Project Hail Mary

The sun is dying, being feasted on by tiny lifeforms based on Venus. The phenomenon, the "astrophage," is not unique: every star within dozens of light-years of Sol is suffering the same malaise...except one: Tau Ceti. With Earth's habitability in danger in a matter of decades, the countries of the world unite to send a near-lightspeed ship, powered by the same tiny lifeforms, to Tau Ceti to investigate. Only one crewmember, Ryland Grace, survives the trip, finding himself alone almost a dozen light years from home with the awesome responsibility of saving the entire human race...and no idea how.

Project Hail Mary is a film based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Andy Weir, best-known for The Martian (also made into a successful movie). Both stories have a similar premise, stranding a handsome Hollywood leading man (first Matt Damon and now Ryan Gosling) an ungodly distance from home with limited or non-existent chances of rescue. Project Hail Mary is far less concerned with actual science though, with the threat to Earth, the interstellar propulsion system and the resolution to the crisis all being way more speculative than anything in The Martian. This gives the story more leeway to focus on the characters and having a little bit more fun.

This makes sense as the directors are the duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, remarkably here directing their first movie together in a dozen years. In the meantime they had started work on Solo: A Star Wars Story, only to be removed from the project mid-film and replaced by Ron Howard. Project Hail Mary serves as a calling card to show that yes, they can handle a more serious tone and also an effects-heavy SF movie, and do it well.

It's probably not a massive spoiler to say that Gosling's character is not alone for long, as it turns out other extraterrestrial civilisations are also under threat from the "astrophage" and the guys at 40 Eridani have also figured out that Tau Ceti may have hold the secret to defeating them so send a team of their own. Grace has to join forces with an alien named "Rocky" and learn his language as a prelude to finding a solution to the problem.

In order to overcome the limitation of 90% of the film being made up of Gosling talking to an ambulatory rock, the film also features elaborate flashbacks to the discovery of the astrophage, Grace training the scientists to fix the problem and then being asked to replace them when they are killed in an accident. This non-linear approach to the storytelling works quite well, even if it does add to the feeling this movie is "Interstellar with a few more laughs," (not a bad thing at all). Key to the flashbacks is Grace's relationship with his boss Eva Stratt (a phenomenal Sandra Hüller) which goes in directions the viewer wasn't quite expecting.

But it is the relationship between Grace and Rocky (voiced with skill by James Ortiz, who also "plays" the puppet version of the character) that is core to the movie, and that relationship is very well-written and excellently played, with the duo rapidly becoming one of SF's more impressive bromances, maybe not quite Han and Chewie, but more on the lines of Bruce Dern and his robots in Silent Running. In fact, the film feels like the perfect melding of a 1970s classic slice of sci-fi with a more modern twist.

The film falters a little with its running time, which feels a little overwrought, and with the film under-explaining a few concepts, like how the 40 Eridanians have no concept of relativity, explaining why Rocky's ship is so over-fuelled (a concept better acknowledged in the novel) for the voyage, which becomes a key plot point in explaining how they can move around the Tau Ceti system without worrying too much about fuel.

These complaints are next to negligible though. Project Hail Mary (****½) is an all-around, well-made, well-conceived film which mixes a serious plot with some lighter moments and is driven by superb performances as well as exemplary visual effects. The movie is available to watch worldwide now.

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Miles Morales is navigating high school and the expectations of his parents, including his police officer father. When he is bitten by a radioactive spider, Morales gains powers similar to those of his idol, Spider-Man, and he decides to seek out the web-slinging superhero and ask him to be his mentor. However, archvillain Kingpin is unleashing havoc on New York City. As part of his plan, the walls between realities is breached and multiple "spider-people" from different timelines arrive. Morales has to negotiate an alliance between the dimensionally-maladjusted group if Kingpin is to be stopped.

Into the Spider-Verse is the (count 'em!) seventh Spider-Man movie to be released this century, and, as with the character's addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is giving us a second live-action Spider-movie, Far From Home, just next month), some may be feeling a bit Spidered-out by this point. However, Into the Spider-Verse overcomes the danger of franchise fatigue to emerge as one of the best movies featuring the character to date.

Of course, it helps in keeping things fresh that Into the Spider-Verse isn't really about Peter Parker, who here is an experienced, veteran superhero who's been saving people for many years. Instead, our protagonist is Miles Morales. Morales had previously appeared in both comics and animation, but this is arguably his most significant moment as he is introduced to a much wider audience. Unlike Parker, whose status as an orphan with only one living relative is a key part of his motivation, Morales has much more of a traditional family background, even an extended one as his rebellious, graffiti artist uncle is a role model of his (to the disapproval of Morales' more straight-laced cop dad). However, Morales is struggling with making friends and getting a girlfriend, as is traditional in these types of coming-of-age stories.

In fact, Into the Spider-Verse does relatively little that drifts from the archetypal norm (save a willingness to perhaps kill a few more sacred cows than you'd expect, as the film revels in the fact it is not part of any previous continuity or canon) and many of the story beats are fairly predictable. Why that doesn't matter is because the film is a stunning, vivid and at times breathtaking piece of animation.

Into the Spider-Verse is a colourful, inventive and wild explosion of colour and form, the film fairly exploding off the screen with constant visual experimentation. The film's not quite so wild as to induce headaches, but for a film focusing on one of Sony's most lucrative characters, it's amazing how much freedom they allow the artists. You can pause the movie on almost any frame and it'd be a desktop-worthy masterpiece of an image. The visual splendour of the movie cannot be overstated.

This extends to the action, which is visceral and convincing, and is matched by the voice acting, which is uniformly outstanding. This is a film where every department gives 110% and it ends up on screen.

It is not a flawless, masterpiece, though. The film has no less than six different spider-protagonists, but really only gives three of them (Morales, Parker and Spider-Gwen) a lot to do; the other three characters have some funny moments and a few nice scenes, but otherwise feel like they're there to make up the numbers, and receive much less development as a result. The film may have been stronger by holding off on featuring a couple of the other characters until the inevitable sequel. Also, the film's fairly standard plot trajectory is on one hand a boon (the visual richness of the film applied to a convoluted plot may have ended up being a bit too much) but on the other does mean that the ending can mostly be spotted a mile away.

These should not detract from the fact that Into the Spider-Verse (****½) is exceptional fun, the closest we've come yet to seeing the spirit and ferocious energy of a comic book in motion, and arguably the strongest Spider-movie to date. It is available now in the UK and USA.

Ron Howard steps in to save the Han Solo STAR WARS movie

Veteran director Ron Howard has rolled into town to take over the next Star Wars movie. The Solo Han Solo movie (apparently shooting under the working title Solo) was mostly done with shooting when "creative differences" led to directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller departing/being fired/being exiled to the spice mines of Kessel.

Ron Howard and George Lucas, who have collaborated several times.

Howard will be completing principal photography on the picture as well as helming reshoots later in the summer. Howard and producers Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan will be reviewing the footage shot by Lord and Miller to see what material can still be used and what will have to be reshot.

The film is still on track for release on 25 May 2018, just five months after Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hits cinemas in December, although delays are likely if the production team decide more significant reshoots are needed.

Although Howard hasn't been involved in a Star Wars project before, he did star in George Lucas's 1973 movie American Graffiti (alongside a young Harrison Ford) which led to his casting in the sitcom Happy Days and kickstarted his Hollywood career, including collaborating on the movie Willow with Lucas, so there is some synchronicity involved in this news.

Rumours that Howard has said, at any point, "Hold my beer," and "I got this," have yet to be confirmed.

New STAR WARS movie loses directors mid-production

In an unexpected movie, the Star Wars Han Solo spin-off movie has lost both of its directors more than halfway through shooting.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who had formerly directed Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The LEGO Movie and 21 Jump Street and its sequel, had been employed by Lucasfilm to helm the Han Solo film (which apparently has the working title Solo) and filming began back in February. All seemed well, with cast and crew posting images from what seemed to be a relaxed and fun shoot.

It now turns out that this was not the case. Having tapped Lord and Miller for their loose, improvisational and comedic style, Lucasfilm seemed to develop issues when they approached the Star Wars project with a loose, improvisational and comedic style. In particular, writer-producer Lawrence Kasdan was unhappy with them encouraging the actors to go off-script and producer/Lucasfilm Supreme Leader Kathleen Kennedy was concerned that the film's tone wasn't in keeping with all things Star Wars.

Things came to a head when the studio began planning reshoots, with Kennedy making it clear she wanted the directors to get back on-script and curb their more chaotic sensibilities. The directors refused, apparently leading to them leaving. Some are reporting that they were effectively fired by Lucasfilm, but their own statement puts a more positive spin on things, saying the decision was taken mutually.

Directors leaving a project is hardly unusual, but about three-quarters of the way through actual shooting is unheard of in modern cinema. Lucasfilm are apparently now keen on getting a replacement on board as soon as possible, with steady hand, experienced industry veteran and past George Lucas collaborator Ron Howard looking the most likely to pick up the slack. Joe Johnston is also in the frame if Howard is unavailable, with the final choice being Kasdan himself (although this would have to be a last resort, due to Director's Guild rules on replacing directors with other personnel already on a film).

The Han Solo movie is still aiming for a May 2018 release. Expect to see this fall back to December if the producers decide more extensive reshoots - or even a full remounting of the picture from scratch - are required.

Filming of the young Han Solo movie begins

Filming began yesterday of the second stand-alone Star Wars prequel movie. This film, as yet unnamed, focuses on the young life and times of Han Solo and takes place roughly halfway between Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One/A New Hope.

The movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and written by father-and-son team Lawrence and Jon Kasdan. Lawrence Kasdan has been working on Star Wars for almost forty years, having worked as a writer on The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. This film will apparently be his swansong on the franchise.

The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo, Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton and Phoebe Waller-Bridge co-star.

The film is set for release in May 2018, although a delay to December seems quite possible.

Meanwhile, the next Star Wars movie is The Last Jedi, the sequel to The Force Awakens, which will be released this December.

Daenerys signs up to meet Han Solo

Emilia Clarke has been cast in the new Star Wars spin-off movie about Han Solo.

The actress, best known for playing Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones and Sarah Connor in last year's disappointing new Terminator movie, Genisys, joins announced castmembers Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian. Her role in the film is not known.

The Han Solo movie will be the second stand-alone spin-off Star Wars movie, following on from next month's Rogue One. It will start filming in January and is currently slated for release on 25 May 2018, although that is subject to change. It will be directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, 21 Jump Street, The Lego Movie) and may be the start of a trilogy covering Han Solo's life leading up to the events of A New Hope.