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218 MIAMI LIVING
That confidence began early, when Gosling was first approached with the
manuscript. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he recalled, "I was given
the manuscript for this by Andy Weir to both be in it and to produce…
that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I loved The Martian, but nothing
could prepare me for this journey… I've never worked on something
where I'm so confident that the story and the characters are great and
that the audience is going to love it because it's already been 'stress-
tested' by the audience of book readers… I just knew if we could stay
true to the book, that we would make a great film." Recognizing the scale
of the challenge, he moved quickly to assemble a top-tier team, adding,
"My first thought was like, I needed to get a better producer than me
involved… and I knew that Amy Pascal loomed large in her legend… so I
approached her… and I was so lucky that she said yes."
From there, the project evolved into a major studio undertaking, with
Pascal producing alongside Gosling, and directing duo Phil Lord and
Christopher Miller stepping in to guide the adaptation, with a screenplay
by Drew Goddard. What began as a $3 million rights acquisition ultimately
grew into one of the most expensive productions in the studio's history.
