Artemis Movie Still Alive, Lord & Miller Confirm

Andy Weir’s long-gestating Artemis movie is not dead. Eight years after it was first announced, directing duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have confirmed the lunar thriller is still in active development — and they believe they’ve cracked its biggest challenge.

Based on Weir’s bestselling 2017 novel, Artemis unfolds in humanity’s first and only city on the Moon. The story follows Jazz Bashara, a struggling smuggler who takes on a risky job and finds herself tangled in a conspiracy that threatens the entire lunar colony. The film rights were snapped up in 2017 before the book even hit shelves, riding the wave of The Martian’s Oscar-nominated success.

Solving the Moon Gravity Problem

Lord and Miller signed on to direct in 2017, with Geneva Robertson-Dworet later hired to write the screenplay. But unlike The Martian, which largely unfolds in one isolated location, Artemis demands a bustling lunar metropolis — complete with low-gravity physics and underworld hijinks.

The directors say the sticking point has always been the Moon’s gravity, which is just one-sixth of Earth’s. Shooting that practically, without blowing the budget, proved tricky. Now, they believe they’ve figured out a way to depict moon gravity convincingly without spending a billion dollars. The project remains in development, with more updates promised.

The adaptation has had a winding path. Ryan Gosling was attached in 2020, but the team shifted focus to Project Hail Mary, another Weir novel that also stars Gosling. That film is nearing release, and early buzz has been strong, with first reactions praising its scale and ambition in Project Hail Mary First Reactions Hail Gosling Epic and confirmation of its epic scope in ‘Project Hail Mary’ Movie Runtime Revealed as Gosling Epic Grows.

From Bestseller to Big Screen

Artemis spent nine weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list and won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Science Fiction in 2017. Weir once described the story as set in the early 2090s, centered on “a small-time criminal who gets in way over her head” in a city on the Moon.

Producers include Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood. No new casting has been confirmed, and there’s still no release date. The rights, originally acquired by 20th Century Fox and New Regency, now sit under the Disney umbrella following the studio merger.

For readers who loved the ingenuity of The Martian and the emotional sweep of Project Hail Mary, this is a promising sign. The Moon’s first city may have taken its time reaching orbit, but Lord and Miller’s latest update suggests Artemis is finally preparing for liftoff.