Sci-fi book movie adaptations are incredibly common in Hollywood. Everyone from Steven Spielberg to Ridley Scott to Stanley Kubrick to Denis Villeneuve has taken their shot at bringing beloved novels to the big screen. Among the most exciting upcoming sci-fi movies based on books, we’re now rapidly approaching one adaptation.
Project Hail Mary breathes new life into a 400+ page sci-fi adventure penned by author Andy Weir, whose previous book, The Martian, became a worldwide success as a feature film. His more recent 2021 novel became a New York Times bestseller upon its release. Some of Hollywood’s most talented people are behind the adaptation, and if you haven’t read it yet, there’s still time.
Reasons to Read Project Hail Mary Before the Movie Releases
Amazon MGM is behind the Project Hail Mary movie, which officially comes out in theaters on March 20. It hails from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the creatives behind the LEGO, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Jump Street, and Spider-Verse franchises, with Ryan Gosling as the star. It carries a reported $150 million budget.
For those unfamiliar, Project Hail Mary revolves around a man named Ryland Grace who wakes up in space with no memory of who he is or what he’s doing there. He comes to remember that Earth’s sun is dying, and he’s been sent on a mission to find a way to save humanity. What unfolds from there is filled with surprises, especially if you’ve steered clear of the “spoilers” in Project Hail Mary‘s trailers.
Whether you’re a fast or slow reader, there’s still time to read the whole novel before the movie releases. It has 30 chapters in total, so you only need to read a bit more than one chapter per day to have it completely finished by March 20. But once you start reading, it will be hard to put down, as I’ll attest; I’d consider myself a slow reader and still finished the whole thing in about a week.
Weir crafts an amazing story that turns Project Hail Mary into a real page turner. It effortlessly flows between Grace’s current mission in space and the memories he experiences of his life before. It’s loaded with science, but it never becomes bogged down in that or too confusing to follow. Grace becomes this brilliant character with an incredible journey that’s equally tense, heartfelt, and humorous.
While some may be wary about reading the book before seeing the movie out of fear of knowing the story lessening its impact, I don’t believe that will be the case for most. For me, I became even more excited for Project Hail Mary after reading the book and seeing through the trailers how Lord, Miller, and Gosling are bringing it all to life. The rave first reactions promise they’ve delivered, too.
Ultimately, reading Project Hail Mary allows one to fully understand why it should work so well as a movie and the heights that it can reach. It was already one of my most anticipated movies of 2026, but it probably would’ve been a few spots higher if I had already read the book.
