Lord & Miller to Keynote IndieWire Filmmaking Summit — SkimNews
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- Phil Lord and Chris Miller will deliver the keynote at IndieWire's Future of Filmmaking Summit on October 17, breaking down how they made "Project Hail Mary" and offering lessons from their process for other filmmakers.
- "Project Hail Mary" has been hailed as one of 2026's standout successes, combining sci-fi spectacle, puppetry, and a Ryan Gosling performance to provide the industry "a much-needed spark of hope" that quality blockbusters can still find massive audiences.
- Lord and Miller's 25-year career spans animation ("Clone High" in 2002, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," "The Lego Movie," the "Spider-Verse" franchise) and live-action work including "21 Jump Street," "22 Jump Street," "The Last Man on Earth," and "The Afterparty."
- The summit will be held at Penske Media's headquarters at Lumen West LA as an all-day event with panels and networking opportunities focused on the ideas, people, technology, and skills shaping contemporary storytelling, with additional programming to be announced.
- Lord and Miller will frame "Project Hail Mary" as "the most difficult movie in a career filled with difficult movies," positioning their keynote as a rare craft-level post-mortem on a recent breakout hit.
Why it matters: Industry professionals attending get direct access to the production playbook behind one of 2026's few breakout theatrical hits — a film the source credits with reviving proof that original sci-fi blockbusters can still draw mass audiences. The summit's Penske Media setting positions the talk as a high-profile industry talking point timed to awards-season momentum.
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