Project Hail Mary: Goddard on the uncinematic novel
Drew Goddard told Gold Derby he had a lot of sleepless nights cracking Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary. People assumed the adaptation would be easy after The Martian. Goddard said the opposite was true: this one was more complicated, and his own fear of letting Weir down made him hesitate before joining Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on the film.
Calling a bestseller uncinematic is a screenwriter's way of naming the real job. A lone astronaut and an alien encounter have to become playable scenes, not illustrated chapters, and some of the novel will not survive that translation.
Goddard also talked about the hardest scene to lose and a subplot he still wishes were in the movie. That ache is part of adapted-screenplay craft: you can mourn a cut piece and still know the film needed the space.
Go deeper on Kingdom of Dreams
- → EP 266: Gary Goldman on writing Total Recall
- → EP 328: Bob Gale on writing the Back to the Future trilogy
- → EP 335: Pietro Scalia on editing Whalefall
We have not sat with Drew Goddard yet. Go deeper with writers, and with editors who have faced the same compression problem from the other side of the cut.
Headline inspired by reporting at Gold Derby (Marcus Errico interviewing Drew Goddard). Full article remains on their site; this page is our craft lens and episode guide. Read the source at Gold Derby ↗