‘Project Hail Mary’ Editor Joel Negron Had 700 Hours Of Film To Work With To Help Directors Phil Lord & Christopher Miller “Leave Behind Something Useful” – Contenders L.A.
Just as Ryan Gosling’s Ryland Grace and Rocky (voiced by James Ortiz) spent quite a chunk of time relative to the human lifespan in space saving the world from a dying sun, Project Hail Mary’s editor Joel Negron spent time with nearly a month’s worth of footage to deliver the final cut at 2½ hours.
“The film was that I got was an embarrassment of riches. There was a lot of good film, and that’s what made it challenging,” Negron said during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film Los Angeles event Saturday at the DGA Theater. “There was so much good film to pick and choose from. There were so many pieces define the emotion, especially with Ryan Gosling. He’s in every scene in the movie, which is crazy, and he was there every day they were shooting.”
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Based on the bestselling novel by Andy Weir, middle school science teacher Ryland Grace has no choice but to become an astronaut in a last-minute attempt to figure out what is causing the sun to die. Backed by a team of the nation’s greatest scientists, he is sent to space on a ship only to encounter a sentient “spider rock crab who can’t talk,” as screenwriter Drew Goddard describes Rocky the Eridian alien, brought to life by puppeteer and voice actor Ortiz.
“The other challenge was also finding the pieces of Rocky, because like [director] Chris [Miller] was saying, he’s got no arms, no face, no mouth. You have to find the emotions of Rocky, and one of the things that Chris and Phil are always telling me is, ‘We need to find the emotional bits,’” the editor continued. “We need to find the funny bits. We need to just keep mining and mining for these pieces, and I’ve got miles of footage to find the best of the best.”
Together, the human and alien, who devise a translation system between their very different forms of communication, continue their problem-solving to figure out what is happening and give both of their races a shot at surviving.
“We really wanted it to feel like it had the big scope and scale that you want to go to the movies for, but the heart of it is a story about two beings who are super different from one another,” said Miller, who also was on the panel. “They don’t come from the same worlds. They don’t speak the same language, but they can solve a difficult problem together with empathy, communication, listening and trust. They have one huge thing in common, which is the universe. The common, and that’s what that scene is about.
Fellow panelist Lord added: “I think everybody on this stage, we want to leave something behind that’s useful. Not just the big problems, but to show what success looks like. We’re solving problems all the time. That’s what a film crew does. That’s what we did.”
Check back Monday for the full video.
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