What is Artemis? The directors of Project Hail Mary give an update on their next Andy Weir movie

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Published Mar 19, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT

‘I wanted Artemis to be my big complicated world, but nobody likes it’

Ridley Scott’s 2015 adaptation of Andy Weir’s bestselling novel The Martian helped redefine modern science fiction filmmaking with its highly realistic portrayal of the perils of outer space. The Oscar-nominated film was so successful that 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to Weir’s next book, Artemis, before it was published in 2017. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were announced as co-directors, and Captain Marvel writer Geneva Robertson-Dworet signed on to write the script. Lord and Miller wound up doing a different Weir adaptation first, bringing his 2021 novel Project Hail Mary to theaters on March 20. But they say they’re still committed to adapting Artemis.

The Martian and Project Hail Mary both deal heavily with isolation, featuring men who find themselves alone in space and have to use all their ingenuity to survive. Artemis is more akin to a noir. It follows Jazz Bashara, a smuggler who winds up involved in a conspiracy that could kill everyone living in the titular lunar city.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter ahead of Project Hail Mary’s release, Miller confirmed that the script has been written and said “it’s delightful.” The book’s setting has made an adaptation challenging, but Miller and Lord told ScreenRant they may have finally overcome that hurdle.

“The trick on that was the Moon gravity, which is 1/6th Earth's gravity. It is a really tricky thing to shoot in a practical way,” Lord said. “We figured out a way that we think we would be able to shoot Moon gravity in a way that wouldn't cost a billion dollars.”

While both The Martian and Project Hail Mary were written as standalone novels, Weir told Polygon he originally intended for Artemis to be the start of a series. But the book was critically panned, and while it was a New York Times bestseller, Weir attributed that success to momentum from the popularity of The Martian. His publisher turned down the idea of a sequel, which would have followed Rudy DuBois, a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer working as Artemis’ head of security.

“I wanted Artemis to be my big complicated world, but nobody likes it,” Weir said. “Each book would take place in Artemis, but have a different main character doing different things and time would go forward.”

If Miller and Lord’s Artemis movie is a hit, maybe Weir will get the chance to write his sequel. Until then, he’s working on another standalone science fiction book that also seems destined for the big screen.

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