NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� wanted a friend.
Directors were in the midst of their largest production ever, the $200 million They were shooting some of the movie鈥檚 early scenes, when middle school biology teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) wakes up in deep space. After realizing he鈥檚 the sole survivor on board the spaceship, he turns depressed and, eventually, drunk.
鈥淩yan was like, 鈥業 just feel like I need a friend. I need a scene partner for this. I don鈥檛 know what to do in here,鈥欌�� Miller recalls. 鈥淲e were like: OK, let鈥檚 make a friend. So we scoured the set and found a mop and got a dress from the costume department. And we made a little mop friend for him to dance around with.
鈥淲e called it 鈥楳oppy Ringwald.鈥欌��
In their two decades making movies together, Lord and Miller have shown a particular talent in making inanimate objects come alive. They did this especially in but little in their idiosyncratic filmography, from 鈥�21 Jump Street鈥� to 鈥淪pider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,鈥� hasn鈥檛 involved some degree of playful reinvention.
may be their biggest challenge yet in breathing life into an improbable concept 鈥� and not just Moppy Ringwald. The film, adapted from Andy Weir鈥檚 bestseller, stars Gosling as an astronaut sent far into space on a mission to save Earth that brings him into contact with a faceless, rock-based alien whom Ryland nicknames 鈥淩ocky.鈥�
鈥淚t did seem like a crazy idea to make a movie with the hunkiest actor of his generation and a rock puppet,鈥� Lord said, chuckling, in an interview alongside Miller. 鈥淚 guess we鈥檙e interested in difficult things.鈥�
A big-budget bet
Budgets of $200 million are usually reserved for the biggest franchises, but 鈥淧roject Hail Mary,鈥� which opens in theaters Thursday, is hoping to become a blockbuster built on originality. The film, comic and heartwarming, arrives with an enviable pedigree.
Weir鈥檚 2011 book 鈥淭he Martian鈥� became , which adopted the book鈥檚 sense of joy and wonder for science. That movie鈥檚 screenwriter, Drew Goddard (鈥淭he Cabin in the Woods,鈥� 鈥淏ad Times at the El Royale鈥�), also penned the adaptation to 鈥淧roject Hail Mary.鈥� Gosling was attached before the 2021 book was even published. Sandra H眉ller, co-stars as the leader of a United Nations task force trying to save the planet from a star-eating virus called 鈥渁strophage.鈥�
Lord and Miller have made a career out of turning seemingly bad ideas into good movies, but 鈥淧roject Hail Mary,鈥� greenlit by MGM before it was acquired by Amazon, started off with clear crowd-pleasing possibilities, albeit with an unconventional extraterrestrial.
鈥淲e no longer get the benefit of low expectations,鈥� Miller says, laughing. 鈥淪o we sort of try to do things that maybe seem like a good idea from the beginning. It鈥檚 the evolution of our career.鈥�
The result is something a little like a combination of 鈥淚nterstellar鈥� and Though the directors鈥� first sojourn into space was famously aborted, 鈥淧roject Hail Mary鈥� gives Lord and Miller a space odyssey entirely of their irreverent sensibility. While the movie shares Weir鈥檚 physics-and-jokes approach from 鈥淭he Martian,鈥� Lord and Miller are approximately the polar opposite of Ridley Scott.
鈥淚n both cases, the directors were perfect for the task ahead of them. Ridley Scott is really good at conveying grandeur, really letting the setting hit and capturing the scale of things,鈥� says Weir. 鈥淏ut 鈥楶roject Hail Mary鈥� is a bromance. It鈥檚 like a buddy comedy.
鈥淚t鈥檚 much more fast-paced, there鈥檚 a lot of rapid dialogue, and that鈥檚 Phil and Chris鈥� bread and butter,鈥� he adds. 鈥淵ou can give them any random thing off the shelves and they can make a movie such that you care about its emotions.鈥�
Giving Gosling free rein, in space
Much of what distinguishes 鈥淧roject Hail Mary鈥� is that, despite the size of its production, the directors were still able to make a loose-limbed comedy, with zero-gravity improvisation and interstellar pratfalls. Big budgets and copious special effects are usually kryptonite to comedy, but 鈥淧roject Hail Mary鈥� gives Gosling, a not charmless performer, room to riff.
鈥淲hat we鈥檝e learned throughout our career is that spontaneous moments are magical,鈥� says Miller. 鈥淥ur job was to prepare and prepare and prepare, but make sure there was room to play and room to chase an idea that might be inconvenient.鈥�
鈥淣o one ever walked out of a movie going: 鈥榃ow, that seemed so well planned,鈥欌�� says Lord.
That included suspending Gosling in a spinning ring that allowed him to move where he wanted within the spaceship, designed by Charles Wood. And it involved following instincts. In one scene set at a karaoke bar, Gosling, after hearing H眉ller sing, felt her character needed a song. H眉ller picked Harry Styles鈥� 鈥淪ign of the Times鈥� and the filmmakers rushed to secure the rights within 48 hours.
But their most important innovations had to do with Rocky. Weir had written him, he says, intent on going further than a humanoid creature with funny prosthetics. 鈥淚 wanted my alien to be truly alien,鈥� he says.
鈥淭he part of the book that made me go, 鈥極h, god, I don鈥檛 know how we鈥檙e going to realize this,鈥� was Rocky,鈥� says Goddard. 鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 have the usual crutches that you have for loveable aliens. He doesn鈥檛 have a face. He can鈥檛 even exist in our atmosphere. He speaks in whale songs. He looks like the kind of alien that would normally be eating everyone.鈥�
Goddard, a filmmaker, too, was happy to leave the problem-solving to Lord and Miller.
鈥淚 knew Chris and Phil could figure it out,鈥� Goddard says. 鈥淚 knew from their background with animation and creating delightful characters out of thin air, they could do it.鈥�
A gift from Spielberg
To give Gosling a scene partner that went beyond a mop in a dress, Lord and Miller opted to hire a puppeteer to manipulate and voice Rocky. To find the right match, they even did chemistry reads between puppeteers and Gosling. James Ortiz got the role, and 鈥淧roject Hail Mary鈥� lives off his and Gosling’s interplay.
鈥淵ou never would have gotten that if you were like, 鈥極K, there鈥檚 a tennis ball and a stick that鈥檚 an alien here. Now be delighted by it,鈥欌�� Miller says.
Hollywood loves to make merchandise of cute little aliens. Faces are usually a part of that. But the unique challenges of 鈥淧roject Hail Mary鈥� were what most intrigued Lord and Miller. The common denominator to their movies, Lord says, is that they all begin with a thought process of 鈥淚t鈥檚 impossible,鈥� followed by 鈥渦nless 鈥︹��
鈥淓ven 鈥楽pider-Verse鈥� was like: Oh, this is going to be the seventh 鈥楽pider-Man鈥� movie. Nobody wants this 鈥� unless 鈥︹�� says Lord. 鈥淎udiences want to watch a movie put itself in a box, and wiggle out of it like Houdini.鈥�
The alien sequences worked well enough that urged the filmmakers to insert a nod to his own sci-fi classic of first contact: 鈥淗e was like: 鈥榊ou should have the alien do the 鈥淐lose Encounters鈥� theme,鈥欌�� Miller says. 鈥淚f you say so, Steven.鈥�
It鈥檚 one of several references peppered throughout (another is to 鈥淩ocky鈥�) by Lord and Miller, who have maintained the 鈥淟ego Movie鈥� ethos of taking neatly constructed sets apart and rebuilding them in their own fashion.
鈥淚t鈥檚 having it both ways,鈥� Lord says, smiling. 鈥淢aking an original thing out of unoriginal parts.鈥�
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