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EXCLUSIVE: Amazon MGM Studios has begun the countdown for Project Hail Mary, its Ryan Gosling-starring, Phil Lord- and Christopher Miller-directed space adventure, which has been given a March 20, 2026 release date. No other wide entries are on that weekend.

Producers are Amy Pascal, Gosling, Lord, Miller, Aditya Sood, Rachel O’Connor and Andy Weir.

The movie, filmed for Imax, is based on Weir’s (The Martian) novel and set in the near future. Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a schoolteacher-turned-astronaut who wakes up from a coma, alone, on a space station with no memory of who he is or his mission. His memory returns in bursts and he pieces together that he was sent to the Tau Ceti solar system, 12 light-years from Earth, to reverse the impact of a space event that had already hurled our planet into the early stages of an Ice Age. As details of the mission unravel, he must call on all of his scientific training and sheer ingenuity, but he might not have to do it alone…

Drew Goddard wrote the adapted screenplay and executive produces with his Goddard Textiles partner Sarah Esberg along with Ken Kao.

Amazon MGM has a hopeful sleeper this late spring in Luca Guadagnino’s sexy tennis movie Challengers, starring Zendaya and opening April 26. Reviews are currently at 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, two points higher than Guadagnino’s Oscar-nominated Call Me By Your Name.