Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller did something brave and slightly masochistic: they screened a nearly four-hour cut of Project Hail Mary to a room full of fellow filmmakers. The verdict? "Get it way shorter." Their response? "It was embarrassing."
God bless them for the honesty. In an era when directors treat their rough cuts like sacred texts and every filmmaker thinks they're Stanley Kubrick entitled to final cut, Lord and Miller admitted they lost perspective and needed outside voices to save them from themselves. That's rare in Hollywood, where ego tends to outweigh self-awareness.
The four-hour version of a Andy Weir adaptation starring Ryan Gosling probably had its moments. But four hours is Lawrence of Arabia territory. It's Apocalypse Now Redux. It's the kind of runtime that requires intermissions and a very compelling reason to exist. A story about an astronaut problem-solving his way through space - no matter how good - probably isn't it.
This is where the director's cut conversation gets interesting. Yes, studio interference can ruin films. Yes, sometimes the longer version is the better version - Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven director's cut is practically a different movie and vastly superior to the theatrical release. But sometimes directors need to be saved from their own indulgence.
Variety reports that Lord and Miller have since trimmed the film significantly, though the final runtime hasn't been announced. The fact that they sought out peer feedback before turning in the film shows maturity - they knew they were too close to the material to judge it objectively.
