- Project Hail Mary, Amazon MGM Studios’ adaptation of the Andy Weir novel (The Martian), has dazzled with an early preview at CinemaCon 2025.
- The film sends Ryan Gosling back up to screen space; with Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) at the helm.
- Project Hail Mary release date: March 20th, 2026.
Still riding the high of his Kenaissance post-Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Ryan Gosling is once again leaning into his previously underrated comedic chops for Phil Lord & Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary. And an early preview at this year’s CinemaCon makes it sound even more promising than before.
Adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Andy Weir (The Martian) – side note: the screenplay has also been handled by Drew Goddard, who adapted Ridley Scott’s The Martian – the story follows Ryland Grace (Gosling), a middle-school science teacher who awakens aboard a spacecraft with no memory of how he arrived there.
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As his amnesia gradually subsides, Grace discovers he’s the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti solar system and has been dispatched on a desperate mission to save Earth from an extinction-level threat. According to the official synopsis: “In his search for answers, Grace must rely on his vast array of scientific knowledge, sheer ingenuity, and human will – but he may not have to search alone.”
While a trailer hasn’t been made available for wider public consumption just yet, The Hollywood Reporter has provided a fairly detailed description of what was screened at CinemaCon…
The footage, soundtracked to Harry Styles’ ‘Sign of the Times,’ opened with Gosling as a teacher in a classroom of youngsters. He’s approached by Sandra Hüller’s (Anatomy of a Fall) character with a dire warning that the Earth is in danger – as is the rest of the galaxy. “I ride a bike to work,” he says in denying the proposition to get involved on the top secret mission. “I’m sure there are better people than me.”
She doesn’t take no for an answer as he’s seems to be forced in the back of a black SUV. The next sequence shows Gosling’s character at the mission’s home base where he again tries his best to pass on the opportunity as Hüller’s warnings become even more urgent. “The sun is not the only star dying,” she relays. “There is a pattern of infection.”
In order to save, well, every planet and everyone, the mission requires an astronaut to go to space to clear up the world ending scenario, “or everything on this extinct goes instinct,” she says, as it’s revealed that whomever goes on the mission may not survive, unless it’s a successful Hail Mary. It’s clear she’s asking for Grace to volunteer for the mission but again, he declines. “Who is going to sign up for that,” Gosling’s character says. “I’m not an astronaut.”
Gosling then delivers a series of lines that are sure to catch on: “I put the not in astronaut,” and “I can’t even moonwalk,” and “Some people are not good at things. You have the right stuff. I have the wrong stuff.”
“He goes on such a journey as you can see, and this is why you go to the movies. I’m not just saying it because I’m in it because I’m a producer on it as well,” Ryan Gosling, who famously portrayed Neil Armstrong in Damien Chazelle’s First Man, said of his character.
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Between Gosling’s proven track record in delivering nuanced humanity throughout his entire filmography, along with his ability to bring the laughs (see: Crazy, Stupid, Love, The Big Short, The Nice Guys); and the reputation of Phil Lord & Christopher Miller as the filmmakers behind the 21 Jump Street revival, The LEGO Movie, as well as the animated Spider-Verse features… the synergy is bound to be off the charts.
This forthcoming affair becomes even more compelling when you realise the cinematography has been accomplished by Australian-born extraordinaire, Greig Fraser, who you will have no doubt encountered via the likes of Rogue One, The Batman, The Creator, and perhaps most notably, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune franchise.
March 2026 cannot come any sooner.
