The directors and producers of Project Hail Mary, Academy Award-winning filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, were presented with an official Guinness World Records certificate in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 13 April – and were told by Guinness World Records adjudicator Michael Empric that Project Hail Mary is ‘Officially Amazing!’.
To celebrate the release of Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary in March, Sony Pictures Releasing UK, which distributed the film in the UK, collaborated with IMAX and with stratospheric launch specialists Sent Into Space Ltd. to create a “truly groundbreaking premiere moment”.
A bespoke IMAX display unit, engineered to showcase content in IMAX’s exclusive 1.43:1 Expanded Aspect Ratio, was launched into the stratosphere.
After an hour-long ascent, the display executed a full content play-through and set the Guinness World Record title for the highest altitude IMAX film trailer at 31,058m (101,896ft) in Sheffield, UK, on 14 March.
“The initiative underscored the film’s incredible scale, and the out-of-this-world view you get with IMAX, proving there’s no bigger experience than IMAX,” a press release said.
“We’re thrilled to have helped Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary secure such an ambitious Guinness World Records title,” said a spokesperson for Sent Into Space.
“Several members of the Sent Into Space team were already big fans of the Project Hail Mary novel, so to have earned our first-ever world record by promoting its big-screen adaptation made the occasion all the more special.
“Many thanks to everyone at Sony Pictures UK and IMAX for entrusting us with their lofty ambitions, and we hope that sci-fi fans everywhere enjoyed watching the spaceflight as much as we did engineering it.”
Adam Millward, Guinness World Records, added: “What better way to launch the latest space blockbuster than with a stratospheric record attempt?
“This was an incredible feat and amazing to watch. There is also no doubting the engineering expertise that a feat like this entails so all hail the brainy folks at Sent Into Space too!”
Project Hail Mary, lensed by Greig Fraser ASC ACS, was filmed specifically for IMAX, delivering a “cinematic experience unlike any other”.
