Project Hail Mary directors' next sci-fi swerves away from Ryan Gosling’s hit
Project Hail Mary’s producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have teed up a very different sci‑fi film — teaming with an Oscar‑winning director to adapt a time‑twisting debut novel.
If you thought Project Hail Mary put Lord and Miller in a science fiction groove, think again. The producing duo are back, but their new film feels like it’s landed from another dimension—though there’s still a time machine in the mix. This time, they’re not even directing; they’re handing things over to an Oscar-winning director with a knack for documentaries and a taste for the strange end of speculative fiction.
From Space Survival to Startup Chaos
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s production outfit (Lord Miller) has locked in their next major move: they’re producing a film adaptation of Forrest Brazeal’s upcoming debut novel, Paradox Inc. Universal Pictures is backing it, which isn’t much of a surprise—Lord and Miller have a cushy first-look deal with the studio. No flying solo here: Lucy Kitada and Aditya Sood are also producing, while Brazeal gets a stake as executive producer.
The bloke actually directing is Daniel Roher, who won an Oscar for his 2022 documentary about Russian politician Alexei Navalny. Which does beg the question: what does a documentary filmmaker do with a concept like this? If you know Roher’s taste for tense reality, it’s fair to expect his spin might not be your typical popcorn flick.
Daniel Roher will direct the adaptation of Paradox Inc. for Universal, working from a screenplay by Matthew Robinson.
As for the script, Matthew Robinson is handling that. Robinson’s got form after writing Netflix’s The Last House (the genre blender that threw haunted house tropes through a football stadium window) and the recent Gore Verbinski project Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. Robinson and Roher are pulling together the film’s treatment as we speak—so it’s very much in the early phase, but off the starting blocks all the same.
Time Machines Meet Tech Bros
The premise? It’s less about saving humanity from the void, more about startups and big tech firms tearing each other apart to be first in the race to put a time machine in your living room. The carrot: whoever wins doesn’t just get rich—they get to muck about with reality itself. Of course, the way this sector does time travel? Apparently not exactly by the standard rules, and if Brazeal’s online musings are anything to go by, there’ll be satire about tech optimism and Silicon Valley’s weird faith in disruption. In short, don’t expect Marty McFly and an 80s soundtrack.
Brazeal, interestingly, is far from your average debut novelist. He’s ex-Google, started his own tech marketing company, and built a following online with webcomics and pointed videos about life in the trenches of Big Tech.
Brazeal’s debut novel, Paradox Inc., lands via Penguin Random House on 19 January 2027.
So yes, the movie is based on a book that isn’t even out yet. That hasn’t stopped Universal and Lord Miller from jumping on it early, which gives you a sense of the hype swirling around this thing in publishing and studio circles.
What Else Are Lord and Miller Up To?
If you need a reminder: Lord Miller’s last outing was Project Hail Mary starring Ryan Gosling, which smashed it with $684 million in global box office for Amazon MGM Studios. They’ve also been busy producing Spider-Noir (yes, the Nicolas Cage series), which has snagged eleven Emmy nominations for this year's awards. Looking ahead, their biggest ticket is probably Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, now aiming for a June 2027 release.