What do aliens sound like? We have no idea, but for Hollwood's smash hit "Project Hail Mary", that was the question that Oscar-winning sound editor Ethan Van der Ryn ("King Kong," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers") and Oscar-nominated sound editor Erik Aadahl ("The Creator," "A Quiet Place") had to answer, as the duo and their team painstakingly delivered a convincing non-human language for its endearing Eridian, the chirping E.T. creature named Rocky.
That special linguistic connection between a stone-skinned alien and the reluctant astronaut Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) was an essential challenge for the sci-fi film. In addition to Rocky's vocalizations, Van der Ryn and Aadahl were also responsible for crafting hundreds of sounds and noises needed to fill out the soundscape.
