AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Ryland Grace wakes up in space, and he doesn't know how he got there. The mystery that slowly unfolds reveals a last-ditch space mission orchestrated around the globe to stop the sun from dying.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "PROJECT HAIL MARY")
RYAN GOSLING: (As Ryland Grace) I understand that you think I'm the right person for this mission. I understand the stakes.
SANDRA HULLER: (As Eva Stratt) If we do nothing, everything on this planet will go extinct, including us.
RASCOE: The new movie "Project Hail Mary" stars Ryan Gosling, based on the book by Andy Weir. And it was directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. They're the directors behind "The Lego Movie," "21 Jump Street" and "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs." Phil Lord and Chris Miller join us now. Welcome.
CHRIS MILLER: Hello. How are you?
PHIL LORD: Thank you for having us. We love being here.
RASCOE: What did you see in the novel that connected with you and made you want to bring this to life?
LORD: Yeah, so this is Phil Lord talking. You know, it's a novel about how in order to save the planet, you have to make a friend. And so we loved the scale of it. Obviously, as filmmakers, you know, it had all these opportunities to be visually exciting. But the fact that it comes down to this intimate relationship story is the thing that really made us realize we wanted to do it.
MILLER: This is Chris Miller. It was a book that made us laugh and cry and be excited on the edge of our seat and feel all of the feelings that are possible for a human to feel.
RASCOE: There are lots of Andy Weir fans and fans of science fiction in general, and they can be very particular when it comes to the adaptation of their favorite books.
LORD: Yes (laughter). We've made a couple of Spider-Man movies, so we're...
RASCOE: Yeah, so you know how the fan base could be (laughter).
LORD: Yeah. Yeah. But the way we always think about that is, like, we honor the soul of the material. And so on this movie, you know, the soul of it is it is about problem solving, and it is about how cooperation is the building block, like, the fundamental unit of solving big problems.
RASCOE: 'Cause it does seem like the movie does present this vision that is really wonderful of the countries of the world working together to solve this problem - a dying sun. (Laughter) Did it - is that what also made it feel like science fiction?
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Like, this idea of everyone coming together?
MILLER: I mean, it's never a bad time to remind all of us what we can accomplish when we work together on things.
LORD: You know, institutions sometimes struggle to work together, but people don't. Science is social. It requires, like, people all around the world working on the same problem, building on each other's work. Everyone contributes a little bit. And I think Andy Weir's observation is that we are designed for cooperation. It's natural to us.
RASCOE: Ryland meets this alien who's working on the same problem in his solar system, and the two become wonderful friends. And he calls the alien Rocky 'cause he kind of looks like a spider made out of rocks. Like, how did you bring this creature to life?
MILLER: We built an actual creature that was puppeteered. We designed it with the legendary Neal Scanlan and his creature shop team. And then we held auditions and did chemistry reads with some of the world's best puppeteers and found this wonderful performer named James Ortiz, who was the lead puppeteer of Rocky and his translated English voice.
RASCOE: Wow. So there were - I mean, you were trying to find chemistry between a puppet and Ryan Gosling.
MILLER: Exactly.
LORD: Yes.
MILLER: And so - and Ryan wasn't just acting with a tennis ball on a stick every day. He was acting with a real scene partner and an actor, interacting with this puppet creature. And so we were able to improvise and have these moments of spontaneity and reactions that are real and not just, you know, imagined.
LORD: And there's a human connection - right? - because there's, like, you know, James and the rocketeers (ph), his - you know, it took five people to operate this character. Like, they're there, and they're all responding to each other. And there's something really magical about that that you can't fake.
MILLER: And at the end, it was - you know, ended up being about 50/50 puppet and animation. But everything that we captured had James there and a real puppet there.
RASCOE: The movie is also very funny. And a lot of the movies you've made are really funny. Obviously, the "Spider-Verse" movies and all of the - they're funny movies. How did you guys develop your senses of humor? Like, were there certain things that you found really funny growing up?
MILLER: I mean, we were both very short in middle school and high school, like, the shortest kids in our classes. And I think sometimes when you are not the tallest quarterback...
LORD: On the squad.
MILLER: ...On the squad, you have to find other ways to get attention.
LORD: Yeah, I'm more of an equipment manager.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: So you had to be funny.
MILLER: That's right (ph).
RASCOE: You had to be funny.
LORD: Yeah. And I come from a long line of people who have a lot of anxiety and really like people. And so the way to handle that is, like, through humor. You know, it's a way to connect without having to totally expose yourself.
RASCOE: This is a movie about friendship, and you two are friends.
LORD: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
LORD: It's true.
MILLER: There's a reason we were drawn to this manuscript. We love telling stories about people who are friends that work together to solve a difficult problem. It's kind of a running theme of - in the work that we do.
LORD: Yes, it's very expensive therapy.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Because that's what I'm saying - like, what have you two learned about what it takes to be good collaborators?
LORD: You know, the lucky thing is, you know, we've grown up together since we were 18. So we agree on, like, 95% of the things, and occasionally when we don't, you know, we try to separate the editorial part of it and the creation part of it. You know, you can't say, like, no, in the middle of, like, generating a thought.
MILLER: At the beginning, we butted heads a lot more, in being like, this is my idea. Well, this is my idea. And as we grew and became better collaborators, it was a lot about listening to the other person and trying to see the thing from their point of view.
LORD: And understanding the compounding effect of that cooperation, that it is going to lead neither to my idea nor Chris' idea, but something else that neither of us would have come up with...
MILLER: On our own.
LORD: ...On our on our own. That's the joy of it.
MILLER: It is better than what either one of us could have done on our own.
RASCOE: You know, you've made movies that children can really enjoy - "The Lego Movie," my kids love that, "The Mitchells Vs. The Machines," obviously, the "Spider-Verse" movies. Oh, my gosh. These are movies that a whole family could go to see and enjoy. I mean, do you think that there need to be more movies like that?
MILLER: These days, there's very few movies that are not animated that adults would go on a date night to, that people from 8 to 88 could enjoy. Things are either talked way down to for children, or they're made extremely inappropriate for children.
RASCOE: Yes, yes. Yeah.
MILLER: And there's not much in between. And this is a movie special in that way in that it assumes its audience is intelligent. But we've seen families and kids watch this film also and be absolutely delighted.
LORD: We don't really like to target a demographic. We're like - we're not really strategic. We make movies for human beings and certain dogs.
(LAUGHTER)
RASCOE: Not cats? Oh, OK, I see.
MILLER: I mean, cats can be very, very finicky.
RASCOE: Yes, yeah.
LORD: Yeah.
MILLER: They're hard to please.
LORD: Don't try to please a cat. You'll lose.
RASCOE: (Laughter) That's Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Their new movie, "Project Hail Mary" is in theaters now. Thank you so much for being with us.
MILLER: It was a pleasure.
LORD: Yeah.
MILLER: Thanks for talking with us.
LORD: Thank you so much.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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