Why Project Hail Mary’s creators were ‘scared’ about making the sci-fi adaptation

Project Hail Mary is a natural follow-up to The Martian. Both movies are based on sci-fi novels by Andy Weir, and both have bankable stars in the lead role (Matt Damon for The Martian, Ryan Gosling for Project Hail Mary) and accomplished directors at the helm (Ridley Scott for the former, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for the latter). Even still, Drew Goddard, the screenwriter on both movies, went into Project Hail Mary with a lot of trepidation.

“My first thought was, ‘Oh god, I don’t know how we’re going to make this into a movie.’ I was so scared,” he tells The Verge. “I didn’t want to let Andy down. But I realized how challenging it was. This is a far more ambitious book than The Martian. It’s a much bigger canvas, it’s a much more mature subject, the detailed emotional storyline that’s at the core of this is so intimate against this celestial backdrop. I wasn’t sure how we were going to do this justice.”

There are a lot of similarities between the films, as both follow scientists stuck in seemingly impossible situations. In the case of Project Hail Mary’s Ryland Grace (Gosling), he finds himself on a mission to try to solve the mystery of a star-eating microorganism in order to save the Earth, which involves traveling to the far reaches of the galaxy. But two things happen when he arrives. First, he discovers that the rest of his crew died during the flight. Second, he meets a little alien who is trying to do the exact same things in order to save his home planet. This all makes for a story that’s bigger in scope than The Martian, and also much more varied in tone. At times it can be hard sci-fi; at others it’s a goofy buddy comedy.

Weir, who served as a producer on the film, says that he doesn’t consider the possibility of an adaptation when writing a new book. “I try not to think about it at all,” he notes. But once work began on Project Hail Mary, there were areas he knew would be challenging to adapt. One example: the period between when Ryland and his alien pal Rocky first meet. That’s because, up until that point, “there’s really no exposition,” he explains. “There’s no way in a visual medium like film to tell the viewer what’s going on. In the book, there’s Ryland’s inner monologue; it’s a first-person narration, so you know what he’s thinking and feeling. First-person narration is the ultimate cheat for people who want to tell, not show. I make use of it every chance I get. But for Drew, he had to find a way to convey all of that information.” The film uses a few techniques to get around this, including flashbacks and scenes with Gosling essentially talking to himself.

But while the scale and structure of the story were intimidating to adapt, there was one area that the creative team was very confident about: the science. While Project Hail Mary doesn’t feature quite as many science-focused scenes as The Martian, there’s still quite a bit of it in the film, with Ryland performing experiments, looking through microscopes, and trying to explain complex concepts. But since audiences responded so well to the science in The Martian, Goddard says he didn’t shy away from that aspect of the new movie.

“Going through the Martian experience is what gave us the confidence and the resolve to trust the audience,” he explains. “We did not dumb down The Martian, and I was scared when we did the first test screening. I thought the audience was not going to go with it; there was dense science in The Martian. And the lights came up and they loved the movie, and they loved it because it was smart. Going into this one we kind of had that wind at our backs, and we trusted that if we find it interesting, the audience is going to find it interesting.”

Still, the weight of following The Martian remained as he developed the script, and it was exacerbated for Goddard by the fact that work on the film was initially delayed by months because, as Weir explains it, “we wanted [Goddard] to be doing the job,” so they waited for him to be available. “There was a tremendous amount of comfort for me knowing that I was handing it off to a guy who had a proven track record in adapting my books,” Weir says.

Once Goddard wrapped up his existing commitments, he jumped on board, despite the fears inherent in the project. “They waited for me, which was lovely, it meant a lot to me,” he says. “But it also ups the pressure.”

_{Project Hail Mary hits theaters on March 20th.}