Needless to say, after their “Project Hail Mary” comes out next Friday, Filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller will have their stock considerably rise, what with the early Oscar buzz the film has generated, and how it’s set for an opening weekend that could go as high as $80M.
‘Hail Mary’ is an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel, the same guy who wrote “The Martian,” for which this film bears many similarities. This to say, it sounds like Lord and Miller are not done with Weir adaptations — in fact one might come much sooner than expected.
In an interview with THR, Lord and Miller confirm they might direct an adaptation of “Artemis,” and that the script is ready:
There is an Artemis script, it’s delightful. The thing that was holding that back for years was, how do we execute 1/6 gravity?... We think we’ve figured it out.
Lord and Miller were originally attached to “Artemis” in 2017, but there’s been no progress since, with its status remaining unclear — it hadn’t moved forward into filming and has been in development limbo.
Now, with a Weir adaptation about to be one of their great successes, it’s not rocket science to believe that Lord and Miller can easily get “Artemis” greenlit, with the necessary budget to pull off a story involving a gritty lunar city, a daring heist, and the adventures of a smuggler navigating the dangers of life on the Moon.
Lord and Miller have so far directed five films together, including “The Lego Movie,” “21 Jump Street,” and “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” Their last directorial effort before “Project Hail Mary” was “22 Jump Street” (2014), although they famously departed from “Solo: A Star Wars Story” in 2017. Since then, they’ve remained active on the producing and writing front with projects such as “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “The Lego Movie 2.”