Ryan Gosling, looking very nerdy and quite un-Ken-like, plays a science teacher turned grudging astronaut in “Project Hail Mary,” a sci-fi adventure that Amazon MGM Studios teased during its presentation to theater owners at CinemaCon on Wednesday.
“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” Gosling tells the government handler (Sandra Hüller) who has tapped him to undertake a suicidal space mission. “I can’t even moonwalk.”
The film, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s best-selling novel of the same name, follows an ordinary man who is told he has what it takes to go into the outer reaches of the universe. “You have the right stuff,” Gosling tells Hüller. “I have the wrong stuff.”
He may be reluctant, but the situation is dire. A catastrophic event threatens life as he knows it. “The world is counting on you,” Hüller tells him.
The trailer that Amazon MGM Studios shared shows Gosling and his small team in space, gazing out at a dazzling constellation of stars. All of it unspools to the strains of Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times.”
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the team behind “The Lego Movie” and “21 Jump Street,” direct from a script by Drew Goddard, who adapted Weir’s book “The Martian” into a hit Matt Damon movie. Like that film, “Project Hail Mary” seems to combine humor and spectacle.
“It’s an insanely ambitious story that’s massive in scope, and it seemed really hard to make, and that’s kind of our bag,” Gosling said after he took the stage to share the footage.
“This is why we go to the movies,” he added. “And I’m not just saying it because I’m in it. I’m also saying it because I’m a producer on the film.”
The rights to Weir’s novel sparked a bidding war with MGM Studios, which had not yet sold to Amazon, buying it for $3 million. Gosling recently starred in 2023’s mega-hit, “Barbie,” and appeared opposite Emily Blunt in last summer’s “The Fall Guy,” which was well reviewed, but failed to connect with audiences.
“Project Hail Mary” will open in theaters in the United States on March 20, 2026.
Unlike other streaming services, Amazon MGM Studios has endeared itself to theater owners by promising to send over a dozen movies to their screens. Its presence at CinemaCon is intended to show the strength of its commitment. That was something that Gosling, Lord and Miller all stressed in their remarks, telling the audience that “Project Hail Mary” needed to be seen on the big screen.
“We tried to put it on a TV once and it didn’t fit,” Gosling joked.
