Published Mar 27, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Drew Goddard, writer of Cabin in the Woods and Bad Times at the El Royale, on working with Andy Weir again, and hard science vs. big emotion Project Hail Mary’s screenwriter took one important lesson from working on The Martian Image: Amazon MGM Studios When screenwriter Drew Goddard signed on to adapt Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary into a movie, he knew exactly what he was getting into. Goddard, the writer-director of The Cabin in the Woods and Bad Times at the El Royale, had already adapted Weir’s The Martian for Ridley Scott . He was aware he was about to jump into a story packed with dense, lengthy explanations of practical, real-world science, and extrapolations about how they could be used in a just-this-side-of-fantasy scenario. But Goddard tells Polygon that working on The Martian gave him complete confidence in audiences' ability to handle the science, and didn’t want it simplified or glossed over in the movie.…