The Town with Matthew Belloni · 2026-10-23
Lord and Miller on ‘Project Hail Mary’ Secrets, Losing ‘Solo’, and Good Studio Execs
This is Wakewire's analysis, based on the recording and the passages quoted here. Tone and candor labels are our read, not a finding about anyone's motive. Our standards
- Source
- The Town with Matthew Belloni
- Released
- 2026-10-23
- We read it
- 2026-10-23
- Recording
- Recording has gaps
- Read confidence
- medium
- Review
- Passed automatic checks
What the episode covered
Lord and Miller said their best work comes from shared process, audience testing, and executives who support risk. The register was mixed, with concrete craft detail and more polished language around studios, Disney, and Solo. Watch whether the projects and trends they described show up in studio slates, marketing, and release materials.
Our summary, written from the transcript. Not the speakers' words.
The episode, in order
01How the duo works
The answer makes their partnership sound collaborative by structure, not just by branding.
02DGA directing-unit rules
It explains a concrete constraint on how directing teams function inside studio production.
03Spider-Verse production
The craft claim positions long production time as a function of technical invention rather than delay alone.
04Studio comedies
It is a forward-looking business read, but the episode does not name the buyers, budgets, or timing.
05Project Hail Mary
Their account emphasizes audience feedback and genre flexibility as part of the film's construction.
06Studios and executives
The studio talk is most specific when it names people and notes, which makes it more signal than generic praise.
07Disney and Solo
This is the most careful section, with the speakers keeping the focus on relationships, learning, and crews.
08IP choices and executive roles
It clarifies that their brand is not simply adaptation for hire, but adaptation when they see a specific angle.
Sponsors named in this episode
| Sponsor stated | Where, claim and disclosure |
|---|---|
| FanDuel |
|
| Carvana |
|
| Major League Baseball |
|
No sponsor named doesn't mean no ads. Each row was taken from the ad break as it was read on air. The verbatim passage behind every row is checked against the transcript character for character. Short excerpts appear below.
Roles and stated affiliations
Affiliations named, no board tie. Matthew Belloni: He is the host and frames the live interview around Hollywood business, studio relationships, and the guests' current and past projects. · Phil Lord and Chris Miller: They discuss work they made or are making, including Project Hail Mary, Spider-Verse, Murder, She Wrote, Cocaine Bear, and Solo. · Lucas Shaw: He appears as a live-event questioner and asks about Star Wars, movie stars, and which projects paid the most.
Recording limits
- The transcript appears to drop words during the Spider-Verse visual description, where the sentence jumps from "people have" to "Crazier, yeah.".
Claims that need more support
- Belloni said Project Hail Mary grossed almost $700 million worldwide for Amazon, but the episode did not give a source or box office breakdown.
Claims made on air that the episode itself did not back up.
Questions the conversation didn't reach
- The conversation raised whether studios are about to make more low to mid-budget comedies, but did not identify the studios, expected volume, or release timing.
Topics the episode did not address. This does not mean anyone avoided them.
Are you from this show? You can ask for a correction, reply, or ask us to stop coverage on the rights page.
The read
The literal surface is a live craft-and-business interview with two filmmakers explaining process, production, studio notes, and past franchise work. The strongest signal is that Lord and Miller are most concrete when they talk about how choices were made, such as testing Hail Mary, changing Spider-Verse tools, or taking Tom Rothman's note on Miles and his father. They are more careful when the topic touches live studio relationships, especially Disney and Solo, where the language shifts toward gratitude, crews, and future openness. Charitable read: they value executives who help filmmakers take bigger creative swings. Boring read: a live campus interview with active filmmakers will naturally stay collegial. Skeptical read: the broadest industry claims, especially the comedy rebound and Hail Mary box-office framing, get less support inside the recording than the craft anecdotes do.
This read assumes: The supplied transcript is substantially representative of the recorded episode. The named studio and project relationships in the transcript are relevant to how carefully the speakers answer. Unsupported means unsupported by the episode itself, not necessarily false.
Every opinion labeled as one. This is Wakewire's analysis of the recording, not a finding about anyone's motive.
What was said
How the duo works
Lord and Miller said they outline together, split scenes when writing, swap drafts, and stay together behind the monitor on set.
DGA directing-unit rules
They said the DGA allows them as a duo because they promise to be treated as a unit and not split production work across stages.
Spider-Verse production
They said each Spider-Verse movie requires new tools, styles, and visual rules, with the next one adding a more live-action-like camera workflow.
Studio comedies
They said they expect more low to mid-budget comedies, partly because studios may treat them more like horror as a lower-cost portfolio bet.
Project Hail Mary
They described the movie as a mix of drama, action, comedy, sci-fi, and mystery, and said testing helped them cut and reshape it.
Studios and executives
They praised MGM's belief in Project Hail Mary and gave examples of Amy Pascal, Hannah Minghella, Lindsay Duran, and Tom Rothman helping their films.
Disney and Solo
They said they try not to hold a grudge, have stayed in touch with Kathleen Kennedy, and told the Solo crew to make a great movie with Ron Howard.
IP choices and executive roles
They said they take IP when an unexpected personal approach appears, and they would rather remain filmmakers than run a studio unit.
Our paraphrase, not the speakers' words.
The passages we relied on
"The word that keeps popping into my head is belief. You just felt like, like the entire company, the marketing department, publicity, like even down to, like, the good old, like, post-production folks. Everybody was doing everything they could to…"
"The Town is presented by FanDuel. Have you heard the news? FanDuel is now available everywhere. And when we say everywhere, we mean everywhere. Tallahassee, Florida, El Paso, Texas, Athens,"
"Observe the North American dad. 50s. Great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says,"
"This episode is brought to you by Major League Baseball. There's nowhere left to go. Two teams, one championship. Watch the World Series. Yeah, the World Series, presented by Capital"
Short excerpts, credited to the show, at most 40 words each and 150 per episode. We do not publish transcripts. We link to the episode so you can hear it from the show itself.
What to watch for
- Whether the next Spider-Verse marketing, featurettes, or reviews describe the new handheld, live-action-style camera pipeline and 2D multi-plane visual approach. (Release campaign for the next Spider-Verse film.)
- Whether studio release calendars add a visible group of low to mid-budget theatrical comedies rather than only action comedies, family comedies, or animated comedies. (Next few years.)
- Whether a Cocaine Bear sequel is formally announced with Lord and Miller attached after they said its status was possible and written. (Future development cycle.)
- Whether future awards-category materials for Project Hail Mary position it as comedy, drama, sci-fi, or a hybrid. (Awards campaign.)
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