fi movie with a lot of impressive names behind the camera. First of all, the movie is based on a novel by Andy Weir, the guy who wrote The Martian, and you may notice some similarities in the plot. In The Martian, one lone man must learn to live by himself on Mars while awaiting rescue. In Project Hail Mary, one lone man must learn to live alone after he's shot into space, since apparently he's the only one with the technical expertise to figure out why the sun is fading away; if he doesn't solve the problem, humanity will go extinct.
When Ryland Grace wakes aboard this spaceship, light years away from home, he has no memory of how he got there. Happily, the trailer is here to fill us in; you can watch it above. The trailer also tells us that Ryland will eventually bump into a companion: an alien he names Rocky. I feel like this trailer almost gives away too much about the movie, but hopefully there's still enough story left over to make the watching worth it.
Project Hail Mary is being written by Drew Goddard, a bit of a celebrity screenwriter who has penned scripts for movies like Cabin in the Woods, Cloverfield, World War Z and The Martian. The directors are Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the guys behind The Lego Movie. Although they haven't directed a film in a while, they've been busy as producers on hits like the Into the Spider-Verse movies. Project Hail Mary will be their first directorial effort since 2014's 22 Jump Street.
All in all, Amazon MGM Studios has put together an impressive team. When I heard who was making the movie, I was a little afraid that it would be a streaming exclusive. But while I'm sure Project Hail Mary will eventually find a permanent home on Amazon's Prime Video streaming service, it will also open in movie theaters on March 20, 2026.
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