Project Hail Mary | author Andy Weir on the scenes he wanted cut from the film

Author Andy Weir argued for two scenes to be cut from Project Hail Mary – that turned out to be a pair of the most popular moments in the film. An interesting news snippets popped up yesterday about the final cut of the triumphant Project Hail Mary movie. Directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, ... Project Hail Mary | author Andy Weir on the scenes he wanted cut from the film

Author Andy Weir argued for two scenes to be cut from Project Hail Mary – that turned out to be a pair of the most popular moments in the film.

An interesting news snippets popped up yesterday about the final cut of the triumphant Project Hail Mary movie. Directed by Christopher Miller and Phil Lord, the movie is based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, and it’s expected to be in conversations around awards season. That should add nicely to its huge box office success.

Weir, then, has given a new interview to Slashfilm chatting about the movie, not least what had to be taken out of it to get its running time down. There was an early cut that ran for around four hours, with Weir giving feedback on what he felt should get the chop.

He earmarked two different scenes. The first is when Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling in the film, does a space walk, and ends up surrounded by glowing dust. It’s not a narrative moment per se, but an extremely cinematic one.

The other was when Eva Stratt, played by the mighty Sandra Huller, picks up a microphone and sings karaoke. Weir argued that “this is a long movie, and we’re just going to have Stratt singing Karaoke, which seem a little iffy for the character of Stratt that I had in mind anyway. Let’s cut it.”

They did not cut it. In fact, as those who watched Project Hail Mary will be very aware, the two scenes that Weir wanted out have gone on to be two of the most popular in the entire movie.

Weir cops to that, too. “What I’ve learned from the process of Project Hail Mary is that I belong writing novels and I should never be a director”, he admitted.

Project Hail Mary is available on home formats now…