As a promotion for the recently released Project Hail Mary, the skies of Toronto were lit up with an impressive lightshow.
Project Hail Mary has been getting some high praise lately, especially from us at CGM, but this light show was both a promotional event and something to show off the beauty of the movie itself. Ryan Gosling himself announced the event about a week before the light show happened, with Toronto, Taipei, and Berlin being chosen to exclusively host the shows around the world. If you were anywhere close to the waterfront in Toronto on the night of March 19th, then there’s a more than good chance you saw Rocky floating in the air.
CGM’s own Shakyl Lambert said it best in his review of Project Hail Mary. “Right off the bat, to call Project Hail Mary visually astonishing would be a huge understatement. On IMAX screens, the film shifts between standard widescreen during all the Earth flashbacks and full IMAX 1.43:1 ratio during every scene in space. Greig Fraser’s cinematography completely engulfs you in the film’s gigantic scale. There are certain shots of Tau Ceti where I found myself awestruck by the visuals in front of me in sheer disbelief. Even with such grandiose effects on display, Charles Wood’s production design keeps things remarkably tactile, as the ship’s interior was completely built on practical sets.”
CGM was there on the waterfront watching the show with the best view and got up close and personal with the drones used for the event. Talking with the operators revealed that each drone used is worth about 1,400 dollars and takes an exorbitant amount of engineering and logistics to plan and execute these shows. If you were ever wondering how these people got into the drone show business, they started off as pyrotechnic workers using fireworks and eventually transitioned to drone shows.
Project Hail Mary premiered today to very high ratings from critics and a 97 percent popcorn rating from fans on Rotten Tomatoes. Go check it out on the biggest screen you can find.
