Andy Weir on Writing the Hit Book Behind the Movie ‘Project Hail Mary’
3/20/202639 min
Andy Weir’s first time at the Hollywood rodeo was a singular trip. His debut novel, “The Martian,” went from self-published project to blockbuster, best picture-nominated film starring Matt Damon.
His third book, “Project Hail Mary,” was also a sensation, and its adaptation, starring Ryan Gosling as a middle school science teacher tasked with saving humanity from slow extinction, charts warmly familiar territory: a lone man, stuck in space far from Earth, solving science problem after science problem with many a humorous aside.
Weir joined the Book Review’s podcast and spoke to the host Gilbert Cruz about the similarities and differences between Mark Watney and Ryland Grace (the main characters of “The Martian” and “Project Hail Mary”), his second novel “Artemis” and the alien character that readers have fallen in love with.
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Credits
“The Book Review Podcast” is hosted by Gilbert Cruz and produced by Sarah Diamond and Amy Pearl. The show is edited by Larissa Anderson and mixed by Pedro Rosado.
Special thanks to MJ Franklin, Dahlia Haddad, and Paula Szuchman.
Illustration by The New York Times; Photo: Taylor Glascock for The New York Times
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Clips
Showing 10 of 13Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:00
We gave Times employees a preview of Crossplay from New York Times Games, and here's what they had to say. I can finally play with other people.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:08
I'm pretty competitive. It's fun to beat friends and coworkers.
Speaker 00:11
I have a J for 10 points.
Andy Weir· Guest0:14
I'm guessing Tanga is not a word. Let's see. Tanga is a word. Oh.
Speaker 00:19
As an English as a second language speaker, I like to learn new words. Crossplay, the first two-player word game from New York Times Games. Download it for free today.
Andy Weir· Guest0:30
Well, when I'm doing my editing passes, I imagine my reader, you know, just doing a little bit of reading before they go to bed at night. They're getting tired. It's like 1:00 AM.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:39
Mm-hmm.
Andy Weir· Guest0:39
Eventually, they get to a paragraph where they go like, "Okay, well, you know, this... I can, I can put the book and go to sleep." Yeah. You know? What paragraph is that?
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:47
Mm-hmm.
Andy Weir· Guest0:48
What paragraph were you able to put the book down and go to sleep on? I have to get rid of that paragraph, right? [laughs] I wanna keep you up all night.
Gilbert Cruz· Host0:56
[upbeat music] I'm Gilbert Cruz. This is The Book Review for The New York Times, and today we've got Andy Weir on the show. You might know Andy as author of the science fiction novel, The Martian. It's a story about an astronaut who gets stuck on Mars and has to figure out how to get home. That book, which Andy initially self-published, eventually became a bestseller, and then was adapted into a blockbuster film starring Matt Damon. Several years later, Andy scored another hit with his book, Project Hail Mary,