Ryan Gosling Teams with Rock Alien in New $200M Space Adventure

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller bring their signature style to "Project Hail Mary," a $200 million space adventure starring Ryan Gosling as an astronaut who befriends a rock-based alien named Rocky. The film, adapted from Andy Weir's bestselling novel, opens Thursday and represents the duo's first successful venture into space storytelling.

NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan Gosling needed companionship.

Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller were deep into production of their most expensive project to date, the $200 million sci-fi epic “Project Hail Mary.” During filming of early sequences where middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Gosling) awakens aboard a spacecraft in the depths of space, the character becomes despondent and begins drinking after discovering he’s alone on the vessel.

“Ryan was like, ‘I just feel like I need a friend. I need a scene partner for this. I don’t know what to do in here,'” Miller recalls. “We were like: OK, let’s 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.

“We called it ‘Moppy Ringwald.'”

Throughout their 20-year partnership, Lord and Miller have demonstrated exceptional skill at bringing lifeless objects to life on screen. This talent was particularly evident in their 2014 hit “The Lego Movie,” though nearly every entry in their unconventional body of work, spanning from “21 Jump Street” to “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” has featured some form of creative reimagining.

“Project Hail Mary” presents perhaps their greatest test yet in animating an unlikely premise — and Moppy Ringwald is just the beginning. Based on Andy Weir’s popular novel, the movie features Gosling as a space traveler on a desperate mission to rescue Earth, leading to an encounter with a stone-like extraterrestrial being that Ryland calls “Rocky.”

“It did seem like a crazy idea to make a movie with the hunkiest actor of his generation and a rock puppet,” Lord said, chuckling, in an interview alongside Miller. “I guess we’re interested in difficult things.”

Productions with $200 million budgets typically belong to established franchises, yet “Project Hail Mary,” debuting in cinemas Thursday, aims to achieve blockbuster success through original storytelling. The humorous and touching film arrives with impressive credentials.

Weir’s 2011 novel “The Martian” was transformed into the Academy Award-nominated 2015 movie, which captured the book’s scientific enthusiasm and sense of amazement. Drew Goddard (“The Cabin in the Woods,” “Bad Times at the El Royale”), who wrote that earlier screenplay, also crafted the “Project Hail Mary” adaptation. Gosling committed to the role before Weir’s 2021 book reached shelves. Sandra Hüller, the acclaimed German actress from “Anatomy of a Fall,” appears as the head of a United Nations team working to protect Earth from a star-consuming organism called “astrophage.”

Lord and Miller have built their reputation transforming apparently poor concepts into successful films, though “Project Hail Mary,” approved by MGM prior to Amazon’s acquisition, began with obvious commercial appeal despite featuring an unusual alien character.

“We no longer get the benefit of low expectations,” Miller says, laughing. “So we sort of try to do things that maybe seem like a good idea from the beginning. It’s the evolution of our career.”

The finished product resembles a blend of “Interstellar” and “Deep Space Homer.” While the directors’ initial space venture (the “Star Wars” film “Solo”) was notoriously canceled, “Project Hail Mary” provides Lord and Miller with a cosmic adventure that fully embraces their irreverent approach. Though the movie adopts Weir’s combination of scientific accuracy and humor from “The Martian,” Lord and Miller represent essentially the complete opposite of Ridley Scott.

“In 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,” says Weir. “But ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a bromance. It’s like a buddy comedy.

“It’s much more fast-paced, there’s a lot of rapid dialogue, and that’s Phil and Chris’ bread and butter,” he adds. “You can give them any random thing off the shelves and they can make a movie such that you care about its emotions.”

What sets “Project Hail Mary” apart is how the directors maintained their comedic sensibilities despite the massive production scale, incorporating weightless improvisation and cosmic physical comedy. Large budgets and extensive visual effects typically stifle humor, yet “Project Hail Mary” allows Gosling, a naturally charismatic performer, space for spontaneous moments.

“What we’ve learned throughout our career is that spontaneous moments are magical,” says Miller. “Our 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.”

“No one ever walked out of a movie going: ‘Wow, that seemed so well planned,'” says Lord.

This approach included placing Gosling in a rotating apparatus that enabled free movement throughout the spacecraft, designed by Charles Wood. It also meant following creative instincts. During a karaoke bar scene, Gosling suggested Hüller’s character needed a musical moment after hearing her sing. Hüller selected Harry Styles’ “Sign of the Times,” prompting the filmmakers to secure licensing within two days.

Their most significant innovations centered on Rocky. Weir deliberately created the character to exceed typical humanoid creatures with amusing makeup. “I wanted my alien to be truly alien,” he says.

“The part of the book that made me go, ‘Oh, god, I don’t know how we’re going to realize this,’ was Rocky,” says Goddard. “He doesn’t have the usual crutches that you have for loveable aliens. He doesn’t have a face. He can’t even exist in our atmosphere. He speaks in whale songs. He looks like the kind of alien that would normally be eating everyone.”

Goddard, also a director, gladly left the creative challenges to Lord and Miller.

“I knew Chris and Phil could figure it out,” Goddard says. “I knew from their background with animation and creating delightful characters out of thin air, they could do it.”

To provide Gosling with a performing partner beyond a costumed cleaning tool, Lord and Miller hired a puppeteer to operate and voice Rocky. They conducted screen tests between potential puppeteers and Gosling to find the right chemistry. James Ortiz won the role, and “Project Hail Mary” thrives on his dynamic with Gosling.

“You never would have gotten that if you were like, ‘OK, there’s a tennis ball and a stick that’s an alien here. Now be delighted by it,'” Miller says.

Hollywood typically creates merchandise around adorable alien characters, usually featuring recognizable faces. However, the distinctive challenges of “Project Hail Mary” attracted Lord and Miller most. The connecting thread through their films, Lord explains, begins with thinking “It’s impossible,” followed by “unless …”

“Even ‘Spider-Verse’ was like: Oh, this is going to be the seventh ‘Spider-Man’ movie. Nobody wants this — unless …” says Lord. “Audiences want to watch a movie put itself in a box, and wiggle out of it like Houdini.”

The alien sequences proved successful enough that Steven Spielberg suggested incorporating a reference to his own science fiction masterpiece about first contact: “He was like: ‘You should have the alien do the “Close Encounters” theme,'” Miller says. “If you say so, Steven.”

This represents one of multiple references woven throughout (another nods to “Rocky”) by Lord and Miller, who have maintained their “Lego Movie” philosophy of deconstructing established elements and reassembling them in their unique style.

“It’s having it both ways,” Lord says, smiling. “Making an original thing out of unoriginal parts.”