UPDATE: A report out of CinemaCon says a 2026 release date has been set up for “Project Hail Mary,” which is supposed start production in the summer.
EARLIER 02.02.24: According to Production Weekly, the Ryan Gosling-starring “Project Hail Mary” will begin production in the United Kingdom in June. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are set as the directors.
The space film, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, and written by Drew Goddard, tells the story of an Earth slowing inching towards doomsday. 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.
Weir sold the book's film rights to MGM in early 2020 for $3 million. Then, in March 2020, Gosling signed on to star and Lord/Miller to direct. Goddard, who previously adapted Weir's debut novel, “The Martian,” joined the project in July.
“Project Hail Mary” is set to be Lord and Miller’s first directorial effort since exiting “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” This means that the last film they directed was actually 2014’s “22 Jump Street.” They also co-wrote “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.”
Lord and Miller began directing ‘Solo’ only to be fired by Lucasfilm, after over four-and-a-half months of filming, about three-quarters through principal photography. Lucasfilm stated that the firing was due to "creative differences,” while EW reported that Lord and Miller were going off-script and trying to make the film into more of a comedy. Two days later, Ron Howard was announced as their replacement.
A few months later, Lord and Miller commented on their departure from Solo: A Star Wars Story:
“The experience of shooting the movie was wonderful. We had the most incredible cast and crew and collaborators. [...] We're really proud of the work we did on the movie and we wish everybody the best."
The result is that they haven’t directed a film in over 10 years. They’ve instead turned into producing movies such as “Cocaine Bear,” “The Lego Movie 2,” “The Mitchells vs The Machines,” “Strays” and “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.”