Post

[Thread] Project Hail Mary: The interviews As usual, I've gathered a bunch of interviews and behind-the-scenes material from this new sci-fi movie in this thread. Warning: some articles contain spoilers. Read them after you've seen this excellent film.

“The ship in Andy’s book is very elegant and simple,” Lord said. “We were like, ‘Well, what if every single room is in two different states of gravity?’ So, like when Ryan wakes up, there are chairs sticking out of the side of the wall. That would make the ship more mysterious. More disorienting.”

Andy Weir: "So once I saw the Rocky puppet when I went to the model shop, and the puppeteers workshop, and I saw it, I was like, 'Oh, great. Now I finally know what Rocky looks like!'"

Weir: "But in Project Hail Mary, I was a producer, so I was involved in every step of the process. I approved casting, I helped choose the directors. I was there for the shoot. I watched every cut as it came in, and gave feedback and notes and stuff. So it was a completely different experience."

"So much of the story takes place from the protagonist’s point of view and Ryan’s character doesn’t know what’s happening initially. He’s trying to figure out why he’s in space. And for half of the movie, he doesn’t have anyone to talk to. So how do you make that work for a movie?"

"Adam Savage was invited behind the scenes during the production of Project Hail Mary. Production Designer Charlie Wood toured Tested through the dazzling interior of the Hail Mary and showed us the unique problems his team had to solve to build this dynamic and fully immersive set."

"Anyone releasing a movie is terrified that they are not going to be able to deliver on people’s expectations. It really is a useful feeling to be like, it’s Sunday, I just want to sleep in, and you get up because you want the movie to be everything it can possibly be."

“I teach first year physics and one of the things you do are these thought experiments of, well, ‘if I took a pendulum and it was on a moving train, would I still have the same value of g, the acceleration due to gravity’. It’s nice to see someone else revel in that and make use of it.”

Weir: "Absolutely, I have ideas for sequels for “Project Hail Mary,” but I just don’t have a good enough one yet. My next book, the one I’m working on now, is not a sequel to anything that I’ve written."

"But part of being a good screenwriter is knowing what the collaboration needs. For the first couple of drafts it was traditional. But as we got closer to production, they started riffing. Ryan is a great improviser. Chris and Phil are great improvisers."