How a practical set and a puppet created a 2026 sci-fi box office hit

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The 2026 film Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, defied expectations by relying on practical sets and puppetry rather than green screens. Starring Ryan Gosling as a lone astronaut, the film grossed over $685 million worldwide, proving that tactile filmmaking still resonates with modern global audiences.

Adapted from Andy Weir's 2021 novel, Project Hail Mary follows Ryland Grace, a molecular biologist who awakens on an interstellar ship with no memory of his mission to save Earth from a solar-dimming microbe. The production, which began filming in June 2024 at Shepperton Studios, prioritized physical realism. Directors Lord and Miller, alongside cinematographer Greig Fraser, eschewed traditional chroma keying, opting instead for practical sets and black backdrops to avoid the color spill associated with digital screens.

Central to the film's success is the alien character Rocky, a five-legged engineer from the 40 Eridani A system. Rather than relying solely on CGI, the production utilized a puppet designed by Neal Scanlan and operated by a team of five puppeteers led by James Ortiz. Ortiz also provided the character's voice. By the end of the production, the final shots of Rocky represented a roughly 50-50 split between practical puppetry and digital animation by Framestore, creating a performance that critics lauded for its soulfulness.

The film's technical ambition extended to its cinematography. Shot with Arri Alexa 65 cameras, the production utilized varying aspect ratios to distinguish between timelines, switching to a taller 1.43:1 ratio for present-day scenes in IMAX. This commitment to visual craft, supported by NASA scientific input, helped the film secure a 95% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. With a worldwide gross of $685.3 million as of September 2026, it stands as the seventh-highest-grossing film of the year, marking a significant commercial achievement for Amazon MGM Studios.

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