Amazon Studios has gone a long time in the desert without a hit movie.

Conan O’Brien even made a joke about it on the Oscars on Sunday.

So “Project Hail Mary” means a lot to them. The company will try to erase the bad taste left behind by “Melania,” a $75 million pork barrel that lost all of its money.

Yesterday I wrote that “Melania” had fallen to number 30 on the Amazon list of films and TV shows.

Today, it magically popped up at number 10. Amazing. I guess there was a sudden demand to watch the First Lady’s infomercial.

Almost all reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes like “Project Hail Mary” even though it’s supposedly very similar to Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” — because it’s adapted from a novel by the same writer — and has echoes of Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar.” Another ingredient is a character that has reminded some peope of Wilson, the volleyball, from “Cast Away.”

“Project Hail Mary” would have 100% on Rotten Tomatoes if not one for main reviewer, Justin Chang, from the New Yorker. He really hated it. You can read his review here.

Chang says: “’Project Hail Mary’ is the most exasperatingly insistent crowd-pleaser I’ve seen in a while. It serves up an elaborate science-fiction plot in easily digestible bites, often with a juicy one-liner or a side order of pratfall…the audience’s good will is a precious, unstable resource, and the flippancy of “Project Hail Mary” expends it recklessly.”

“Project Hail Mary” is long, by the way. It’s either two hours and thirty six, or forty five minutes.

I’ll see it tomorrow, in a theater, with an audience, and report back.

Jane Fonda is irrepressible.

With two Oscars on her resume, she will try for a third by starring in (and producing) “The Correspondent” after Lions Gate won a bidding war.

This is a film adaptation of the bestselling book by Virginia Evans.
“The Correspondent” has sold over a million copies.

Fonda has starred in several comedies since she returned to acting, but none them quite stuck the landing. Her biggest success has been the Netflix TV series, “Grace and Frankie,” with Lily Tomlin, which ran for seven seasons.

How Jane, at 88, has the time or energy to produce and star in a movie is anyone’s guess. Her ardent political activism seems to put her in the spotlight on a daily basis. But good for her. She’s a role model for not allowing grass to grow under your feet, as we used to say.

No director has been found yet, but I would go to Lasse Hallstrom. The script is being written by Cat Vasko, a Black List screenwriter who’s already signed up for a few different projects.

“The Correspondent” is described as centering on the unforgettable Sybil Van Antwerp, a sharp-witted, fiercely opinionated, retired lawyer who has long used letters to impose order on a complicated world — writing to friends, family, literary icons, and one elusive recipient whose message she has never sent. But when an unexpected letter from her past resurfaces, Sybil is forced to confront a long-buried chapter of grief, regret, and unresolved guilt.

Cross fingers will see this in 2027, which might mean an Oscar nomination for Fonda at age 90! By the way, she won Best Actress awards for “Klute” and “Coming Home” in the 1970s, and has a bunch more nominations.

Poor Anna Wintour.

Years ago she allowed documentary filmmaker RJ Cutler to make a doc about her and Vogue. It was called “The September Issue.”

The whole thing blew up in her face. She came off very badly, and the charming Grace Coddington was the star of the movie because she seemed human as opposed to Anna’s chilly scenes of Wintour.

Coddington wound up leaving the magazine, by the way.

But years have passed, and Melania Trump got her own documentary. So why not try again?

Page Six reports that actor-director Fisher Stevens has been brought in to make a doc just about Anna. I’m sure she expects a valentine, a white wash, a love letter to the woman behind the sunglasses.

But Stevens isn’t a fool. How Anna toppled Grace Mirabella to become editor of Vogue is just the start. Her Lady Macbeth machinations at Conde Nast are a great story. Also, her first marriage could be a movie.

Will we see any of that? And who will be the Grace Coddington of this movie? One of the best scenes in “The September Issue” was Anna coming to breakfast with her children wearing sunglasses.

And by the way: it’s LOL to see Wintour being so chummy with Anne Hathaway on the Oscar stage. Years ago, at Harvey Weintein’s wedding to Georgina Chapman, I introduced Anne to Anna. Hathaway spotted Wintour and asked if I could do the job. I said, She had just starred in “The Devil Wears Prada,” a movie that did Wintour no favors.

As we were leaving the wedding, I said, “Anna, do you know Anne Hathaway?”

Wintour imperiously looked over her sunglasses at Hathaway. She said, with trademark steeliness, “Yes,” and abruptly turned on her heel, and left. We all exploded in laughter as Wintour trailed away.

Anna is a survivor, so she’s definitely on board for the new “Devil Wears Prada.” She gets the joke now. So the movie opens the same week as the Met Ball, and the stars will all be there. Better to have them pissing off the red carpet than pissing on to it!

PS This year’s co-hosts are Nicholas Maduro, Count Chocula, Erica Kirk, and the new Ayatollah’s boyfriend.

It’s time for another “Spider Man” movie.

“Brand New Day” is coming on July 31st. The difference between this one and the others is that no one remembers Peter Parker aka Spider Man.

Also, no one knows if Zendaya and Tom Holland got married or if she was part of a promotional plug for another movie?

One more question: If they ever do get married, will Zendaya walk down the aisle to the “Spider Man” theme song? Will Tom swing in first?

Lots of guest stars in the latest edition, including Sadie Sink and Jon Bernthal. But no Marisa Tomei. They killed off her character, Aunt May, in the last chapter. She will be missed!

This is the fourth “Spider Man” movie with this main cast. There are now 10 altogether.

There will be 10 more if Sony can swing it.