[00:00:11] Speaker A: On this week's prequel episode, we follow up on our project Hail Mary listener polls and preview Austinland.
Hello and welcome back to another prequel episode of this film as let the podcast where we're talking about movies that are based on books. Boy, we got a lot of feedback to get to. I guess that's what happens when you do one of the most popular movies that just came out like yeah, a couple months ago. Everybody, literally everybody has seen it, so it has feelings. But we got a lot of feedback to get to. But first we're gonna start like we always do with our patron shoutouts. I put up with you because your father and mother were our finest patrons. That's why. One new patron this week at the five dollar Hugo award winning level. A handful of Fishbones. Thank you. A handful of Fishbones. Make sure you check out that bonus content. Put out an episode every month. We just watched our movie last night for we're a little couple days late. We'll get it out here shortly. But we watched Nancy Drew, the 2007 film, so we'll be talking about that for our August bonus episode. So look out for that in the next few days.
And yeah, every month there's a new one of those. As always, we would like to thank our Academy award winning patrons and they are Amanda, Nicole Goble, Harpo Rat, Nathan, Mathilde Cottonwood, Steve, Ben Wilcox, Teresa Schwartz, Ian from Wine Country, Kelly Napier, Gratch Justgratch, Shelby says Hayden, Dolly, Tim. What the fuck? Grim Reaper or wtf? Grim Reaper and that darn skag. Thank you all very much for your continued support.
Really appreciate it. Katie, let's see what the people had to say about project Hail Mary.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah, well, you know, that's just like your opinion, man. Well, a lot.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: First of all, holy cow. And what was most interesting to me this time was the variedness that was of the responses.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: It's not like there was agreement.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Not a whole lot of agreement. No. So we're gonna get started as we always do with Patreon, where we had four votes for the book, four for the movie and. Yeah. And one listener who couldn't decide this, I will say.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: I'll preface all this by saying this all makes sense to me because it's a pretty. It's such a faithful adaptation with very minimal amount of changes. Like overall it makes sense that it kind of teeters back and forth.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Right. It's gonna depend on your personal preferences versus like changes.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: Cause if it's way different, then like obviously it's easy. Like oh, this movie's way better or this book's way better. But this, these. These are so similar that it's. Yeah. Little things here and there that push people over.
[00:02:51] Speaker B: So. Our first comment was from Minty Sell, who said, while I immensely enjoyed the movie and I think it gives depth and character to Grace that his book counterpart lacks, I missed the more science y bits and I missed that the book felt higher stakes. You actively see the world dying and the things they are doing to stop that which you don't see in the movie.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree with that.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: Also, almost every mention of Eridian culture was erased from the movie, probably due to time. And that made me sad.
Rocky feels a little dumbed down in comparison to the brilliant, sassy engineer of the book.
[00:03:29] Speaker A: Yes, I would agree with that. They cute maxed him.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Our next comment is from Kelly Napier.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: I'm gonna try to keep my comments brief on it because there's so many comments. I'm trying to keep my comments on each individual comment brief.
[00:03:42] Speaker B: So, so, so from Kelly Napier. Kelly said. Okay. An answer to your music question. We got several answers.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: I'm excited. Your music question, the one that really counts, we'll get to later. I saw today from a music teacher.
I say it matters because they agree with me.
[00:04:02] Speaker B: An answer to your music question. I can't help with how it was printed in the book because I listened to the audiobook where the notes were played out. But the only thing I can think is that because there is a break between notes and the third and they are not tied together, that it implies a re. Articulation that would then imply a new word, which is basically what I was trying to get.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: So you're saying that the first word
[00:04:27] Speaker B: of the first word is the two notes, which would be the two syllable word and then the third separate note is a whole new word.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: That would be surprising because he. I don't. I don't know. I don't think reading it. I don't think that's the case because they're doing.
Never mind. It doesn't matter. I'm not even.
Yes. I was going to try to parse it, but I'm like.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: While I did overall enjoy the book, I voted for the movie because in the book I got so bored by how long it took Grace in his gomer pile in space.
I have no idea what's going on. Era when he first came out of the coma before we got into what I would consider the actual plot of the book.
[00:05:08] Speaker A: It does take more time than the movie. The movie pretty quickly is like oh he's on a spaceship. Oh he's at this star relatively quickly in the book. Like I said, it takes quite a bit more time. I didn't mind that, but I could see to me the book drug more in the third act than it did in the first part.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: But I also voted for the movie because unlike Minty Sell, I could have done without the complex science explanations in the book.
Between this and Contact, I was just overwhelmed by science all caps, and in both cases preferred to just see it happen rather than have to read listen to it being explained to me.
Since the adaptation was so faithful to the book in many ways, it was hard to choose and it really came down to what I didn't like in the book over what I would have preferred in the movie.
Our next comment is from Gratch Justgratch who said both are good, but I prefer the book back and forth.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Man.
[00:06:05] Speaker B: I love the way the characters have to discover things.
Sometimes they make a hypothesis and they test it and it doesn't work. And that's just science.
In the movie they have to be more streamlined so everyone is just right every time.
Also, getting to learn a lot more about the Iridians and their planet and biology and such was delightful. Yep, that's a good point. About like the depiction of the way that science actually works. And like the trial.
[00:06:30] Speaker A: There's a lot more trial and error in the book that you don't get in the movie because it just.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, you got to get that runtime. It's a long.
[00:06:37] Speaker A: It's already a long movie and I actually heard. I have heard people complain who haven't read the book and have only seen that. I've listened to some. I can't remember who it was, but some podcast was like a handful of hosts talking about the movie and one of their complaints was that it drug in the third act. And I thought that was funny because I was like boy, compared to the book, it's like moving in the third act.
[00:06:59] Speaker B: Our next comment is from a handful of Fishbones who said, I feel so drastically different about the book and movie. I forgot that the movie plot wise is a quite accurate adaptation.
Mostly I can't stand the way Andy Weir writes.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: It's fair. That's a common complaint. It doesn't bother me as much as a lot of people, but that is a very common complaint about Andy Weir.
[00:07:23] Speaker B: He isn't interested in developing dynamic characters or exploring themes. It's all about problem and solving problem.
The characters are all snarky and sorta meta talking, which I have an extremely negative reaction to.
Don't make me listen to fictional snarky, man. It gives me a headache.
Whereas the movie gives everyone more personality and makes Grace more goofy than snarky.
I also feel Grace is too good at everything in the book. The movie gives a lot of his ideas to other people. Slash more firmly, makes Grace a part of the teams and makes him bad at most things, which makes him more likable on the biology front. What I do IRL is very similar to what Grace is supposed to specialize in.
Andy Weir tells me Grace is a biologist, but I don't believe him. Bro does not think like a biologist. He's too busy showing off how smart he is at math and physics and then some of the basic biology stuff is baffling.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: I will, I will say I had that thought in while reading the book that, like, he's a biologist, but like, most of what he seems to do, especially in the early part of the book, is all like, physics and like.
[00:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: And like solar astrology. But I think the idea there is that he's just a science nerd who's very smart and has learned a little bit about a lot of stuff. And I think part of that is like, tied into the fact that because he's a teacher, he like, he's a generalist.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: A little bit more broad knowledge.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that's kind of how he tries to like, justify that, is by being. Well, he's a teacher, so he's learned a little bit about a lot of stuff. But he does seem to have a lot of knowledge about he can do like, orbital injection, like, calculations. I'm like, I don't know if a biologist knows how to. Would know how to do orbital injection calculations, but okay.
[00:09:05] Speaker B: I mean, good thing.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: But yeah.
Then again, the only thing I like about the book is that astrophage has a mitochondria, which is absolutely hilarious because it makes all the stuff he says about panspermia. Panspermia Insane.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: Yeah. One thing I didn't really touch on is that they do speculate that basically all life probably I think this is. And I can't remember the exact direction, but I think they speculate that all life in our galaxy potentially came from Adrian, potentially. And that propagated in panspermia to like, Earth and arid. And that they're all related kind of. I think I can't remember for sure because they speculate several different hypotheses at different times throughout the book. And I Can't. I don't remember exactly what they land
[00:09:50] Speaker B: on, but I also don't think either the book or movie does enough work for me to believe that Grace wouldn't get on the Hail Mary of his own will. But whatever.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: I didn't have an issue with that. Just because I can just believe, like, when he's like, yeah, I don't want to die. I don't want. I'm just like, yeah, okay. Like, I can just believe that there's like, I don't. I would like to think that if the world were ending and they were like, we need you to go on the suicide. I like to think I would, but I don't know that I would like. I don't.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: You know, the movie has its issues, but it's fun and pretty and in my estimation, it gives the story a soul by focusing on the characters. I've watched it six times now.
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah, but I. I mean, I agree with all that. Yeah.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: Anyway, I find book Grace absolutely repellent.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: I don't find him repellent, but I understand why he's. He's definitely more grading than Ryan Gosling's version.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: And while I'm generally hard to please, Michael Crichton occupies a similar hard sci fi niche. And I don't want to punch him when he's delivering the science to me.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: That's fair.
[00:10:51] Speaker B: There you go. Our next comment is from Shelby, who said, having only read this and the Martian, I think Andy Ware has improved as a storyteller.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yes, I would agree with that.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Ryland Grace is flawed in many ways. Mark Watney never was.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think the book just had. This book has much more of, like, an interesting narrative. A lot of the Martian is guy on a planet solving problems.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Right. Right.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: I mean, that's a lot of what this is. But there's an alien shows up and they gotta do stuff to him.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: They need somebody to talk to and
[00:11:20] Speaker A: there's more stuff to do and they have a goal other than just get home. It's a little bit more.
There's a little bit more going on.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
Film wise, I think I liked this more than the Martian, which is saying something because Project Hail Mary was missing the Winter Soldier.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: It's been a long time since we watched the Martian, probably since we did the episode, so I couldn't tell you. I think I liked the Martian more the first time I saw it than I liked this the first time I saw it. But I would have to watch him again. I would have to watch the Martian again now. To really like it.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: I don't remember all that much about the Martian. I saw a lot of people talking about this story being an example of how people without the stereotypical partner and kids are seen as more disposable. While I agree that's a social problem that needs to be addressed, I don't think Project Hail Mary is a good example. Grace has to go because he's the most qualified and not sending him would cost more lives. If he had 10 kids and an ailing grandma, they'd still be stuffing him in that ship.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: I think they probably would. I think the point that when people reference that is that they do specifically call out the fact at least in the movie and I think in the book I think both they do specifically call out we don't have kids. You don't have a partner, you don't even have a dog.
[00:12:26] Speaker B: He doesn't even have a dog.
[00:12:27] Speaker A: Like they. They do call all of that out as like reasons why he should go. But yeah, and I don't remember. I think they say that in a book, but I can't remember for sure.
[00:12:36] Speaker B: I'm giving it to the movie. I especially loved the visuals on Adrian.
[00:12:40] Speaker A: Yep. Yeah, I would agree.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Our next comment is from John Pauley.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: All right.
[00:12:45] Speaker B: And this is a person we know in real life.
I anticipated this movie coming out quite a lot after reading about it a year ago and being a fan of Lord and Miller's movies and found the movie to excellent and it was close but I still had to give my vote to the book, specifically the audiobook.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Interesting. I will say this. I could not listen to the audiobook of the Martian. I tried and I found it so annoying like I found Watney I think is his name in that Watney's character. So annoying to listen to in a way that I did not find him annoying to read.
[00:13:18] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: And I. And I couldn't do it. And I wonder. I don't know if it would be similar with this.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: But yeah, the movie was a great theater going movie. My kids were satisfyingly awed at the beautiful space scene and the immersion in a theater feels appropriate in a movie that depicts isolation a good amount of the time. But it feels like it will lose a lot of value with an at home viewing.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: A little bit for sure. Not as much. I don't know. Yeah, definitely like seeing it on a big screen definitely helps. Like we watched it at home on our screen now we have a good
[00:13:49] Speaker B: soundscape, we have a pretty good sound.
[00:13:50] Speaker A: We have a good setup. We have a nice like 5.1, you know, surround and whatnot and an okay TV and like.
Yeah, but it's so, it's, it's still good. But I, and I, I enjoyed it just as much, almost as much basically as seeing it on a theater.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: If I was to revisit this story, I would prefer to listen to the audiobook versus watching the movie at home.
I'm a big fan of voice actors and Ray Porter does an excellent job with Project Hail Mary and the audiobook even won Audiobook of the year in 2022.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: There you go. To be fair, I also heard good things about the Martian audiobook before I lose.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Fair enough.
The book being a largely a first person narration and the musical language of Rocky being represented audibly, I think helped a lot in accenting the audiobook as well.
Audible narration can be a blessing or a curse though, for all audiobooks as they have to present the story from a perspective, from a specific perspective, the way the lines are delivered and sometimes prevent the reader from having their own original interpretation of the writing.
In the case of Project Hail Mary, the narrator sounds like your slightly overweight bearded uncle that likes to do science experiments in his garage. And when I first heard Ryan Gosling was playing Grace, I thought he was way too handsome and charming for the character. And I still think that after watching the movie. But Gosling was still really good.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: I looked up Ray Porter and I recognized him and yeah, he looks like your overweight uncle who does science in the garage.
[00:15:18] Speaker B: So that tracks the little details of all the science being done in both the book and movie in physics, astronomy, biology, technology and language were fun and interesting to me, but I can absolutely see why someone would be annoyed or uninterested in the extent to which it is in both. But quite honestly, the book had more and I liked those scenes, so I liked the book more.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: That is one of those things where if you enjoy the science stuff, yeah, the book speaks to you and if you don't, then it doesn't and I'm somewhere in the middle. Like I used to like that stuff more than I do now. I still do. I still enjoy it, but it does at times drag for me a little bit.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: On the Iridian language question, if nobody else has said already, I think you are misinterpreting the conversation is all.
[00:16:01] Speaker A: I don't think so.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Polly, double checking the passage, Grace is starting with one syllable words and then he gets to lambda, which is the first two syllable word translated in English, not in Eridean. So the amount of syllables In English doesn't need to correspond equally in Eridean, like yellow to amarillo in Spanish.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: No, because the way he says it, it says, I hold up the lambda. And before I can even speak, he points to it and says, 3 8th notes.
And then Grace thinks, Excellent. Our first two syllable word. He is responding, saying, Our first two syllable word to what?
[00:16:38] Speaker B: To what Rocky said.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: Not if he. If he. Otherwise he would have said, I hold up the lambda, our first two syllable word, and before I can even speak, he points to it and says, but whatever that would be. I don't think so. I'm pretty sure he's saying that what. What Rocky is saying is two syllables. I'm pretty sure rereading it again. But I could be wrong.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: I am curious if the written book has music notes written throughout.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Yes. Well, not the route just before.
For the brief time where he's learning when he's first learning the language, and then once he learns a word from then on, we just see it printed in English.
[00:17:17] Speaker B: The audiobook has chords that play throughout representing Rocky speaking.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Also, I paused the podcast to find this answer before even being called out to do so by name.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: I knew you would. I had a feeling you would.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: A fun Easter egg I saw in the movie was that in the book, when Grace first wakes up, he's confused because he has more muscle definition than he ever.
Because apparently the combat coma chambers were constantly doing something with their muscles.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah, they were like, doing like electrical stimulation or whatever. Yeah.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: And in the movie, I don't think it's openly addressed.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: But he writes the word muscles on
[00:17:53] Speaker A: the question mark at the end. Muscles.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: And contemplates it in a montage, and I thought that was funny.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:00] Speaker B: The point about Rocky behaving childishly even though he is an adult, I think could be patronizing, but I think his behavior is pretty close to that of Grace, showing he is emulating the first human he met. Or that they are fortunate to be mirrors of each other for their respective races.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: I guess that's fair. I still don't think Grace is quite as.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Chaotic and adore. Adorkable as Rocky is. But. But it is fair that they. They do share a similar goofy sense of humor. It's just. Yeah. Which I. I think they actually match. I think in the book, they actually match pretty closely in that regard. I think the book is like, dead on like this. They're very similar personalities. Again, I think the movie just dials up Rocky a little bit too much.
[00:18:45] Speaker B: Grace makes silly jokes, fiddles with things and uses pretend cuss words, so displays childlike behaviors as well. And frankly has lots of signs of autism spectrum disorder which I think is mirrored in Rocky. And why it reminds you of Big Bang Theory.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, a little bit. Like I said, I just don't think Grace is quite to the same extent.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: But it should also be noted Rocky's voice in the movie and book don't have inflection because it's just the computer's voice simply saying words.
Some of the Rocky scenes were definitely played up in the movie for comedy bits, but I thought they were funny and effective. Expected from Lord and Miller and provided good continued interest even for younger kids like mine who had no problem sitting through this two and a half hour movie.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: I think that's the thing is that it felt like, yes, I get kids as a kid would love like 100%, but that's what feels a little patronizing. But it feels like it's kind of designed to appeal to children in a way that, I mean, I think they
[00:19:43] Speaker B: clearly wanted this to be kind of a family. A family movie, 100%.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: And they nailed it. And I'm not, I'm not even.
I'm not even necessarily digging it for that. I just, I do think that because of that it ends up feeling like this character that should be maybe a little bit less zany and kooky and silly.
[00:20:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Is dialed up to be that silly in order. Not. Not because of an in universe reason, but because of we're appeal to an audience watching the film.
Which again is not a major issue. I didn't hate the movie because of it. I just found it a little grating at times.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: We were giving each other thumbs downs and quoting Rocky for a couple weeks after. So I think even if it was a bit gimmicky, it was still successful.
[00:20:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And that's something to keep in mind.
There is truth to that idea of I may enjoy something like 2001 in certain ways more than a movie like this, but your 6 year old is not gonna wanna go watch 2001 because it's boring. Like and. But it's this movie and we don't
[00:20:45] Speaker B: have any kids, so.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Right. But this movie does a good job of balancing a little bit of like the awe and you know, beauty of space and coolness of science along with being a fun, entertaining comedy family movie. Like yeah, it's. It's doing all of that.
[00:21:01] Speaker B: Our next comment was from Nathan who said, I'm having so many thoughts and I'm not sure if I will have time to collect them all as I'm traveling this weekend for my birthday. Happy birthday, Nathan.
But I need to vent at least a little about this. For me, this is the biggest difference between film and move.
I guess film and book. I guess Nathan meant to say film and book and the history of the pod the entire.
We've been doing this for a long time, Nathan. Are you sure about that?
This is the worst book I have read since at least I got back into reading regularly about two and a half years ago. Maybe ever.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Holy cow.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Read more books.
I'm not saying Nathan reads like almost every.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: No, I know, I know. But like, that's. That's a wild. That's an assertion.
[00:21:55] Speaker B: Maybe ever. And the film is a masterpiece and just letting a super charismatic star carry the whole thing for you.
The only good thing in the book is Rocky, and even he gets dumbed down with his dialect, making him sound childish again.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: I would argue the movie does that even worse than the book does.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: But yeah, that being said, you would have to be truly heartless not to love him and get choked up a bit when Grace goes back to save him.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's still. Like I said, it still kind of works for me. The moments like that that are supposed
[00:22:26] Speaker B: to hit still do the same cannot be said about his human counterpart. Grace is the least interesting man in the world.
It feels like the book realizes this and tries to retrofit a character arc onto him by briefly making him a coward in flashbacks, when nothing about his behavior before or after that point lines up with that characterization.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: I think. I think his characterization does work in the book. It's just that because of the way the narrative is structured, you don't realize, like, all of the stuff in space, he doesn't remember who he is, so he doesn't remember that he's a coward.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: That's fair.
[00:23:04] Speaker A: And so, like, when we find out, he finds out at the same time. And so I don't think it's retrofitting so much as it is a result of how the book is just structured, which obviously was an intentional choice, but I think it does kind of work. It worked for me, at least for the most part.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: I know Strat tries to tie it to his previous behavior, but that is some tell don't show nonsense.
And like you can get away with that if Ryan Gosling is on screen being charismatic as fuck. So you don't notice, but you can't when consuming Weir's dry and lifeless prose.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: I mean, I'm not gonna argue that his prose is dry and lifeless. Like I said, I struggled to find an opening quote that I thought was compelling in, like a couple sentences.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: The worst thing about the book for me is how slowly it moves. We just get new problem after new problem. So every time the story appears to be ready to move forward, we get dragged back every new problem. Felt to me like what Brian was saying about the astrophage breeding section. Just a full on break to any forward momentum the story had developed.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't necessarily disagree with that. There's times where I felt that it
[00:24:13] Speaker B: felt like a chore to read. I read the book first and loved the movie precisely because it streamlines so many of the many disasters so we don't keep repeating the same beats again and again and again.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: I think that is what the movie is best at, is that there are times where it's like, okay, I feel like we already kind of did that, this disaster already in the book. Why are we doing it again?
And the reason we're doing it again is because it's realistic, I think. And that's at times, I think Weir gets bogged down in trying to make the narrative as real as possible. And so it's like, well, then he would have this problem, then he would have this problem. And then you're like, okay, but that's very similar to the problems we've already solved.
[00:24:51] Speaker B: The notes printed in my book were two eighth notes and a quarter note, which is two beats.
But to my musically ignorant brain, it would sound like 1 and 2. Because while 8th notes are half beats, they still sound separate and thus would pass as three syllables, not two.
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I agree with that point. I don't know mine. They're three eighth notes. It's two connected eighth notes and then a single eighth note. Because a quarter note doesn't have the little flag that hangs down. That's an eighth note flag from my memory of music from a long time ago when I played drums. But.
So I'm pretty sure maybe there are different versions where there is a quarter note. But mine is three eighth notes. It's two connected eighth notes and then a single eighth note.
[00:25:35] Speaker B: All right, our next comment is from Rezinata, who said, it's interesting how plenty of the stuff in the movie you mentioned were quite spontaneous additions.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Know that.
[00:25:48] Speaker B: But now she's with Mark. Rocky. Hate Mark. Interaction was improvised, making fun of Gosling's friend and costumer Mark Avery, who was present while filming.
[00:25:58] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:25:59] Speaker B: The thumbs down joke came about while testing different ways to play a scene, the directors wanted a thumbs up, but the puppet couldn't do that. So the puppeteers just did a thumbs down and everyone found it hilarious.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: That's great. And that makes sense because that kind of tracks with what you're saying of like, it's like the.
The.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Like he doesn't have.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: He just literally, like his biology doesn't allow for him to make a thumbs down in the same way or thumbs up in the same way that humans do.
And so, yeah, the puppet. Same thing.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Having Strat sing the crew care in the.
Having Strat sing during the crew karaoke scene was Gosling's idea. After hearing Sandra Holler sing, Holler was on board. Given that she could pick the song. They acquired the rights to the song the next day and shot the scene the day after that.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: So she picked that song. Interesting.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Apparently, yeah.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: I didn't know any of that. That's cool. I think I had heard. The one thing I think I had heard was that the karaoke scene was kind of. I forgot about that. We were doing the episode. But in retrospect, I thought. I remember hearing, like, that was kind of like a spur of the moment thing a little bit.
[00:27:03] Speaker B: Our next comment is from Charlene, who said, I read the book first. And while I did enjoy the movie, I thought they left out so much explanation that I wondered how anyone who came in new to the movie could follow what was going on, especially in that third act montage.
So I'm A, glad to hear it was enjoyable. For those without the background info, that's me, me. And B, unsurprised that that part of the book dragged. For those who saw the movie first, yeah.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: I will say, I think what makes it work in the movie is that they realize that the problem solving they're doing in that third act with, like, breeding the astrophage and it getting loose and all that is not really narratively that important. Like, it being the thing that spurs his need to go save Rocky is important, but, like, all of the minutiae of what he. Because we spend so much time with him going through, like, breeding and then, oh, and then my ship's now out of power and blah, blah, and like, figuring all out.
The important part of that is, oh, no, Rocky is gonna have this problem because of this.
I gotta go save him. And the movie just shortcuts that in a way that I think works in and. And is easy to follow in the film. Even if you don't understand all of the minutiae of, like, why it happened, you just get like, oh, this talmoeba can get through their stuff and it's gonna eat his fuel and he's not gonna be able to leave. Okay.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Ryan Gosling was great, though not who I would have pictured in the role, but he really excelled in the emotional bits while still pulling off the dorky middle school teacher vibe. I loved the oh, thank God I'm a teacher moment in the book. Definitely best they cut it for the movie.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was a good decision to cut, but it is a fun little moment in the movie or in the book.
[00:28:49] Speaker B: Okay. And our last comment on Patreon was from Cottonwood, Steve, who said, well, it's been a tough month for me at work and having no outlet to release my anger, anxiety and rage. I'm glad you decided to choose Project Hail Mary.
The movie is awful. I cringed the whole time watching it. The book is poorly written and I couldn't stand half of it. I'll leave it at that.
I initially wrote a longer review, which we did see, Steve.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't see it. I saw it.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: But I realized my disdain for this makes me sound crazy.
It's one of those movies I knew was bad and watched it to make sure my pretentious instincts are not deceiving.
[00:29:35] Speaker A: I'm not telling you how to watch movies, Steve, but I am a little bit when you say it's one of those movies I knew was bad and I watched it to make sure my instincts weren't deceiving me. I think you're going into the movie incorrectly. I really, really. Even movies we watch on good bad or bad bad, I genuinely go into those movies with an open mind and
[00:29:57] Speaker B: I think you can tell that based on how you react to them versus how Kyle does.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: I would agree with that, but I genuinely try to go into every single movie I watch with an open mind, willing to appreciate what it's trying to do and judging it based on how successfully I think it does what it's trying to do and also how much that appeals to me. Even if a movie is really good at doing what it wants to do, but I find it boring.
Whatever. But again, your life, live it however you want.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: I mean, I will say I have to agree that Steve, it seems like you're going in expecting to be disappointed and upset and maybe that it's a
[00:30:38] Speaker A: self fulfilling proposal, because I do. Again, I understand not being a huge fan. I did not like the movie as much as I wanted to or as much as I thought I would the first time I saw it.
I was disappointed with it a little bit, but I do think it's kind of crazy. And we love you, Steve, but I think it's kind of crazy to say the movie is awful.
I think that's like. Like, objectively. As objectively as you can be about a movie which is, you know, obviously it's. It's all subjective, but I think it's kind of crazy to say the movie is awful. I think it's fair to say the movie doesn't appeal to you.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Not to your taste.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Not to your taste, and is like, cringe and bad in ways that you find really annoying. I think that's totally fair to say. It's like, it's a very well made movie. Again, maybe the script is like, you hate the script. That's. But, like, you can't watch this movie and go, like, that's a poorly made. I just don't believe you. Like, I don't believe you.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: All right, so Steve wrapped up here by saying, either way, good review. And as always, keep up the good work.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: Thank you, Steve. We love arguing with you.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: We appreciate that.
All right. Over on Facebook, we had two votes for the book and four for the movie.
Our first comment was from Jason, who said, I had a similar complaint about Rocky. They made him seem silly when he said his wife's name. They made it a joke in the movie and it really isn't mad.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't mention that, but that is actually a little detail that was kind of annoying. Is that in the book when he says his partner's name and he, like, sings it or whatever? It's very beautiful. And Grace, like, is like, wow, that's really pretty. And in the movie, he's like, are you done? He's like, kind of like, undercuts it in a way that, again, I think the movie makes up for that a little bit, in my opinion, by adding the scene later where they're talking about, like, how long have you been with your partner? And he's like, 186 years. And he's like, is not enough. Yeah, I think that that's not in the book, and I think that gives back a little bit of that because that scene chokes me up in the movie.
And so, yeah, I think, you know, it's a give and a take there. In different moments.
[00:32:51] Speaker B: They also cut a key scene, I think, with the captain telling Grace, he's the number two.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Big development moment they missed that was interesting.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: I didn't mention that in the episode, but there is a moment where during One of the meetings, they're all kind of sitting around and Grace is talking to a bunch of the, like, the crew members and stuff, and they're basically like, so what do you think? You're the second in command or whatever of this whole mission? He's like, what? No, I'm not. And they're like, come on. Yeah, you are like, you're Strat's, like, secondhand person. Like.
[00:33:19] Speaker B: And they made the scene with their method of death flippant, too.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Still a great movie, but the book is better. All right, next comment was from Jesse, who said, I'm still reading the book, but it's my favorite movie of the year so far and I've seen it at least three times, and I feel comfortable enough to add it to my personal best 10 movies. Okay, another comment from James H.
Who said movie. They made Rocky freaking adorable in the
[00:33:49] Speaker A: movie, so he has a. He agrees with my assessment, but it works for him.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: Is into it. He likes it. It.
Next comment is from Ian, who said, movie trimmed away the excess fat that Weir loves to write. And come on, Gosling was perfect.
And our final comment on Facebook was from James R. I had to give the James's their. Their final initials.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Initials.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Who said, I loved the book, but I have to give it to the movie as a masterclass in taking the heart of the book and giving it life. Life. And they made us fall in love with a rock.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: A rock spider. It's true.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Over on Instagram, we had one vote for the book and seven for the movie.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: Our first comment was from E. Butts Oster, another person we know in real life. That's my cousin Emily.
Who said what?
No way. The movie had to cut out so much emotional nuance that makes us love Rocky even more.
Time to go listen to the episode.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Well, that must be our 1 vote for the book then here.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: I guess so, yeah.
And we have a comment from Tim Wahoo, who said, brian is right. Movies are always better.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Not my argument, but sure.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Our next comment is from Goated Meme Collector 69.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Incredible. Good stuff.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Who said, new time listener here. Welcome Goaded Meme Collector 69.
As much as I love the book and the movie, I have to hand it to the movie as well. The book did have a lot of promise with its heavy sci fi language and problem solving skills that Ryland Grace showed in the book. But visually, I feel Drew Goddard really nailed what needed to be on the screen rather than on the page from the book.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: So movie wins for me.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah, very Good editing job in adapting it.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: We have another comment from Nathan who said agreed by like a million miles. The movie is better is the idea that life could exist that doesn't need water to survive, really. Particularly outside the box.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: I think it's. I mean it's. We only have examples of life that does require water. So it's one of those things where like that's the easiest thing we can kind of speculate. But there is like, that is a pretty common. At least in sci fi and in like kind of playful hypothesizing that like scientists and stuff will do about alien life is like, well, maybe there's alien life that's like a plasma or something like that that's literally made of like plasma in a star or whatever.
Yeah. People have speculated that there could be life, but I think what the. The big thing is like getting into like the nitty gritty, like chemistry of how that would work is very complicated and that are very like difficult to imagine. And that's what Grace does is as a biologist, he was doing like the actual, like here's chemically, biologically, how maybe non water based life would work. Yeah. Which is a lot harder to maybe justify versus just kind of like making fun speculations.
[00:36:51] Speaker B: I feel like a trope in sci fi first contact stories that life is way more versatile than the limits people put on it.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Yes. That is true. Like I said. Yeah.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: It feels like Baby's initial First contact story that pretends a trope is way out there and more original when it is actually super common.
[00:37:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I think it's kind of playing with that, but yeah.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: And our final comment on Instagram here is from Julie M. Flood, another person we know in real life.
[00:37:17] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Who said this was a tough choice. The scene where Grace and Rocky part ways made me cry when I read it. And that emotional association is probably why I chose the book and the poll.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: So I guess Emily didn't vote.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: I only count the like story.
[00:37:33] Speaker A: Oh yeah.
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Because it's too hard to like go back and compare.
[00:37:36] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Who's already voted.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:37:39] Speaker B: But I totally agree with everything in your final verdict.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Thank you, Julie.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: Plus, like Katie said, Ryan Gosling is just charming.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: It's true.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Brian. I asked Ethan, a band teacher, to listen to your music question and he agrees that three eighth notes would be three syllables.
[00:37:56] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you, Justice.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: We didn't have any comments on threads, but we did have one vote for the book and two for the movie.
And on Goodreads, we had one vote for the book. And zero for the movie. And a comment from Mikko, who said, I didn't feel any pacing problems in the book. Not now, nor on the first read years ago.
In fact, coming from the book, I think the film has a small double climax problem.
[00:38:27] Speaker A: See, I think that's. I think that's in the book too, personally.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: But yeah, the scenes of Rocky nearly dying, saving Grace, and Rocky nearly dying when his ship shuts down are so close together that they feel like a weird repeated beat instead of two climaxes of two different acts like in the book.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess I could see that.
[00:38:47] Speaker B: I think.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: Sorry, go ahead.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: I think the in between chunk is rightfully cut, but it still nags me.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: I can see what you're saying, but I just. It felt better to me in the film, for whatever reason.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: I will say that as a viewer of the film who did not read the book, I did feel like the part where he has to go save Rocky because the Talmiburg and Eda's ship felt like an additional climax tacked on top of what already seemed to be the climax.
[00:39:19] Speaker A: And I think the movie knows that because I think one of the things that made it work for me is that it actually plays it less like a climax and more like almost a. A denouement.
[00:39:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: Like. Like, if you notice, like, the music is not, like, dramatic during that. Like, the montage, we're getting kind of like upbeat music.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And I agree with you. Like, I agree with that assessment that the film, like, knows that and is doing the legwork to make it more.
[00:39:43] Speaker A: To treat it less like a dramatic climax and more like, this is. This is now Grace. Like, just. He's fully realized as a character, he's gonna go be the hero. Happy times kind of thing.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: But it did still feel like a little bit of a hat on a hat to me.
[00:39:58] Speaker A: That's fair.
[00:39:59] Speaker B: The movie is clearly the more emotionally impactful story. It cuts a lot, but also makes good additions that work in a film like Carl. I'm glad they cut the coma resistance.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: I agree.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: I'm not really bothered by the existence of such a gene, but it's such a blatant way to limit the backup choice to Grace. The time pressure and his expertise are plenty enough justification. Yeah.
I also wish there was even a single scene showing how massive undertaking the project is. Either seeing a covered Sahara or the nuking of Antarctica would have been nice.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: I do think that something like that would have been. Would have been interesting to see.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Musical notes.
[00:40:39] Speaker A: Ah.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: Being two syllables is so clearly we're Just going, two music symbols equals two noises equals two syllables.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: That's what I thought.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I get it. A proper chord notation would require special typography, whereas the generic Unicode symbols just work everywhere. But I also think it hints of a pattern that appears in Weir's writing. More broadly, he's proud of the detailed physics and math he's done, but simultaneously it seems he hasn't done even a cursory reading about music, law or linguistics for the book.
[00:41:12] Speaker A: It's, it's, it's the same. Yeah, he's very clearly like a generalist who does enough research to make it past of normies, but not quite enough that if you actually know, as we had with a handful of Fishbones earlier, who is a biologist who actually knows about biology and stuff, the biology in this is pretty laughably bad at a lot of times. But to a normie like me who knows a little bit about science, I took chemistry classes in college. I'm like, this all vaguely rings bells and sounds like it rings. You know what I mean? I'm like, yeah, like kind of rings true more than like something in an episode of Star Trek usually does. So like it's, it's like better than like a lot of sci fi is, but clearly not actually to a level that. Yeah, and. And the music one is a very obvious example of that to me because I agree completely. He went, oh, an eighth connected eighth notes and then a third eighth note. That's two different note symbols. So it's two syllables. Where if you think about it at all, you're like, no, that's actually three syllables.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: But yeah, like you can't convince me Grace was among the words, they got through the language barrier.
And then he has a quote from the book. Rocky just calls me the Iridian word for grace.
I get that. More through exploration of interspecies communication and alien worldview would add so much length, make Rocky a less approachable character and bog down this story. But still. Yeah, I honestly think we're circles, the facts and logic crowd, where the math based sciences are somehow better than the ones where you need to consider people.
And him doing an interview with critical drinker knows joking about the woke era doesn't help.
[00:42:50] Speaker A: I alluded to this several times about how he. And that was. He went on the critical drinker who's an absolute asshat buffoon, just clown of a human being, like kind of like right wing chud grifto sphere, like Marvel movies are woke slop like that kind of asshole. And he went on his podcast and one of the pull quotes that people think is like him talking about how he, he wishes Star Trek would go back to like not being as political. And it's like, what the fuck are you talking? Have you ever don't know you're an idiot? Like, and that's, it's like. And that's when you get those. But then you read this book, it's like he doesn't. This book doesn't read like it's written entirely by like that kind of person. I think he's just, I think he's a very like, intelligent generalist who knows a lot about a little bit about a lot of things. Just enough to like get himself into trouble. And he's a good enough writer at like, certain things that it's hard to describe. But yeah, I completely agree with Mikko's assessment here.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: I think it's the same mentality that makes him say he never puts any politics in his story while simultaneously calling Strat quote a self insertion fantasy immune to government nonsense. Yeah.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:44:04] Speaker B: Enough rambling and ranting. The science stuff is my jam. So despite all of its shortcomings, I vote for the book.
Two corrections. In the book, Grace pressurizes his side of the tunnel himself using the airlock.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: Did I not say that? I thought I said that.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I don't remember.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: I thought I said that.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: Rocky only gifts him the oxygen handcuffs to demonstrate atomic theory.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, he doesn't. Yeah, I still thought I said that. When he opens his airlock, he. I thought maybe I didn't, but I meant to say that. Cause yeah, he, he knows the air in the tunnel is good because it's from his ship. Yeah, in the book.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Also at the end of the book, Grace has lived on arid about 16 years, not 4. Plus the trip there took 4 subjective years.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: I must have written that note down wrong for some reason. Yeah.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: So I get why they showed a glimpse of Earth in the movie to imply a successful mission rather than age Gosling up 20 years to receive the news of soul brightening.
[00:45:00] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, because. Yeah, that's the other thing in the, in the book, he is, he's older. Yeah, I guess I thought. Yeah, in the 16 year. I don't know why I had four years written in my notes because I do remember that now because he has like a cane and stuff. Part, part of that's from the gravity of a.
But also he is just like visibly older. The book denotes so.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: All right, so our winner this time was the movie with 17 votes to the book's nine plus our single undecided listener.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: There you go. Thank you, everybody. Love all the feedback. Always fun when we get a ton of feedback. We just need to only do movies that came out a few months ago. We'll get a bunch of feedback every time that everybody saw. They made $8 trillion and everybody saw.
All right, let's go ahead now and preview our next book, Austenland.
[00:45:47] Speaker C: What separates the casual Jane Austen fan? Oh, Janie. It's gotten so much worse from the aficionado. The number of times she's read Austen's novels or her consuming love for Mr. Darcy.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: This is the best part.
Unbelievable.
[00:46:07] Speaker C: She finds her way here to the world's only immersive Austen experience.
You're going to the Darcy place too? Yes.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: I memorized the first three chapters of
[00:46:20] Speaker B: Pride and Prejudice when I was 13.
What's that? Austenland is a 2007 novel by American author Shannon Hale, who's primarily known for writing young adult fantasy, most notably her book Princess Academy, which was a 2006 Newbery Honor winner.
I have read Princess Academy. I thought it was a little boring, but I was older. I thought I was older than like the intended age range. So that might have been why I thought it was a little boring.
But I'm interested to read something she's written for adults. Yeah.
So a little background on the book. Jane Austen was Hale's favorite author as a teenager, According to a 2007 interview for Deseret News. Once she came up with the idea of a modern day immersion program into the Regency era. It became, quote, a story she wanted to tell and apparently took her seven years to write, which I skimmed that article trying to figure out if it actually took her seven years to write it or if she meant like, I thought of the idea and then I, like, mulled it over for a year
[00:47:31] Speaker A: and then I wrote a little bit.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: And then, because I think she was also like, having kids during this time period. So yeah, that'll put a little bit of a stopper on things.
For inspiration, Hale drew on her experience visiting the UK during college, as well as other trips to tour Regency era historical sites and the 1995 BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries.
She even dedicated the novel to the series leading man, Colin Firth. Austenland was a Book sense pick for June 2007. I don't know what that is. I'm assuming some kind of book club. Yeah. And it was also a Wall Street Journal Notable book for summer 2007. Okay, getting into some reviews.
Ella Taylor of the Los Angeles Times described the novel as, quote, some lit light to see you through a day at the beach.
Ruth Miles of the Edmonton Journal wrote that Hale, quote, creates a charming world that provides an entertaining diversion from the hustle and bustle of modern life. And School Library Journal described Austinland as, quote, well written and quite readable with characters who are quirkily funny.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: Which sounds very 2007 to me.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:55] Speaker B: Not everybody thought it was, like, great, though. Kirkus Reviews called Austenland, quote, mindless froth that Austen addicts will love. A review in the Christian Science Monitor criticized the novel as Hale's attempt to write, quote, an Austen story without the dialogue, careful prose, and wry wit found in Austin's books.
[00:49:16] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, I could see that.
[00:49:18] Speaker B: And Publishers Weekly said, quote, though the narrative is endlessly charming, Jane is convincing, neither as a sarcastic single girl nor as a romantic idealist, and the supporting cast is underdeveloped.
You know who did like this book, though?
[00:49:37] Speaker A: Who?
[00:49:37] Speaker B: Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, said that the novel was, quote, adorable, exclamation point, the best tribute to obsessed Austin freaks like me that I've ever read. All right, and aside from the movie that we will be watching, Austinland has also been adapted into a musical, which premiered in London in 2025.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: All right.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: Very recent musical.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Yeah. All right, now let's learn a little bit about Austinland, the film.
[00:50:11] Speaker C: Welcome to the Regency era. Look at those.
I expect my guests to eschew all things modern.
May I present Miss Jane Erstwhile, an orphan of no fortune. Oh. Oh.
You have paid for the basic copper package. You're in the servants wing. You're in the creepy tower.
[00:50:31] Speaker B: I'm so mad, I wasted all my money.
[00:50:33] Speaker A: Austinland is a 2013 film written and directed by Jerusha Hess, who was a writer on Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre and Gentleman Broncos and Thelma the Unicorn. And she is the wife of Jared Hess. So they're like a.
Jared Hess is the guy who's most.
He's the director of Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, blah, blah, blah.
They're like a husband, wife, film writing duo, whatever. The film stars Keri Russell, JJ Field, Brett McKenzie, Jennifer Coolidge, James Callis, and Jane Seymour, among others, has a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 42% on Metacritic, and a 6.3 out of 10 on IMDb. So general fans have a higher appraisal of it than critics.
And it was nominated for the grand jury prize at Sundance, which I thought was interesting. The only award it had listed. It premiered at Sundance.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: What does that mean?
[00:51:27] Speaker A: You know grand jury prize, it said for director. So I don't know if it's like the director awarded Sundance. I don't know enough about the different categories at Sundance, but it was also specifically in the dramatic section comedies. One of the. It was in like one of the. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know enough about Sundance.
The film made $2.1 million against a budget of $7.6 million. So didn't do well, but also didn't have a huge budget and that wasn't theatrically. Maybe it made up for it. And you know, because again, a budget that small, you could probably make up for that in sales after the fact potentially.
So there are basically no production notes for this on Wikipedia, the extent of which were that it was filmed in the summer of 20 West Wickham park in Buckinghamshire.
So there you go getting into some IMDb trivia.
Most of Jennifer Coolidge, who plays Ms. Elizabeth Charming in the film, most of her lines were made up on the spot, according to producers, because it was almost impossible to get her to memorize her lines. Supposedly interesting.
Mrs. Wattlebrook's personal maid is played by Jane Seymour's real life sister.
Rupert Vanzatart, who plays Mr. Waddlesbrook was also in the BBC green names in this was also in the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice, which Jane is obsessed with and watches in the movie.
The livery uniforms that the grooms wear are the same as those of the staff at Netherfield in Pride and Prejudice 2005. Okay, look out for that.
[00:52:51] Speaker B: They probably just borrowed the costume, I would guess.
[00:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
And according to director Jerusha Hess, Keri Russell was pregnant throughout the shoot. During scenes at the very end, she was like six months pregnant, although apparently it's never really noticeable. But she was pregnant while filming. And the author, and this is Funny, this is IMDb, likes to put like author cameos on there. It says the author who wrote the novel on which the film was based has a cameo as an extra within the film. According to Hale, she chose not to tell the other extras who she was and they were all very impressed that the director and lead actors addressed her throughout the day of shooting. IMDb does not tell us where this cameo happens.
[00:53:23] Speaker B: All right.
[00:53:24] Speaker A: So I guess I have no idea where.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: I feel like it's going to be hard to see.
[00:53:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:29] Speaker B: Because Shannon Hale just kind of looks like a white lady.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I was like, thanks for that.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: No offense to Shannon Hale or white ladies.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: But yeah, just as she has a cameo. But we're not going to tell you when or where or like what she's doing or anything. Cool. Getting into some reviews that I was, I pulled. There were none on Wikipedia, so I went to Rotten Tomatoes and just pulled a handful of rotten and fresh reviews. John Anderson for the Wall Street Journal gave it a rotten score saying Quote the series is one with an abundance of senses and sensibilities, but even the fiercest admirers of Jane Austen, especially the fiercest admirers of Jane Austen, will blanch at the extremes of Jane Hayes. End quote.
Camilla Long for the Sunday Times in the UK gave it one out of five stars, saying, the acting is terrible, the costumes are hideous, and the best jokes are farts. With a pause for sniggers, I found myself laughing out of sheer terror at one point. End quote for the New Zealand Herald, Francesca Rudkin gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars, saying, it's probably unfair to compare the film and its source inspiration too heavily, but this plays out like a weak modern day Austin novel. End quote Writing for the examiner, Jeff Beck gave it two and a half out of five stars, saying, Austinland is a pretty film to look at, but underneath its look there's just not much there. But then on the positive side, I did find a couple positive reviews for the reader. Ryan Siric gave it a B minus saying Quote if Austin Land is supposed to criticize and these were more recent, these were I think both of these positive reviews from from 2019. So they're kind of more contemporary, maybe reappraisals. I don't know if Austinland is supposed to criticize obsessive fandom. The ending makes no sense. If it isn't the rest of the film makes no sense and yet the light, airy, innocent nature of it all is somehow pleasing enough. End quote And Bernard Boo for Way Too indie gave it 7 out of 10 writing quote, Hess's bread and butter shines through the silly elastic facial expressions. The shameless pratfalls, witty exchanges and Coolidge's golden one liners kept me laughing all the way through and save the experience from being a regrettable one. End quote. So not exactly glowing praise there, but
[00:55:29] Speaker B: I just reopened the book's Wikipedia page because I didn't even read the film adaptation paragraph on here because I never do. Because you talk about that. Because I was wondering if maybe it said on the book Wikipedia page what her cameo was and it doesn't. But I did learn that Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, produced the film.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: Oh wow. There you go.
That's fascinating. I didn't see that.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: So I guess she really liked the book.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: Really liked the book.
As always, you can disappear by heading over to Facebook, threads, bluesky, Goodreads, Instagram, any of those places. Interact, as we always do. We'd love to hear what you have to say about the stuff we watch and talk about. So much fun. You can also help us out by heading over to Apple, Podcasts, Spotify. Wherever you listen to our show, write us a nice little review, drop us a five star rating. That really helps out. And you can Support
[email protected] ThisFilmIsLit. Get access to bonus content starting at the $5 a month level and priority recommendations starting at the $15 a month level. And this one, in fact, was a patron request.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: This was a request from Amanda, one of my oldest friends.
[00:56:32] Speaker A: There you go, Katie. Where can people watch Austinland?
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Well, as always, you can check with your local library or if you have a local video rental store, you can check with them.
Otherwise, you can stream this with a subscription to Britbox, Brit Box.
[00:56:49] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: Or Sony Pictures Core, which had the little like Amazon prime logo on it too.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: So I probably do it through.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I like. It didn't have a separate, just Sony Pictures Core thing. So I don't know if you, like, have to do that through Prime.
[00:57:05] Speaker A: You probably have to do it through Prime. There are some channels like that that are like, through Prime.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Or you can rent this for around three or four bucks through Prime Video, Apple TV, YouTube, or Fandango Stream.
[00:57:19] Speaker A: There you go.
I don't know anything about this, so I'm interested.
[00:57:23] Speaker B: I can't even begin to say what I'm interested in. I haven't seen this.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: Oh, have you?
[00:57:26] Speaker B: I feel like I saw it, like, shortly after it came out, but not in theaters.
[00:57:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: But I don't really remember anything about it, so I'm interested to revisit it. Yeah, I have not started reading the book yet. The book is like just shy of 200 pages, so not that long. Not that bad of a A read, I would think.
If you still want to jump in and read along with us.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: Sweet.
All right, come back in one week's time. We're talking about Austin land. Until that time, guys, gals, not battery pals.
[00:57:56] Speaker B: And everybody else, keep reading books, keep
[00:57:58] Speaker A: watching movies, and keep being awesome.
Sam.
