{"id":33734,"date":"2026-03-04T23:01:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734"},"modified":"2026-03-04T23:01:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T04:01:47","slug":"amazon-mgms-project-hail-mary-made-without-green-screening-says-director-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\/MGM&#8217;s &#8216;Project Hail Mary&#8217; Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"p1\"><b>\u00a9<\/b>Courtesy of Amazon\/MGM<\/p>\r\n<p><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt12042730\/\"><em><strong>Project Hail Mary<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.<br \/><br \/>Developed for Amazon\/MGM Studios, <em><strong>Project Hail Mary<\/strong><\/em> is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Andy Weir, author of <em>The Martian<\/em>. In the film, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0331516\/\">Ryan Gosling<\/a> plays the part of an astronaut trying to save planet Earth from an interstellar disaster. During his mission, he meets an astronaut from another planet trying to save his own world from a similar fate.<br \/><br \/>The film was directed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0588087\/\">Christopher Miller<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/name\/nm0520488\/\">Phil Lord<\/a>. The cast also includes Sandra H\u00fcller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung and Milana Vayntrub. <br \/>\u2003<br \/>Miller boasted to Comicbook.com, \u201cWhat\u2019s fun about the movie is that there is no green screen in the movie whatsoever. Not a single green- or blue screen was used. The whole ship was built as a set from the inside. We had a huge section of the exterior of the ship on the outside that we built. [Rocky, the alien character] was really with us at all times.<\/p>\r\n<p><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1774669342741533\" data-ad-slot=\"1211148813\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\u00a0<br \/><br \/>\u201cAnd so, that\u2019s what makes it feel real and makes it feel natural,\u201d Miller continued, praising cinematographer Greg Fraser and his team for lighting the set with practical effects that allowed the camera to be moved easily to capture the action more realistically.<br \/><br \/>\u201cYou weren\u2019t just guessing and pointing [the camera] at where Rocky might be someday [if the character had been added in post-production]. That\u2019s what makes [the action] feel like it was captured in the moment,\u201d Miller added.<br \/><br \/>In a later posting on\u00a0<em>X,<\/em> Miller clarified the fact that some digital effects were still used in making the film, which reportedly had a gross budget of $248 million.<br \/>\u00a0<br \/>\u201cSome clarification here: \u2018No green screen\u2019 doesn\u2019t mean \u2018no VFX,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;There were, in fact, thousands of VFX shots in the film (2018!). Green screen is sometimes used in lieu of building sets or figuring out locations\/lighting in advance, which can be noticeable if not done carefully and is something we didn\u2019t want to do.\u201d<br \/><br \/>Miller added that \u201cWe built the entire interior of the Hail Mary ship \u2014 but within the ship, there were still wire and puppeteer removals and ceiling replacements, etc. When Ryan is outside on the hull of the ship, we shot him in front of a black background for space and a shifting hue background when he was up against the aurora of a planet which allowed for truer interactive light on him than a green screen would. The wide space exteriors and spaceship shots were entirely digital and beautifully done by ILM. Rocky was a seamless blend of puppetry and animation from Framestore. And other great work from many more. It really does take a village and we had the best of the best on our side.\u201d<br \/><br \/>The film is already receiving rave reviews from critics who have watched advanced screenings, tossing around words like \u201csublime,\u201d \u201ca miracle,\u201d and \u201can absolute masterpiece.\u201d<br \/><br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/author\/edward-moran\/\">Check out other articles by Edward<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1774669342741533\" data-ad-slot=\"1211148813\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a9Courtesy of Amazon\/MGM Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film. Developed for Amazon\/MGM Studios, Project Hail Mary is based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Andy Weir, author of The&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,20471],"tags":[24687,30049,30047,30048,1096,27567,4908,2622],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Amazon\/MGM&#039;s &#039;Project Hail Mary&#039; Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Amazon\/MGM&#039;s &#039;Project Hail Mary&#039; Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cinema Daily US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"409\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Edward Moran\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Edward Moran\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734\",\"name\":\"Amazon\/MGM's 'Project Hail Mary' Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc\"},\"description\":\"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png\",\"width\":640,\"height\":409,\"caption\":\"Project Hail Mary\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Amazon\/MGM&#8217;s &#8216;Project Hail Mary&#8217; 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He served as literary advisor to her film Hyam Plutzik: American Poet, which was the keynote film in the American Perspectives series at the 2007 Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.cinemadailyus.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?author=3\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Amazon\/MGM's 'Project Hail Mary' Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US","description":"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Amazon\/MGM's 'Project Hail Mary' Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US","og_description":"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.","og_url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734","og_site_name":"Cinema Daily US","article_published_time":"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":409,"url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Edward Moran","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Edward Moran","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734","name":"Amazon\/MGM's 'Project Hail Mary' Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller | Cinema Daily US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png","datePublished":"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-05T04:01:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc"},"description":"Project Hail Mary, the new sci-fi epic due to be released on March 20, is already exciting attention for its technical prowess\u2014not a single moment of green-screening during the entire 159-minute-long film.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/project-Hail-Mary.png","width":640,"height":409,"caption":"Project Hail Mary"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=33734#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Amazon\/MGM&#8217;s &#8216;Project Hail Mary&#8217; Made Without Green-screening,, Says Director Miller"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/","name":"Cinema Daily US","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/8bf0a19223aa026749c276918426a5bc","name":"Edward Moran","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Edward-Moran-150x150.jpg","caption":"Edward Moran"},"description":"Edward Moran began his journalistic career many decades ago as a theater and cinema reviewer for Show Business and the New York Theater Review. 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