The DM He Almost Ignored

In August 2024, astrophotographer Rod Prazeres received an Instagram message that seemed almost certainly a scam. A 'small production company' was looking to license his images for an undisclosed sci-fi film. His first instinct was skepticism — who recruits collaborators through social media DMs?

But Prazeres dug in. He compiled what he jokingly called a 'dossier' on the company, then joined a series of video calls, eventually signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Months of negotiations followed. The original plan — placing his images mid-film — fell through as the creative direction shifted. Then, weeks later, the company returned with a new proposal: use his deep-space photographs to close out the entire blockbuster.

That film was Project Hail Mary, the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation of Andy Weir's beloved novel, which opened in March 2026 to critical acclaim and strong box office returns. Praised for maintaining a sense of cosmic wonder throughout its 156-minute runtime, the film grounded its story in real science — and chose real astrophotography over CGI for its final sequence.

Why a Newcomer's Work Made the Cut

Prazeres shot his first deep-sky image in July 2023 — the Omega Nebula (Messier 17), 5,500 light-years away in Sagittarius. In the two and a half years since, he taught himself the craft through workshops with veteran astrophotographers. Just eight months into his training, one of his nebula images was shortlisted for the Best Newcomer award at the Royal Observatory Greenwich's 2024 Astrophotographer of the Year competition.

The connection to Amazon MGM Studios came through a Google Images search — a production team hunting for Milky Way shots stumbled upon his work. 'Never in a million years would I have expected that,' Prazeres said, 'even with 10 or 20 years of experience, let alone two and a half.'

396 Hours Behind the Credits

The images selected for the closing sequence required a cumulative 396 hours of capture time, using two telescopes — a William Optics RedCat 51 II and an Askar 130PHQ — paired with ZWO astronomy cameras, specialized filters, and peripherals.

Among the nebulas featured: the iconic Carina Nebula, the Fighting Dragons of Ara, and the Vela Supernova Remnant. Each image was painstakingly processed to reveal fine structure in the deep-sky objects. The decision to use real imagery rather than CGI reflected the film's broader commitment to scientific authenticity — a philosophy that runs from its biology and physics to its final frame.