When Hollywood Needs a ‘Hail Mary,’ They Turn to Phil Lord and Chris Miller

The last time Phil Lord and Chris Miller directed a film, Netflix, Amazon and Apple weren’t making movies, Covid hadn’t changed theatergoing habits and the existential threat of AI wasn’t upending the industry. (Sony, which released Lord and Miller’s 2014 feature 22 Jump Street, hadn’t even been hacked yet.) Twelve years have passed since Lord and Miller helmed a movie, and on March 20, they’ll be blasting back into theaters with their most ambitious directorial effort yet, Amazon MGM Studios’ $200 million Project Hail Mary.

It’s unusual for directors who’ve spent that much time out of the director’s chair(s) to remain prominently at the forefront of the business. After being dismissed amid creative differences with Lucasfilm over their helming of 2017’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, the duo quickly rebounded, winning an Oscar as the producers of 2018’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and…