Films To Be Buried With with Brett Goldstein Phil Lord & Chris Miller (Project Hail Mary / The Lego Movie / Cloudy With A Chance...) • #388
Mar 25, 2026
Phil Lord, co-creator of The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Chris Miller, his longtime creative partner behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Project Hail Mary, chat about making Project Hail Mary, mixing big stakes with warmth, puppetry and on-set chemistry, their messy-loving tastes, 2001’s influence, and the joys of assembling a screen band.
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Choosing Hope Over Grimdark
- Phil Lord and Chris Miller aim for hopeful stories where people are mostly good, preferring warmth over bleak grimdark even in apocalyptic settings.
- They chose Project Hail Mary because it balanced a hard technical challenge with an optimistic emotional core about connection and science as communal.
Science As A Social Practice
- They view science as inherently social, highlighting Andy Weir's portrayal of collective problem solving rather than lone geniuses.
- Their film frames scientific method as collaboration—compounding different minds' intelligence to solve crises.
Resolve Directing Differences Through Rehearsal And Edit
- When co-directing, talk through scenes for months, split drafts, swap pages, then test both approaches on set and decide in editing.
- Phil and Chris rehearse, let one director give an actor notes, then try alternate takes and resolve choices in the edit room.