Exclusive: the author of ‘The Martian’ Andy Weir targets stars with the new science fiction thriller ‘Project Hail Mary’
I salute Mary of Andy Weir (Ballantine Books, 2021).€ 18 at Amazon of the author of "The Martian" comes a new adventure from a lonely astronaut with the mission of saving the land from a catastrophe in space.
"Project Hail Mary" has already been bought by the MGM for a cinematographic adaptation which will be led by Phil Lord and Chris Miller ("Le Film Lego"), with Ryan Gosling signed to play the role of the Reticent Astronaut Ryland Grace.Lord and Miller are also attached to the caper novel of the Lunar Crime of Weir, "Artemis".
45seconds.FR spoke with Weir on the genesis of this interstellar odyssey, abandoning the rabbit burrow for in -depth research, mastering the more net scientific data of the story and becoming producer of the next Hollywood cinematographic adaptation linked to the involvement of Gosling. Ce Q&A a été légèrement modifié pour plus de longueur et de clarté.
45seconds.FR: Can you embark on a quick race for the "Project Hail Mary" plot and the main threat that propels history?
Andy Weir: The plot is presented as a guy who wakes up aboard a spacecraft.He has an idea of whom he is and why he is there, and through a series of flashbacks when he recovers his memory, you discover what is happening on Earth.Basically, the sun is darkening and there is a unicellular microscopic organism which is a form of interstellar life which lives on the surface of the stars.It reproduces then spores to other nearby stars.Reproduction is uncontrollable and we essentially have a proliferation of algae in the sun.Now these small creatures consume so much solar energy that the earth is in danger of extinction because solar production decreases.
This organization which they call astrophage, which means in Greek "a thing that eats stars".So they multiply it and use it as fuel for propulsion.And the reason they do this is that they notice that all the other regional stars are darkening, with the exception of Tau Ceti.For a reason that nobody understands, Tau ceti is not affected, they must therefore understand what makes him immunized and how can they reproduce it to save humanity.They therefore manufacture an interstellar vessel called I greet you Marie and feed it with an astrophage and send people in space.
45seconds.fr: I feel like you had a lot of fun writing "Project Hail Mary".How were evolution and process different from the composition of "The Martian" or "Artemis"?
Threshold: Usually, when I write a book, it comes from me who speculates on something scientific."The Martian" came from me speculating on how we could do a mission of humans on Mars and how can we make sure that they do not die if something is wrong, and what to do if a lot of thingsgo wrong."Artemis" started with me by speculating on what the first city of humanity will look like that is not on earth.Will it be in low terrestrial orbit, on the moon or on Mars?Then, I ended up designing the city of Artemis, determining why someone would build a city there, what the economy looks like and what the business looks like.
For "Project Hail Mary", I wrote a different book between "The Martian" and "Artemis" called "Zhek".I wrote nearly 70,000 words in a year, then I realized that the book simply did not work.It was zero.The intrigue did not meet.The characters were not interesting.
So I abandoned and I retro enlisted.But I kept thinking that there were interesting aspects of the story that I should not just throw away.One of them was this notion of fuel for spacecraft that had the maximum specific impulse possible, which is the effectiveness of the fuel of a spacecraft.And this thing has the best theoretical specific impulse.To be able to transform the material into light and then pull this light on the back of your ship to use it as propulsion, because the light has momentum.So we are talking about monumental quantities of energy.
I was thinking of all the interesting things you could do with this technology and to the story that would become "Project Hail Mary".In addition, one of the main characters of "Zhek" was a woman who had this huge secret authority.She could tell governments what to do, but no one knew it.I took her and I also brought her to "I greet you Marie".It was good.Once I have gathered all the pieces, you can just launch the plot and enjoy writing it.In addition, it is a book on friendship, so it feels good and a humorous dialogue.
45seconds.FR: How far have you got into the rabbit burrow by looking for this novel?
OK.Ask me how to crack a pecan nut easyy.My Boss Just Showed Me How...!#random
— Kate Giles Thu Oct 11 07:00:27 +0000 2012
Threshold: I went down to this rabbit burrow!I keep just as real as possible.I mean, we have an extraterrestrial life, but even that I have an explanation.All physics and science are real, including relativistic physics.Like the ship on which it is, it arrived in Tau Ceti in about 13 years from the point of view of the earth, but only about four years from the point of view of the crew due to the expansion of.All these things are very fun for an idiot like me.
I also explained how an organism could live on the surface of a star, how to store energy, and can you transform energy into mass and return it?So this is where corrugated physics come from hand.I have invented quantum physics that we have not yet discovered.This form of life, the astrophage, evolves to take advantage of this oddity which allows it to transform thermal energy into neutrinos and allows it to store neutrinos, which any particle physicist says it is functionally impossible.
45seconds.FR: How do you balance ultra-detainee science for geek readers and a general audience that is not very familiar with more technical aspects?
Threshold: this is a delicate thing to do.I really like real science and I am enthusiastic and excited and I want the reader to feel the same thing.I will end up with these intrigues where you have to know a certain quantity of this science to understand the intrigue at all.I know that I have to explain a lot about science to the reader and nothing more.I would love to talk about science all day, but the reader does not want it.When I do my research, I will only use a tiny percentage of everything I find and the calculations I do.
I ran all the numbers for astrophage.I understood exactly the amount of energy he needed to survive the interstellar distances.I calculated the amount of energy lost due to the radiation of the black body.I went down the rabbit burrow.Lots of funny things like that.I do not try to educate anyone on anything.I just have the impression that there are a lot of unexplored stories and potential of intrigue to tell in real science.What I found is that readers will forgive you any exhibition if it's funny.If you make them laugh while you explain to them, they agree.
45seconds.fr: Ryan Gosling is attached to the star in the adaptation of the feature film by MGM of "Project Hail Mary".What were your reactions to the casting and will you be involved in production?
Threshold: Yeah, I am quite excited by that, obviously.MGM bought me rights squarely, without option, which generally means that the studio takes things seriously.Even what for me is a huge sum of money, for a studio, is a misery.And we have Drew Goddard who works on the script, and it was he who wrote the scenario nominated for the Oscars for "The Martian".
I am also enthusiastic about Ryan.He is rather happy and we talked on the phone a few times and he is delighted to be able to play a character who really has a personality.He is often placed in these roles where his work consists in looking sadly through the window.But this one, he manages to be proactive, perhaps a little uncertain, more than a simple calm person where he is fundamentally told not to express emotion or personality of any kind whatsoever.
I am convinced that it will be a good film if it gets the green light, but you never know if a production house will really get there.You must be lucky and good.I am happy to help with the script as I did with "The Martian" for general information and technical questions.I don't know if Drew started the script again.He's a really busy guy.
In addition, I am a producer on this project and the main thing that implies for me is that I become a disgusting front-end.We said to all those who bored on the book that it was what I wanted and MGM said to me: "We don't do that for writers, but we do it for producers, so why not be producer?"So, when it comes to real producers, I'm just trying to stay away from real producers.
Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" is now available at Ballantine Books.
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