The creative duo of Phil Lord & Chris Miller may have just set up a new first look deal at Universal Pictures last year, but it’s MGM who is giving them their next project. Lord & Miller are now slated to direct and produce an adaptation of a new sci-fi novel from The Martian author Andy Weir, and they’ll be taking First Man star Ryan Gosling back to space to make it happen.

Variety has details on the movie based on the new Andy Weir book. Ryan Gosling will be starring and producing along with Ken Kao and Andy Weir himself. Also producing will be Amy Pascal, who won an Oscar along with Lord & Miller for producing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Aditya Sood, the president of the film side of Lord & Miller’s own production banner.

So what’s the story about? There isn’t a detailed synopsis available yet, but the book is currently being referred to as “Project Hail Mary” and focuses on a solitary astronaut on a spaceship who is tasked with saving the planet. What does the planet need to be saved from? Why is it only up to one person? Who knows?! This is Hollywood, and one person has saved the world countless times before. If the book is as entertaining as The Martian, then we should be in for something great. And considering the rights to the book sold for seven figures, it must be good, right?

Ryan Gosling was key in making this project come together with Lord & Miller. The trade says that before Gosling was done reading an advance copy of the book, which won’t be published until the spring of 2021 by Random House, he was already pitching Lord & Miller as the right guys for the job. But in order to make it happen, MGM had to go through Universal in order to get approval for this to be their next movie. Thankfully, MGM chairman Michael De Luca has a good relationship with Universal chairman Donna Langley, so the two were able to easily iron out the details.

In a statement, Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy, MGM’s film group president, said:

“All of us at MGM are incredibly excited by this literal dream team coming together around Andy’s astounding novel. With their masterful ability to balance drama, action, and humor, Phil and Chris are the perfect filmmakers to take on this unique material and we are thrilled to have them partner with Ryan, Ken, Andy, Amy and Aditya to bring this movie to life for big screens everywhere.”

Lord & Miller have my absolute trust when it comes to finding projects that perfectly fit their creative aspirations. They’ve done everything from hilarious R-rated action comedy like 21 Jump Street to imaginative family friendly animation in The LEGO Movie, and they helped bring to life what is probably the best Spider-Man movie ever with Into the Spider-Verse. With a book from Andy Weir, I have no doubt they can give us a fantastic movie. Hopefully we’ll hear more about the new project soon, so stay tuned.

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