Here’s something refreshing: actual movie news. As in, old-fashioned movie news about a new movie, and potential casting, that has nothing to do with coronavirus, or things being shut down. The last few weeks have been filled with seemingly nothing but corona-related stories, so when a traditional bit of film news pops up, we’re all pretty damn ecstatic around here. Having already played an astronaut in First Man, Ryan Gosling is deciding to give it another go with The Hail Mary, a new film based on a novel by The Martian writer Andy Weir.

According to Deadline, Ryan Gosling is set to star and produce The Hail Mary, a still-unpublished book from Martian author Andy Weir. The story is “a solitary tale of an astronaut on a space ship who is tasked with saving the planet.” Gosling would, of course, play the astronaut. This sounds like familiar territory for both Gosling and Weir. Weir made a name for himself with another “solitary tale of an astronaut” – The Martian, a book he self-published, to great success. Ridley Scott ended up adapting the book into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon. And Gosling previously played Neil Armstrong in the criminally underrated First Man.

It’s good to see Gosling working again, but I’ll confess I’m not the biggest fan of Weir. I didn’t care for The Martian book at all, and I thought the movie adaptation was just okay. Of course, I realize I’m in the minority there, as seemingly everyone I know loved that movie. In any case, MGM is in exclusive talks to make The Hail Mary in a 7-figure deal – anything with Weir’s name on it is considered a hot commodity.

There’s no word on who might direct The Hail Mary at this point, but Goslin will produce along with Ken Kao. I appreciate Gosling going all-in on yet another astronaut movie, even though First Man was considered a box office disappointment. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “Oh, you didn’t like my astronaut movie? Screw you, I’m making another one. Eat it.” Or something along those lines.

There’s no release date in place for The Hail Mary movie yet, but there’s not really a release date in place for anything anymore these days. Hopefully, that’ll change soon.

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