Project Hail Mary Needs To Break A Disappointing Ryan Gosling Movie Streak That Goes Back To 2017

Summary Project Hail Mary has a strong chance at success due to its thrilling source material and wider audience appeal.

Ryan Gosling's previous sci-fi films struggled at the box office due to their slow pace and quiet tone.

While Blade Runner 2049 and First Man were great films, Project Hail Mary is positioned as a blockbuster with high potential.

Ryan Gosling's upcoming science fiction film Project Hail Mary is facing an uphill battle, as it could be caught up in a disappointing trend plaguing Gosling in recent years. The film is based on the best-selling novel Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. It follows an astronaut who wakes up from a coma without his memory and must figure out what mission he's on and how he must complete it and save the Earth. The book was the followup to Weir's debut novel The Martian, and has proven to be popular and well regarded in its own right.

The film is set to begin shooting soon, with a possible release date of May 2026. Phil Lord and Chris Miller are slated to direct the picture, which will be their first directorial effort since 22 Jump Street over a decade ago. They do have experience in the sci-fi genre, however, as they famously nearly completed Solo: A Star Wars Story before being replaced by Ron Howard. Project Hail Mary is set to be adapted by Drew Goddard, who also wrote the screenplay adaptation for The Martian. The movie could be a hit, though it faces one potential major challenge.

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Ryan Gosling's Two Previous Sci-Fi Movies Bombed At The Box Office

In recent years Ryan Gosling hasn't had great luck at the box office with his leading roles, especially those in the science fiction genre. Blade Runner 2049, a followup to the classic Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott film from 1982, had the benefit of name recognition, the return of Ford as Rick Deckard, and one of the best working directors today in the form of Denis Villeneuve. Yet despite all of these things going for it, the film wasn't able to take off financially. Burdened with a massive budget, Blade Runner 2049 was considered a major bomb at the time.

Gosling's followup to 2049 didn't fare much better. While First Man is not science fiction, but rather a biopic on Neil Armstrong, its story is heavily rooted in the world of space travel, much like Project Hail Mary. First Man also had the benefit of a well-known director. Damien Chazelle was hot off of winning an Academy Award for Best Director for La La Land (which also starred Gosling). This seemed like it would be a sure-fire hit given Chazelle's track record, and the prospect of him re-teaming with Gosling was exciting. Yet First Man also failed to take off.

Blade Runner 2049 & First Man Were Also Both Divisive

There are numerous reasons why neither of the films did well at the box office at the time. Science fiction tends to struggle to appeal to audiences more often than not. When a film isn't operating in the mode of something like Star Wars or Marvel movies, which use science fiction aesthetics to mainly tell action-oriented stories, it needs a strong selling point. Blade Runner 2049 was a sequel to a film well-known in movie circles but not a huge franchise in its own right, and it wasn't helped by its slow pace and heady subject matter.

First Man, also, is a fairly quiet and mournful film. Rather than focusing on the rousing success of the Apollo missions, it instead dwells on the buried trauma Armstrong carried with him after the death of his daughter, which is a far cry from what audiences likely expected following the success of La La Land. This is reflected by First Man's 68% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, though that isn't the final barometer of quality, just audience response at the time. Both First Man and Blade Runner 2049 are great films, despite their lack of box office success.

Why Project Hail Mary Can Succeed Where Blade Runner 2049 & First Man Didn't

Project Hail Mary, while still very much within the "Hard Sci-Fi" genre, has a potentially better chance at succeeding than Gosling's previous efforts. It has much more rousing and thrilling source material, and is being aimed at a wider audience than that of First Man or Blade Runner 2049. Both of those films were more like adult dramas, whereas Project Hail Mary can fit more neatly into a blockbuster mode of operation. Gosling, following the overwhelming success of Barbie, is now more popular within that realm than he's ever been.

There's also a precedent set when it comes to films based off Andy Weir novels. The Martian was a surprise success, and it was able to accomplish this without sacrificing any of the science fiction elements of the original book. With Goddard writing the screenplay once again and the proven team of Lord & Miller at the helm, Project Hail Mary can break Gosling's unfortunate streak before it goes any further.