#ProjectHailMary directors showed a nearly four-hour cut of the movie to fellow filmmakers, "which was embarrassing." They received a unanimous note: "Get it way shorter." “Our first official test screening went great, but we do a lot of earlier screenings for friends and family and other filmmakers and writers,” Chris Miller explained. “This movie was massive. When we finally got the assembly cut down to under four hours long, we subjected some filmmaker friends of ours to a three hour and 45 minute cut of the movie, which was embarrassing.” Phil Lord added: "You just don’t know how the scenes are going to land with an audience. We thought everything was charming, but some of those charming things didn’t land." (via Happy Sad Confused) variety.com/2026/film/news…
