{"id":532716,"date":"2026-03-19T11:53:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532716\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:53:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:53:15","slug":"project-hail-mary-screenwriter-drew-goddard-on-gosling-lord-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/532716\/","title":{"rendered":"Project Hail Mary Screenwriter Drew Goddard on Gosling, Lord & Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

University of Colorado grad Drew Goddard<\/a> has thrived in Hollywood by keeping in touch with his inner muse \u2014 and collaborating with sci-fi writer Andy Weir. Goddard<\/a> grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the home of rocket scientists who gave us the atomic bomb, and still boasts the highest IQ per capita in America. Weir captured the humor of scientists, said Goddard, who made \u201cThe Martian\u201d work with a 20-minute section with Matt Damon alone \u2014 and earned an Oscar nomination for it.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s in space again, adapting Weir\u2019s bestseller \u201cProject Hail Mary<\/a>,\u201d this time with solo scientist Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) \u2014 not a trained astronaut \u2014 who is in way over his head but uses science to figure out the many problems that come his way. (Like how to pilot a spaceship.) The stakes on his mission couldn\u2019t be higher: Save the Earth by saving the dying sun. En route, Grace meets another solo space traveler, a crab-like alien he names Rocky. Somehow, they figure out how to inhabit the same space without breathing the same atmosphere \u2014 and how to communicate.<\/p>\n

\"Delroy<\/a> \"'DreamQuil'\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

When Goddard was a hot TV writer after working with Joss Whedon on \u201cBuffy the Vampire Slayer,\u201d Goddard signed up with J.J. Abrams on \u201cAlias,\u201d which led to \u201cCloverfield\u201d and \u201cLost,\u201d rewriting the end of \u201cWorld War Z\u201d and the hilariously scary \u201cThe Cabin in the Woods,\u201d which he directed. A bevy of writing assignments created such a crunch that Goddard had to let go of the directing reins on \u201cThe Martian\u201d to concentrate on writing Marvel series \u201cDaredevil\u201d and \u201cSpider-Man\u201d spinoff \u201cSinister Six\u201d (which was later derailed by the Sony hack). That\u2019s when\u00a0Ridley Scott<\/a>\u00a0took over. Goddard also directed the ensemble comedy \u201cBad Times at the El Royale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018The Martian\u2019Fox<\/p>\n

In short, Goddard is very much in demand. With \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d again, he had to wrestle with the science without dumbing it down too much. The movie is much funnier than the book, due not only to Goddard but also to the Oscar-winning directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller <\/a>(\u201cSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse\u201d) as well as the producer\/star who developed the project, Gosling.<\/p>\n

Weir was on board the whole time. \u201cWhen Chris and Phil and I signed up,\u201d Goddard told me at The Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, \u201c\u2018Oh yeah, it\u2019s going to be really hard to figure this out.\u2019 Andy is so good at the science that I don\u2019t have to be. I can approach it from what I like to do, which is write about emotions. It\u2019s how I structure everything I do; no matter the genre, it\u2019s an emotional journey. So when you take those two things that are diametrically opposed, in some ways, it makes for good collaboration, because I can trust that the science is accurate and it\u2019s going to work. What I care about is the love of science and the purpose of science \u2014 not the science itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two writers agreed to let the audience figure things out. \u201cIt\u2019s OK if they don\u2019t understand,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cAs long as the emotional intent is pure, audiences will go with it. If they don\u2019t fully understand, they can watch it again, they can look it up, make them an active participant, because as long as the emotions are clear, the rest will take care of itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

What \u201cThe Martian\u201d and \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d have in common is the idea that human beings who are fallible and don\u2019t know everything can be ingenious and figure out problems. \u201cI love watching competent people do their jobs,\u201d said Goddard, whose mother is a schoolteacher. \u201cWe\u2019re not doing a story about the world\u2019s greatest astronaut. We\u2019re going to start with a schoolteacher\u2019s point of view. On a core level, \u2018the school teacher saves the universe\u2019 sounds preposterous, and yet felt so right to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe alien Rocky in \u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019Amazon MGM<\/p>\n

That was the initial hook. \u201cAnd then you get to some of the big reveals towards the end that made me sit up when I was reading the book and go, \u2018Oh my god, I did not see it coming,’\u201d said Goddard. \u201cI do this for a living, so it\u2019s my job to see things coming. Let\u2019s dive in and try to understand that, because it\u2019s not just a surprise \u2014 things that we don\u2019t know in the soul of the movie become a little more clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, adapting a bestseller made it possible for Lord and Miller and Amazon\/MGM uber-producer Amy Pascal <\/a>to have more license to take chances, even on a $200-million tentpole. \u201cWhen it works, you don\u2019t realize the chances we were taking,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cFive years from now, we\u2019re not going to think we took a lot of chances with \u2018Project Hail Mary.\u2019 But right now, I still remember, things were scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without naming any spoilers, keeping Weir\u2019s ending was always going to be an issue. \u201cWhenever you\u2019re doing anything that feels bold or different,\u201d said Goddard, \u201cI\u2019ve learned, people are going to push back against it. There\u2019s a human quality in what we do that you feel comforted if it\u2019s been done already. So anytime something\u2019s different, and you take a chance on something, there\u2019s an initial reaction to say, \u2018No, no, no, no, don\u2019t do this, it feels weird. This is too new. I don\u2019t understand this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The filmmaking team worked on \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d for six years. \u201cA lot of the big, bold choices were things that at various times, somebody pushed back on,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t always a studio; we become complicit, too, in wanting to second-guess things and pressure-test all of these ideas. And we kept coming back to know that first feeling when you read the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

The changes from the book involve simplifying the science and making Sandra H\u00fcller\u2019s earthbound mission chief a tad more humane. The Oscar-nominated German actress (\u201cAnatomy of a Fall\u201d) even agreed to do karaoke, at Gosling\u2019s behest, only if she could sing Harry Styles\u2019 \u201cSign of the Times.\u201d \u201cI was terrified before we cast that role,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cWho are we going to find that the whole world unanimously goes, \u2018Oh, let\u2019s put her in charge without even questioning?\u2019 When Sandra said yes, \u2018Oh, we have a movie, because their energies are so different.\u2019 You can feel these two heavyweights bouncing off each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,Chris Miller and Phil Lord attend the World Premiere of \u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019 at Cineworld Leicester Square on March 09, 2026 in London, EnglandKate Green\/Getty Images for Sony<\/p>\n

Having Lord and Miller was a blessing because they knew how to make characters and environments work in the animation universe. Creating a believable but relatable Rocky was the greatest challenge. \u201cYou don\u2019t have your usual crutches, right?\u201d said Goddard. \u201cHe can\u2019t talk. He speaks in whale sounds. They don\u2019t even have the same atmosphere. That\u2019s preposterous, because you\u2019ve got a boy in a bubble scenario without a face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goddard\u2019s son was growing up during the long writing period. \u201cSome of this movie is me communicating with my son,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just filters through what you\u2019re going through, and it comes out on screen. At its core, it\u2019s a love story, and it\u2019s also a tribute to the importance of empathy, right? The importance of saying, \u2018We\u2019re from other sides of the galaxy. Not only do we not have the same language, we don\u2019t have the same biomechanics. The only way we\u2019re going to get through this is to struggle to see from the other point of view, or the universe dies on a core level.’\u201d<\/p>\n

At the start, Grace is bumbling around the messy spaceship and figuring things out. Once Rocky arrives, though, Grace starts to document what\u2019s happening in a video journal. \u201cThat is the character\u2019s journey,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cHe\u2019s learning empathy. We don\u2019t jump to empathy. He has to learn empathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PROJECT\u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019\u00a9MGM\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

The tension between Goddard\u2019s structured script and Lord and Miller and Gosling\u2019s penchant for improvisational and physical comedy played out on set. For example, the writer gave them a joke structure for choosing the computer voice for Rocky. \u201cIf I could get the structure of this movie right, it would give them the opportunity to play within scenes,\u201d said Goddard, \u201cso that we could let them have fun. I\u2019ll write four or five that I think are funny, but they\u2019re going to transcend with 45 minutes of that joke, trying to find the funniest combinations. God bless them. They do not relent. They\u2019re always trying to make that movie better.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the studio previewed \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d at three hours-plus, it gave the filmmakers confidence, as it had with \u201cThe Martian,\u201d when Scott and Goddard were terrified they\u2019d have to dumb it down for mainstream audiences. \u201cThe thing they loved the most is that we didn\u2019t talk down to them, that we were talking up,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cIt gives you a freedom to say, \u2018Great, the audience is with us.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The studio gave \u201cgentle pushback\u201d on the eventual 156-minute running time, said Goddard. \u201cThere was some fear about \u2018have you guys lost your minds?\u2019 But we were trying to do something ambitious that would go beyond the usual disaster\/save-the-world type of movie, and explore other things. Nobody has to watch this movie more than us, right? So if we\u2019ve now watched it 30 times, and we see a way to improve a scene, even if no one will notice it until the 10th time they watch it, it delights us. It\u2019s like a living document until they pry it out of our hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, the movie works because the filmmakers were willing to display emotion. Grace and Rocky actually hug at one point. And moviegoers are brought to tears. \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid to wear our hearts on our sleeve,\u201d said Goddard. \u201cJust put it on there. And Ryan is not afraid \u2014 he can\u2019t not do it, quite frankly, it just oozes out of him. So it was a good aligning of the stars for this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up: ABC is shooting creator Goddard\u2019s \u201cHigh Potential\u201d Season 3, starring Kaitlin Olson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"University of Colorado grad Drew Goddard has thrived in Hollywood by keeping in touch with his inner muse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[233371,88,2695,5450,155909],"class_list":["post-532716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-drew-goddard","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-interviews","tag-project-hail-mary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}