Why Andy Weir’s Artemis Was Skipped for Film

Andy Weir’s The Martian became a box office phenomenon. His follow-up, Artemis, seemed like the obvious next adaptation. Instead, Hollywood leapfrogged it for Project Hail Mary — and the reason comes down to gravity.

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were attached to Artemis years before Project Hail Mary existed. Yet as Project Hail Mary races toward its March 20 release, Weir’s lunar heist remains stuck in development.

The One-Sixth Gravity Problem

Artemis, published in 2017, is set in humanity’s first lunar city in the late 2080s. It follows smuggler Jasmine “Jazz” Bashara as she’s pulled into a high-stakes conspiracy. The book swaps NASA heroics for crooks and con artists, leaning into caper energy rather than survival drama.

But bringing that world to life has proved far more complicated than expected. The story unfolds entirely on the Moon, where gravity is one-sixth of Earth’s. Lord and Miller have said the challenge isn’t visual effects spectacle. It’s execution. They want actors to physically move as if they’re in lunar gravity — and to make it feel real on set.

That practical hurdle stalled momentum. Even a talking alien rock in Project Hail Mary turned out to be easier to solve than simulating low gravity in a bustling moon metropolis.

Meanwhile, Project Hail Mary surged ahead, buoyed by Ryan Gosling’s long-term commitment and a clearer production path. Early reactions have already called it an epic return to Weir’s brand of high-stakes, science-driven storytelling, as we’ve covered in our look at the film’s first wave of buzz.

A Project Still in Orbit

The irony is that Artemis sold its movie rights before it even hit shelves, just like Weir’s other novels. 20th Century Studios picked it up in the wake of The Martian’s $630 million global run. Screenwriter Geneva Robertson-Dworet joined the project in 2018. Producers Simon Kinberg and Aditya Sood remain attached.

And Lord and Miller haven’t given up. They’ve said they are still actively developing the adaptation and believe they’ve found a way to shoot moon gravity without billion-dollar costs, as noted in recent comments on the film’s status.

For fans tracking Weir’s screen journey — from Mars to deep space and, eventually, the Moon — the delay isn’t a cancellation. It’s a technical bottleneck.

If Project Hail Mary delivers at the box office, it could finally clear a runway for Jazz Bashara’s lunar heist. Until then, Artemis remains in orbit — waiting for gravity to be solved.