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Tag: Chris Miller

  • Why the New ‘Project Hail Mary’ Trailer Has That Big ‘Spoiler’ in It

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    When Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary was first released, it happened about 170 pages into a 470-page novel. That’s when the author decided it was time to reveal what his story was really about. Oh, sure. It was about a man named Ryland Grace waking up in space with amnesia and slowly figuring out that the fate of the planet is in his hands. But, also, it’s about Ryland meeting an alien.

    Well, as you probably know, that book is becoming a movie starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. And, after just teasing it in the first trailer, its latest trailer prominently features the alien who Ryland nicknames “Rocky.” According to Weir, who is also a producer on the film, there was discussion about holding back the reveal, but ultimately, the studio decided against it.

    “It’s really more a marketing decision by Amazon MGM, but the idea was no one’s going to walk into that theater and not know about Rocky,” Weir told Polygon. “This is not a Darth Vader is Luke’s father kind of situation. This is a core, central element of the plot that everybody’s going to be talking about and that everybody who’s read the book already knows about.”

    Lord and Miller, who are making their return to directing for the first time in over a decade, agree. “You can’t tell this story without introducing Rocky, because the heart of the story is the relationship between him and Grace,” Miller said in a Reddit AMA. “As fans of the book, you know Rocky is the second lead of this movie. And what’s shown in the trailer is just a glimpse of what’s to come. Rocky is such a beautiful and ‘amaze-‘ing character, and we were all very thoughtful about what to show and when. You all know how much more there is to this story and relationship than what is shown in the trailer, and we’re excited for everyone to see where it goes!”

    Plus, as Weir said in his interview, “All trailers are designed to put butts in seats, and we want those butts in those seats. We want people to go, ‘Now I want to know what’s going on.’” And, by revealing that Gosling spends most of his screentime with an alien, you get a double dose of intrigue. Will this astronaut be able to save the world? And, also, how the heck is he going to interact with a rock alien?

    The answers to those questions, however, are the real spoilers and are certainly going to be held for March, when Project Hail Mary comes to theaters. Or, you know, the book has been out for over four years, so you could always check that out, too. We’d recommend it.

    Project Hail Mary opens March 20, 2026, and we cannot wait.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Germain Lussier

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  • Project Hail Mary is Lifting Off with Ryan Gosling in March 2026

    Project Hail Mary is Lifting Off with Ryan Gosling in March 2026

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    Image: Ballantine Books

    Years ago, Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel Project Hail Mary was being optioned as a film with Ryan Gosling in the lead role. After years of no significant news on the project, Amazon MGM’s ready to bring the adaptation to theaters, and it’s even locked down a release date: March 20, 2026.

    Spoilers of the Week | June 17th

    No other major films—if any movies, period—have that called dibs on that day, according to Deadline. At time of writing, a start date for production hasn’t been locked down; last year, cameras would reportedly start rolling in early 2024 over in the UK, but that was before the Hollywood strikes came along and threw any plans out of whack as it has with other productions. What hasn’t changed, though, is the talent behind the camera: the movie’s still to be directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller and like The Martian in 2015, be working off a screenplay written by Drew Goddard.

    Project Hail Mary released in 2021 as the technically fourth (and most recent) novel in Weir’s career. Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a school teacher-turned-astronaut who wakes up from a coma riddled with amnesia and aboard the titular space station. Eventually, he starts to put his memories back together, where he realizes he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system to reverse a solar dimming event that could wipe out humanity. Like The Martian, it received pretty good reviews, and became a finalist at the 2022 Hugo Awards’ Best Novel category.

    Back when it released in 2020, we thought Hail Mary was a pretty solid read, especially for those who got onboard with Weir through The Martian. In some ways, it’s doing the same things as that book on a bigger scale, but it was also just as engrossing as Martian, so can you really be mad at it? Count as curious to see what comes of the film on March 20, 2026. If you haven’t read it yet, it might not hurt to do so ahead of time, even if it’s just to beat the rush at bookstores and libraries.

    Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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    Justin Carter

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  • Phil Lord, Chris Miller Reveal Themselves as Writers of Golden Globes “Studio Executives” Bit

    Phil Lord, Chris Miller Reveal Themselves as Writers of Golden Globes “Studio Executives” Bit

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    When Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse voice actors Hailee Steinfeld, Daniel Kaluuya and Shameik Moore took the stage to present best screenplay at the Golden Globes earlier this month, the trio claimed their intro had been written by studio executives.

    But, instead, it was Spider-Verse writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller who crafted the memorably stilted dialogue, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

    “We were really happy that they wanted to have Hailee, Shameik and Daniel present and present a prestigious award,” Lord tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I think it’s a nice acknowledgment that the cast of our movie is full of Oscar nominees. Hailee is an Oscar nominee and an Academy member. Kaluuya is an [Oscar] winner. And we wanted to make sure they looked great. It’s a fun show, but you want to make sure you don’t go up there and whiff on a bit. So I think our objective was: How do we make something for them that makes them look great, that honors the category, that is still playful?”

    In coming up with the segment, the duo — who have a history of writing for the Lego and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs franchises and for Apple TV+’s The Afterparty but who admit they’re “not professional variety show writers” — came up with eight options, trading ideas and soliciting suggestions from friends even as late as the Friday before the awards show. The Spider-Verse team ran through the options in rehearsal, and they knew the “studio executives” bit was a winner.

    “It was very clear anytime it was pretend banter, it just always felt canned,” Lord says. “At least with the three of them, the thing that they gravitated toward and really were able to lean into and felt really confident about was the thing where they could play it really straight but still be in on the joke.”

    The segment also offered one of the show’s few allusions to last year’s writers strike, which was appreciated by the head writers for the Globes, who explained they hadn’t yet found a way to acknowledge the strike, Lord and Miller recall. “They were excited about the bit because it was a way to do it with a friendly touch,” says Miller.

    The moment was a hit with the star-studded audience, which included the executives who supported Spider-Verse who were sitting next to Lord, Miller and Spider-Verse directors Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson and Joaquim Dos Santos, who spoke with THR about the bit at the National Board of Review Awards last Thursday.

    All three directors, who were on hand to receive the best animated feature award, said they enjoyed the intro, adding that they were “cracking up” at the “hilarious moment.”

    Powers elaborated that he thought that segment reflected the film.

    “I think that speaks to the spirit of the film that we made and the characters that we had them portray,” Powers told THR. “It was great to have our actors in our film, who are great personalities in their own right, highlighted.”

    As for why they attributed the speech to studio executives and not AI, Miller calls the technology “comedy clam,” or something a bit “hackneyed.”

    “We certainly have no love for AI and don’t want it anywhere near script-writing,” he added.

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    Hilary Lewis

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  • Spider-Verse Fans Have Compelling Evidence That Gwen Is Trans

    Spider-Verse Fans Have Compelling Evidence That Gwen Is Trans

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    Just in time for Pride, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse moviegoers think the summer box-office phenomenon offers some pretty compelling evidence that one of its heroes, Gwen Stacy, is trans.

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    While the film never explicitly raises the issue of whether or not Gwen Stacy is trans over the course of its two-hour and twenty-minute runtime, some Spider-Verse viewers feel that her character arc, which includes a painful coming-out of sorts to her father, functions as a trans allegory. And the visual motifs that the film employs during this pivotal scene only serve to drive home that interpretation.

    Throughout the film, the watercolors lending their hues to the background of Gwen’s universe shift to match the emotions she’s feeling. It lends her whole world a similar look to that of Robbi Rodriguez’s cover art for her 2015 comic book, Radioactive Spider-Gwen.

    However, during a pivotal scene where Gwen reveals to her father, Captain George Stacy, that she’s Spider-Woman, the entire backdrop of the Stacy household is awash in white, blue, and pink watercolors: the same colors that make up the trans pride flag. The tri-color art direction during Gwen’s anguished confession about an aspect of her identity she fears her father won’t accept underscore a conflict that resonated with many trans viewers.

    “I truly thought the ‘Gwen is trans’ stuff in ATSV was just Twitter doing its usual thing but no it’s AGGRESSIVELY loud about it,” Twitter user Blankzilla wrote. “Being draped in the trans colors while giving a speech about having to hide half of yourself from the people you love is as subtle as a brick.”

    “Thinking about Trans Gwen Stacy and her entire plot being about centered around her father’s struggle to believe her and accept her identity,” tori_af said.

    “Mfs be like ‘gwen stacy isn’t trans’ and then they have a four minute sequence in the movie where she’s just the trans flag colors,” Moshy_Maybe wrote.

    Aside from Gwen’s confessional with her father feeling akin to a trans person coming out to their family for the first time, eagle-eyed Spider-Verse viewers also spotted a bunch of items scattered about her house as evidence supporting their ongoing fan theory. For example, one Twitter user pointed out that Gwen has a trans pride pin on her jacket and a “Protect Trans Kids” sticker on her wall, and her dad has a trans pride flag on his police uniform.

    Kotaku reached out to director Kemp Thompson and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller for comment.

    Sony Pictures Animation

    Gwen Stacy’s visual motif is like a ‘mood ring’

    Spider-Verse fan theories about Gwen Stacy being trans might not be entirely off the mark. In an interview with Cinema Blend, Gwen Stacy actress Hailee Steinfeld revealed that Spider-Verse director Kemp Thompson and producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller described the watercolors of Gwen’s world as “like a mood ring.”

    “It will visually change as her circumstances change, and the emotions she feels we will feel in the audience on screen,” Steinfield told Cinema Blend, adding, “I’m biased, but Gwen’s world is pretty beautiful.”

    If the filmmakers had the wherewithal to drop a visual hint that Miles altered his fate from becoming Prowler back in Into The Spider-Verse, who’s to say they didn’t also deliberately drop the most obvious artistic clue that Gwen is trans in Across The Spider-Verse?

    Whether or not Gwen is trans, Twitter user RawbertBeef perfectly encapsulates what Spider-Gwen means to the trans community by saying, “even if the movies never outright confirm it…if she can make somebody feel represented, who are you to tell them they’re wrong?”

       

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    Isaiah Colbert

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