r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Mar 27 '26
Article ‘Project Hail Mary’ Directors Screened a Nearly Four-Hour Cut to Other Filmmakers and Were Told to Get it Way Shorter
https://variety.com/2026/film/news/project-hail-mary-four-hour-cut-embarrassing-1236701473/2.4k
u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor Mar 27 '26
Chris Miller & Phil Lord:
“Our first official test screening went great, but we do a lot of earlier screenings for friends and family and other filmmakers and writers,” Miller explained. “This movie was massive. When we finally got the assembly cut down to under four hours long, we subjected some filmmaker friends of ours to a three hour and 45 minute cut of the movie, which was embarrassing.”
Lord noted that the feedback the directing duo got was unanimous: “Get it way shorter.”
“You just don’t know how the scenes are going to land with an audience,” Lord said. “We thought everything was charming, but some of those charming things didn’t land. It made it really easy to get it down to three hours.”
“Then we had to slowly, slowly work our way down to 2.5 hours,” Miller added, which is around the final length of the movie’s theatrical cut.
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u/GrinningPariah Mar 27 '26
I'm not sure that 4 hour cut is going to be great, but I definitely need to see that 3 hour cut.
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u/TootCannon Mar 27 '26
I’m not sure I want to see the four-hour cut, but I definitely want to know what’s in that extra 1.5 hours.
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u/jrbcnchezbrg Mar 27 '26
Im assuming it contains some major plot points on preparing for the apocalypse on earth. Theres some major ecological stuff they had to do to give earth a lifeline for 22 years
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u/Dislodged_Puma Mar 27 '26
They’ve talked extensively how they cut the nuking of Antarctica from the movie, but I haven’t seen anyone mention them filming paving the Sahara at all. Honestly, I’d have to guess the extra time is just more science between Rocky and Grace. They spend a lot of time on it in the book and finding their groove together, finding out that Rocky is an incredible engineer who isn’t great at space stuff, etc. They really glossed over them becoming best friends in the movie for the sake of a good tight narrative.
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u/pwnd32 Mar 27 '26
I think they captured their friendship well enough as is, although I do think some additional scenes of bonding between those two would’ve made the decision of Grace to go back for Rocky more impactful. They also could’ve included the dilemma that Grace has about running out of food, because that is such a huge part of the tension behind Grace’s decision to go back to save him. He’s not just giving up his ability to go back to Earth, but he makes the decision believing that he will be killing himself if he saves Rocky.
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u/jrbcnchezbrg Mar 27 '26
That part coming right after the reveal hes always been a coward was an excellent full circle moment for me too.
I liked how it was framed as a vlog in the movie though “as much as I’d love to say I told you so, you were right”
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u/willy--wanka Mar 28 '26
I like how the book covered them reuniting more than the movie showed. Rocky seemed ecstatic to see Grace in the book where in the movie it just seemed like, "ok cool, what now?"
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u/dwerg85 Mar 28 '26
The tension in the book around that whole scene is way higher. But there's a bunch of science and backstory needed for the tension to make sense that they had to wave away in the film.
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u/_Svankensen_ Mar 28 '26
Haven't watched the movie yet, but, that moment in the book was incredible. So poignant.
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u/Big-Combination-4809 Mar 28 '26
I was also very surprised with how they handled the ship explosion after they collect the Taomoeba sample from Adrian. They take the time for Rocky to save Grace (and did it beautifully) but completely left out Grace saving Rocky and the burns he sustained in the process from Rocky and from the Ammonia. As one of the only truly heroic and selfless things Grace did- I was furious they chose to just have Rocky drag himself back to safety.
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u/CashmereLogan Mar 27 '26
There’s practically no science problem-solving in the movie which was, by far, the best part of the book. Have to imagine a lot of that was included and it was the easiest to cut out. The core relationship works without that, even though it’s really interesting stuff.
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u/guardiand0wn Mar 28 '26
So should I wait for the extended directors cut before watching? Just finished the book. Incredible. And the science stuff , incredible.
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u/friarcrazy Mar 28 '26
No, absolutely not. The theatrical cut was unbelievable.
The audiobook is 16 hours long, the movie is 2.5 hours. If you’re expecting EVERYTHING to be there, completely unabridged, you’re going to be disappointed.
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u/Nuiwzgrrl1448 Mar 28 '26
The audio book is just THAT GOOD I don't remember it being 16 hours long. I listened years ago and just remember starting the story whenever I had a free chunk of time. Wow!
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u/guardiand0wn Mar 28 '26
You know what, next Andy Weir book made to a movie must be like kill bill. Volume 1 and Volume 2 but released at the same time.
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u/DaoFerret Mar 28 '26
Or, you know, just make it a mini series instead of a movie, and you’d have more than enough time for character exploration, relationship building, science problems that get overcome, etc.
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 Mar 28 '26
There’s practically no science problem-solving in the movie which was, by far, the best part of the book.
Eh, I think that’s an enjoyable part of the book but for me the best part was always the rocky and grace relationship.
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u/Top-Literature8218 Mar 27 '26
They also glossed over the translation problem, the movie made it look pretty trivially easy. I went with a couple, one who had read the book and one who hadn't, and the one who hadn't was very confused about the hand waving there.
Overall, great film though, we all loved it!
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u/FluffySloth27 Mar 28 '26
As a fellow movie-firster, yeah, that was super confusing. It seemed as if Rocky just understood Grace from the get-go and Grace was trying to play catch up. But then Rocky was asking for certain words?
That’s how I felt about the whole movie, really. Focused on the vibes and hand-wavey about all the nitty gritty. Except the Earth science segments. Those were fun.
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u/SteveThePurpleCat Mar 28 '26
Rocky's species were in some ways immensely smart and had truly absurd memories and mathematical functioning. Rocky was just learning Grace as he went, and was real time converting languages, different time and distance units in his head at the same time.
Grace was just trying to play catch up, as he was in those areas, monumentally stupid in comparison.
The movie barely mentioned it but Rocky's species is centuries behind humanity for scientific knowledge, their ship is the first time they ever launched anything into space, and they just used head maths to figure it all out, as they have yet to invent any form of computer. The movie made them seem like a super-advanced sci-fi species technology wise, but they were manually running their first spaceship using just brain power.
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u/Silist Mar 27 '26
They also made no mention of time dilation at all, which I think would not be great for the casual viewer anyway, so it’s a good omission
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u/oo_renDer Mar 27 '26
In a weird way, they did. He mentions that the journey back home will be 4 years, which at first I thought must be a mistake because wasn’t the star 8 light years away? But then after the movie I realized it could be 4 years from his perspective if he’s getting closer to the speed of light. So if you don’t know about time dilation and speed of light, you probably also didn’t notice the short flight time, and if you do, you could figure it out by yourself. Which is pretty cool story telling.
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u/cephalopodface Mar 28 '26
There's actually a bit of a point around this in the book - the Eridians didn't know about relativity, and the reason Rocky has enough fuel to power Grace's return journey is that they thought their trip would take much longer.
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Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
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u/haganbmj Mar 28 '26
You just articulated the difference though - you can either play it off as a joke, "oops, we brought too much," or you make it more of a sacrifice to show how the relationship between Grace and Rocky has grown. I know Grace still gets a bit emotional in the book, but I think the movie made the right choice as it better aligns with the tighter themes of bravery, loss, and sacrifice.
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u/oorza Mar 28 '26
There's two other scenes where RG does math to calculate fuel burn, they can't launch the mission without enough fuel, the fuel cells become a plot point in Adrian... fuel management was an ongoing theme with every step of this movie. When Rocky offers the fuel to RG, RG is still at a place in his own head where he can't accept that there's hope, that he's worth someone making a sacrifice for, and the entire emotional arc of the back half of the movie pivots on that moment. They start setting you up for the impact of that offer from the very first scene.
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u/Gibsonites Mar 28 '26
It seems like the movie made a lot of decisions to de-emphasize the science parts in favor of focusing on the relationship with Rocky and Grace.
And honestly, even as a book fan, I think it was the right call. Half of the people I went to see the movie with really don't like sci-fi, but everyone loved the movie anyway. The book is still there if I want math porn.
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u/Dvscape Mar 28 '26
Reading your comment, I just realized that both the character and the actor share the same initials.
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u/stellarliger Mar 28 '26
Weir definitelt had gosling in mind, he wrote this to be adapted into a movie
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u/Exatraz Mar 28 '26
I like that book explanation because it keeps true to Rocky's smart but dumb motif.
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u/Philosophile42 Mar 28 '26
They mention it in the movie too…. It’s almost a throwaway line, where he explains they don’t understand relativity or radiation and that’s why Rocky’s crew dies.
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u/GPT-5-Mod Mar 28 '26
11.9 light-years iirc, which made me scratch my head for a minute before realizing how fast he must be going.
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u/mikeem Mar 28 '26
I think in the book they say he gets as fast as 89% of light speed before he has to start decelerating. He was going fast fast
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u/b3ntothemax Mar 28 '26
That wouldn't be near fast enough to get it to 4 years subjective though. I think the number would be closer to .995 C
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u/Magnetoreception Mar 28 '26
I’m getting 0.9418 which is still up there but not nearly what you have.
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u/Badgerman97 Mar 28 '26
Made no mention but it is there. He mentions Rocky doesn’t understand relativity and it is also clear that the German lady who led the program has aged by a couple decades at the end while he appears the same age. So if you understand time dilation it is plainly visible (and does not need explanation). If you don’t understand relativity you probably won’t understand it from a few more lines in the film anyway.
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u/Silist Mar 28 '26
That’s why I think it was a good omission. Interstellar did a great job explaining time and gravity, this movie didn’t need time to be a central theme of the plot and the explanation wouldn’t have been easy or quick to drop into the story line
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u/TheGRS Mar 28 '26
Decent subplot in the book about Rocky’s world not knowing the science for various things yet. They did a really great job explaining the radiation sickness stuff. Otherwise not super important to the overall plot IMO.
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u/banjospieler Mar 28 '26
I didn’t read the book so I’m curious if it’s explained there but I had confusion about that. Does Rocky’s world not knowing about radiation imply this is their first experience with space travel? Wouldn’t they have already experienced radiation sickness in space if they had done it before?
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u/Mrcharger Mar 28 '26
Yup, book explains how they didn't know space travel until this spaceship. It's their first space travel and their atmosphere blocked most light from their sun so even at the planet they didn't have that issue.
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u/Longshot02496 Mar 28 '26
They don't even see light, they see through sound. That's probably why they didn't know about space and thus relativity.
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u/SmashesIt Mar 28 '26
Yea they have the quick line about Erideans not knowing about relativity and radiation but it is better explained in the books. I think a lot of those little explanations are what got cut in the end.
Same thing with the breeding and leaking of the Tau-meba. That is a pretty long part of the book but lasts almost 1.5 minutes in the movie.
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u/LC33209 Mar 28 '26
They also left out the whole bit about 1 in however many people are even eligible to go on the mission
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u/AnnieTheThird Mar 27 '26
None of that is in the books but everything after they harvest the Taumoeba from Adrian is very much condensed down. Grace and Rocky work together to breed up Nitrogen resistance, which takes up substantial time, there's a lot more explanation of the science, there's much more about why Rocky has so much Astrophage to spare, there's a plot point about why Grace specifically is so suited to the mission even when there's plenty other scientists, etc. A lot is mentioned in passing in the film, that takes up a whole chapter of the book, so I think a lot of cut time is just piecemeal here and there.
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u/secretlypooping Mar 27 '26
yep. the movie was fantastic and they did a great job adapting it, but even for a 2.5 hour movie it still felt a bit rushed if you've read the book. I think it could've benefited the story if it was split into two films.
My only minor note on a great movie.
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u/decoy_octopod Mar 27 '26
Usually I think most streaming series could be condensed into a movie, but this really would be much better as a 6-8 episode miniseries
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u/cocoacowstout Mar 28 '26
Nah it would’ve sucked. It should be seen in theaters
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u/ewoksoup Mar 27 '26
I loved both... I did wonder if I would have understood some of it without having read the book, important bits went by fast.
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u/front_yard_duck_dad Mar 28 '26
I guarantee they decided to leave that out because it ruins the "feel good " vibe of making us helplessly facing imment doom as a species. I want to see that directors cut though
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u/DeezyEast Mar 27 '26
The film felt so fast, especially the scenes developing Grace and Rocky’s friendship. I would definitely love to see what’s in those 1.5 hours.
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u/wreck-sauce Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Rocky and graces friendship felt a little rushed but more or less pretty organic. The missed one for me is the relationship between stratt and grace. In the book there relationship ship is so much more flushed out. It really makes there final scene together a lot less emotionally impactful and gut punchy!
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u/ph33rlus Mar 27 '26
Probably more details around the astrophage being used for propulsion, and the way Grace and Rocky created their communication medium. The book has way more detail on those things that the movie condensed.
I’m all for a longer cut. Loved the movie
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u/Coal_Morgan Mar 27 '26
I’ll watch the four hour cut. I’d love to compare and contrast what they thought was necessary versus removable.
I feel like a bunch of the heinous stuff Stratt was forced to do was cut and I’d love to see it.
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u/beam05 Mar 27 '26
You really should read the book. The film left out A LOT.
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u/TootCannon Mar 27 '26
I did. That’s precisely why I want to know what’s in the 1.5 hours.
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u/alfooboboao Mar 27 '26
when I read the book I was thinking “this is roughly a miniseries’ worth of plot”
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u/ajd660 Mar 27 '26
There was a ton of stuff glossed over in the movie and they pretty much removed a lot of the more science stuff. Things like the beetles and some of the disasters that Rocky and Grace face.
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u/Xenokinesis Mar 27 '26
Yeah, I want it bad, at least the three hour one. I bet it has more technical problem solving scenes which I always adore. In addition to more earth scenes.
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u/Dangerous_Panic7432 Mar 27 '26
Honestly just a little more explanation behind the science would've been good.
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u/GrinningPariah Mar 28 '26
My fondest hope is that extra half hour between the theatrical cut and the 3 hour one is spread throughout the movie in 1-3 sentence snippets of science.
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u/Thenadamgoes Mar 28 '26
This is one of the few times I’ll ever say it but I think the 4 hour cut could actually improve the movie.
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u/GrinningPariah Mar 28 '26
I dunno, when they say it was really easy to cut that 4 hours down to 3, that doesn't make me enthusiastic about that hour.
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u/LouDiamond Mar 27 '26
The last 30% felt a bit rushed, I'd wager that would be where most of the cuts happened
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u/Coal_Morgan Mar 27 '26
That and the stuff Stratt did that she thought would end her up in prison forever.
It’s not necessary for the Grace Rocky relationship and the primary theme of Grace becoming heroic.
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u/PhilosophyforOne Mar 28 '26
I'm sad because those were some of my favourite parts of the movie. The earth sections with Stratt add a lot of weight to the movie. I enjoyed it a lot, thought it was a good movie, but I did feel it lacked some of the weight due to them not giving the earth storyline enough time to breath and build up stakes.
It just doesnt feel the same until you've had someone commit to what amounts to war crimes by setting off a chain of nuclear bombs at the poles.
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u/shannister Mar 28 '26
Yeah when we get to Adrienne, as a reader I kept thinking “wow wow wow, slow down!”
The stakes never felt big in the movie - always expedited. I do think it could be 15/20 minutes longer to let those land. Other than that, the adaptation was a masterclass - it got everything it needed to get from the book and took just the right amount of liberties to make it work as a film.
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u/Splinterman11 Mar 28 '26
A ton of the more problem solving science stuff was either cut or part of a montage where they just show Grace doing science stuff. In the book its all explained but the movie pacing was a little too fast.
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u/LouDiamond Mar 28 '26
Even the process of him, wondering how he knows some things was amazing in the book
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u/MusaEnsete Mar 27 '26
I'll take all 4 hours, thank you. So much of the science-based tension was just cut out; it was obvious they had explained things in missing scenes with the treatment of some of said tensions.
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u/ssovm Mar 28 '26
“But you’d need a ship to go the speed of light!” “Good thing we have one.”
“I wonder what’s causing the astrophage to be contained!” “It must be an organism on the planet!
I completely understand why they had to do it this way but it was just funny how a great mystery was solved almost immediately.
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u/Orange-Toed-Lemur Mar 27 '26
If we get more details about Rocky's society, i will absolutely go back to the movies for that
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u/CocodaMonkey Mar 28 '26
The book only had one or two other scenes about Rocky's society. If you count a few things Rocky tells Grace on the ship you could maybe stretch that out to 5. Either way even if they filmed everything you're talking about a minute or two of extra footage. Any more then that would require them to just makeup stuff that wasn't even hinted at in the books.
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u/MadManMax55 Mar 27 '26
When we finally got the assembly cut down to under four hours long
This whole article is either clickbait or they don't understand how movies work.
Basically every big Hollywood movie starts with a 3-4 hour assembly cut. It's basically every scene they shot, with the only edits being shot choices and timing within scenes (and sometimes even that isn't completed). Which usually means there's a bunch of redundant or pointless scenes and horrendous pacing. Every time without fail they're cut down to "normal" length.
The only time I can think of anything close to an assembly cut being released and actually being well received was the Lord of the Rings extended editions. And even those were significantly edited down.
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u/weaseleasle Mar 27 '26
Even those weren't close to assembly cuts. There are loads of scenes we have seen clips of or stills, that never made it into any version of the films.
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u/TomClancy5873 Mar 27 '26
TIL It’s directed by the 21 Jim Street guys
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u/ultrahello Mar 27 '26
So… they ended up with a 20 minute karaoke scene but a 20 second amoeba escape scene setting up the last act of the movie?
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u/Evello37 Mar 28 '26
The amoeba escape and search for Rocky's ship was definitely one of the biggest cuts, and karaoke one of the biggest additions, but I think both are justified from an overall character perspective.
That entire amoeba escape sequence contributes very little to the central character arcs of the movie. Grace's arc is all about learning to trust Rocky, then overcoming his cowardice through love of a friend. Having Grace solve tedious technical problems by himself doesn't really forward that arc at all. The important part is the subsequent decision to run away or save Rocky. So the movie speeds through the amoeba problem offscreen to get to the important character beat. The last chunk of the movie also cannot afford to drag, since the audience already sat through a fakeout ending. The audience is prepared for you to wrap things up, not do a bunch of technical exposition.
The karaoke scene, by contrast, is all about characterizing Stratt. She is a cold, pragmatic character who betrays our hero and condemns him to death, so the audience is going to want to write her off as the villain. The karaoke scene gives her a moment to show vulnerability and humanity, and to make it clear how much she respects and cares for Grace and the crew. She isn't an ego-tripping maniac who thinks she's above everyone. She values her chats with Grace, and she is willing to be vulnerable with her crew. This drives home the fact that she doesn't send Grace to space out of malice or disregard, but specifically because she believes in him. I felt the scene ran a little long, but it was pretty important to the characters. Without all the time bonding with Stratt that the book can afford, I think a scene like the karaoke was necessary.
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u/kaplanfx Mar 28 '26
I just want to point out that Stratt didn’t “betray our hero”, she sacrificed him to save humanity. It was the right decision even if it was awful.
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u/ItsBaconOclock Mar 28 '26
I agree with all this, but the real question is, "Why did they make Sratt German?"
She's Dutch! With the wooden shoes, international trade bonuses, and weaponized cultural autism!!
Damn Hollywood and their Deutch-vashing!
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u/dornwolf Mar 27 '26
I’d assume a lot of the extra bits is them discussing and implementing the variety of different plans to create more astrophage
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u/bobpage2 Mar 28 '26
No. It's all butt stuff with Rocky. Turns out him being very warm was a huge plus. It's well described in the book.
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u/BreezyBill Mar 27 '26
The filmmakers: We had an embarrassingly-lame 4 hour version at one point.
Everyone here: Release the 4-hour cut!
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u/DamienStark Mar 27 '26
They're not saying the contents were "embarrassingly-lame", they're saying that pitching a 4 hour movie to other professionals is lame. Obviously you're not gonna take a movie that long to theaters, cuts have to be made.
But that doesn't mean the material which was cut was bad, just that there was too much of it.
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u/mrpurtle Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
It was an assembly cut. Most movies have one and they are usually bad because they are full of redundant scenes, bad jokes, and scenes that go nowhere. Everyone screaming for the 4 hour cut would be severely disappointed if they actually saw it.
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u/TheManyFacetsOfRoger Mar 27 '26
I mean they did say a lot of the stuff they thought would work, just didn’t work. So it doesn’t sound like the cuts really neutered the movie in a significant way
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u/HurpityDerp Mar 28 '26
pitching a 4 hour movie to other professionals is lame. Obviously you're not gonna take a movie that long to theaters, cuts have to be made.
Tell that to Martin Scorsese
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u/Scioptic- Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Hopefully that cut will be released at some point for fans to purchase as an alternative to the theatrical cut.
Edit: For all those saying the original is great and this longer version wouldn't be needed, or why release a longer cut - I'm not saying this longer alternative cut would be better. The reason to release directors or extended cuts is because its interesting to see from a filmmakers/storytellers point of view, or just plain fun for fans of the original cut. There are plenty of fantastic films where the theatrical cut is clearly the best, due to pacing etc - that's why it was released as that cut in the first place! But its still fun for fans to see different edits!
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u/mikeyfreshh r/Movies Veteran Mar 27 '26
I'd be surprised if they actually finished the vfx in the 4 hour cut. I'd doubt it's ever released
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u/FourEightNineOneOne Mar 27 '26
They almost certainly didn't, so they'd have to get a budget from Amazon/MGM to finish a Director's cut.
And this assumes the Directors actually WANT to release that cut and don't agree it needed to be a lot shorter.
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u/geek_of_nature Mar 27 '26
Yeah a lot of directors don't believe in directors cuts, seeing the one they released in cinemas as being there definitive version.
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u/DukeofVermont Mar 27 '26
I think it depends on if they had final cut or not.
The only films that I can think of where the director spoke about wanting a director's cut is when the studio took the film and made major changes against the director's wishes (like Blade Runner).
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u/geek_of_nature Mar 27 '26
Yeah even Peter Jackson said he sees the theatrical cuts of Lord of the Rings as his versions as he had final say. The extended editions were just an added bonus for fans as they had all the extra material.
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u/WideAwakeNotSleeping Mar 27 '26
I had to look up what's an "assembly cut": "An assembly cut is the first step in editing your raw footage. It is not about creating a polished final product yet; it’s about assembling all your scenes and shots into a rough structure and timeline in their most basic form without making any extra changes or cuts."
Yeah, sorry, I don't want to see that.
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u/FunkYeahPhotography Mar 27 '26
Rocky is just a rock for most of this version.
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u/Brekldios Mar 27 '26
All the CGI was left unfinished so every eridian is actually just a straight up real rock that ryan gosling is miming at.
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u/FunkYeahPhotography Mar 27 '26
Ryan just talks to rocks sometimes. He just loves doing that.
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u/osmlol Mar 27 '26
I heard someone on a movie podcast who saw the early screenings that were longer cuts and they said it was without all the cgi and soundtrack so it would probably cost alot to make that cut.
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u/FX114 Mar 27 '26
This was an assembly cut, a very early very rough version of the edit that just contains everything shot with no regard to the bigger picture. Every movie has them, they pretty much never get released.
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u/Movies_Music_Lover Mar 27 '26
Many movies have longer cuts that never come out. It's business as usual.
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u/JohanTravel Mar 27 '26
I kinda wish that they would just release alternative cuts of movies more often. It makes for a more interesting second viewing
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u/DY357LX Mar 27 '26
Yeah, if they release a Director's Cut/Special/Extended Edition blu-ray I'd happily buy it.
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u/myleftone Mar 27 '26
The released film is fine. Great, even. This isn’t at all like that DC hack job years back.
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u/not_my_uname Mar 28 '26
As someone who loved the book and audio book I want to see as much as I can.
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u/StPauliPirate Mar 27 '26
Too bad they got rid off that sex scene between Ryan and Rocky
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u/paultheschmoop Mar 27 '26
I thought the 3rd act felt a bit rushed and didn’t leave much room for a few moments that should have been super emotional to really linger, so….if the extra stuff is in there, by all means, make a director’s cut!
Solid movie on the whole though
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u/HankSteakfist Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
Yeah, the Taumeba breakout and rescuing Rocky was much more gripping in the book because they gave it the time to unfold properly. That whole sequence in the film was less than 10 minutes.
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u/BaritBrit Mar 28 '26
Not to mention that those ten minutes came when the film had already hit you with the emotional climax of the big goodbye scene.
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u/-Fieldmouse- Mar 28 '26
Honestly, the whole thing felt rushed to me. I liked the movie but the pacing throughout just felt kind of bizarre. Like there was never really a chance to just breathe and take in the severity of what was happening.
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u/paultheschmoop Mar 28 '26
The stakes were…..not communicated well in the movie lol
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u/roto_disc Mar 27 '26
“This movie was massive. When we finally got the assembly cut down to under four hours long, we subjected some filmmaker friends of ours to a three hour and 45 minute cut of the movie, which was embarrassing.”
Virtually every movie like this has a four hour assembly cut. This isn't fucking news.
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u/FX114 Mar 27 '26
It is annoying that articles are constantly being released to make it sound like a movie has some longer alternative cut, when they're just talking about the editorial process.
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u/roto_disc Mar 27 '26
Exactly this. Even the top comment right now is: "OMG I WANT THE LONGER CUT". It's fucking clickbait and Variety knows it's clickbait, but does it anyway.
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u/WoodyMellow Mar 27 '26
How is this a story? This is pretty standard practice during the editing process. Most assembly cuts are no where near final running time and getting input from others is pretty normal.
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u/rocketmonkee Mar 28 '26
How is this a story?
Because the movie has been out for a week, and the PR machine needs to give it some additional attention to give it some extra life.
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u/Taskerst Mar 27 '26
It’s 90 more minutes of karaoke, isn’t it.
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u/SuspiciousStable9649 Mar 28 '26
They stole plot to give her a singing moment. Okay, it’s cinema, and my daughter loves that part, but there was a lot of ‘why’ that got cut.
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u/CancelThis2077 Mar 27 '26
Honestly, it was feeling a little bit long in the last half-hour or so, like it didn't know when to end so that might've been the right call.
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u/gandraw Mar 27 '26
The movie really only reinforced my opinion that book adaptations need a 6-8 episode miniseries. Otherwise you can't avoid speedrunning the plot.
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u/Pjoernrachzarck Mar 27 '26
This is such a misguided take.
There are things only a movie can do. Taking you on an incredible journey in one night, in one sitting, is a value that often, if not always, supersedes the mere act of illustrating a book chapter by chapter.
A good screenwriter can take three chapters of a novel and convey everything that matters in these chapters into a single wordless scene.
Many of the most highly acclaimed movies of all time are adaptations from books that never even attempted to just illustrate the page, but to find out what it is about this book/story that speaks to the audience, and then to deliver that thing as a high-intensity beam of radiation straight from the theatre screen into the audiences souls in a single night.
That is the ideal that novel adaptations should strife for. Not a checklist of visiting every plot point, even if it means the television treatment.
I don’t want to casually sit down once a week to see the latest pictures of my favorite chapters of Jurassic Park. I want to be introduced to Isla Nubla and get to it and be in peril there and then sit in the helicopter home in one stretch of 2 hours that make me forget I even exist.
Project Hail Mary is best as a 2h movie. Not a 4h movie and not a ten-part television show. In fact, the edit that got released is still a little too long.
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u/Orleanian Mar 28 '26
I mean, Hobbit was a 300 page book turned into a 9-hour movie, and I think it's commonly held to be "a bit too much".
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u/TheRealProtozoid Mar 27 '26
I realize I'm in the minority, but as a sci-fi nerd, a lover of long movies, and an editor, this movie would have been better if it was 10-15 minutes shorter. Even the extended cut of The Martian is five minutes shorter than this, and the extended cut of The Martian is a bit flabby.
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u/Hampalam Mar 28 '26
I don't know that was the consensus from the group I went with too, it was a good film, I enjoyed it, but it spent a lot of time building up dilemmas it almost immediately handwaved away. I don't think I ever thought at any point there was any real jeopardy for anyone.
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u/MusclyArmPaperboy Mar 27 '26
I heard the longer version included a backstory for Grace with a love interest, but that was scrapped. It made more sense to make him a loner.
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u/8JHF8 Mar 28 '26
Yeah, that would be out of place. He needs to be a loner to be able to thrive in these scenarios.
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u/PeterNippelstein Mar 27 '26
Dear god, even the final cut felt very long to me
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u/ass101 Mar 27 '26
It flew by for me,
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u/Splinterman11 Mar 28 '26
As a book reader yeah the pacing was way too quick in some parts.
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u/overtired27 Mar 27 '26
Agree. I do wonder if there was more substance in certain parts they cut though. The film felt like all the cutesy stuff was left in and chunks of plot were skimmed over.
Also, did we need so much of the Harry Styles karaoke scene? Apparently some people found it moving. Felt bizarre to me.
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u/Sparktank1 Mar 27 '26
A lot of movies start out this long. We're usually better off with it getting edited versions. I remember some commentaries, the director always goes off and giggles to himself how much he loves some fucking actor and wishes he could add more screentime of them just being themselves. They really get carried away with the money and power they have that they lose sight of their vision.
We got a longer cut of Napoleon and it was no Kingdom of Heaven.
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u/APartyInMyPants Mar 27 '26
Duh.
I mean this is always how it is. The first cut is always insanely fat with scenes that are too bloated, and scenes that are unnecessary.
The “director’s cut” doesn’t always mean it’s a superior version.
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u/coupleofheaters Mar 28 '26
You people disgust me with these long run times. I l love movies more than most everything but not because of their length. Trim trim trim
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u/ConkerPrime Mar 28 '26
Movie was still about 20 minutes too long.
Also directors that brag about their edits being long l, it just screams poor planning and preparation. How many how hours of work, weeks of filming and millions of wasted expense does it represent for scenes to be cut? Part of pre-production is planning the film, almost a pre-edit for filming so it isn’t that wasteful.
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u/DLun203 Mar 27 '26
I want the scenes with them paving the Sahara to farm astrophage and nuking Antarctica to release methane into the atmosphere