Action star Tom Cruise has been no stranger to pushing the envelope in his films, and as was announced last year, the actor has hoped to take his filmography literally into the cosmos, with plans to film a movie in space. The buzzed-about project has since gained a director and a reportedly hefty budget, but apparently the actor has already been beaten to the punch. On Tuesday, Russia sent a film crew onto the International Space Station, with plans to undergo a twelve-day production schedule on The Challenge, an upcoming film shot entirely in space. The project will be directed by Klim Shipenko and star Yulia Peresild, as a joint production between the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, and Channel One.
The pair’s rocket was successfully launched this morning ????
It will be the first feature film to be shot entirely in space and production will take place on the International Space Station ????️
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— Euronews Next (@euronewsnext) October 5, 2021
Given the fact that Cruise’s movie hasn’t had concrete updates in recent months, it seems like work on The Challenge won’t affect the schedule of the upcoming project. Still, the ordeal does oddly mirror the initial space race of the 1960s, with Russia ultimately going to space before the Americans.
While plot details are currently unknown about Cruise’s movie, we do know that it will be directed by Edge of Tomorrow‘s Doug Liman, and will be a collaboration between SpaceX and NASA.
“From the first conversations that we’ve had about the film… how you insure it has been a central part of the conversations,” Liman told Collider earlier this year. “So, we wouldn’t be talking about this movie if we hadn’t figured out a way to navigate the insurance component. So we have navigated it, but there would not have been a conversation about this movie without figuring out the insurance… it’s the same thing in Locked Down, one of the first conversations was about insurance, because of the pandemic… You can’t make a movie without having an insurance conversation. And [whether] you’re talking about going to outer space, [or] you’re talking about shooting in London in the heart of the pandemic, you know, insurance is gonna dictate whether that actually is possible.”
Liman has already spoken about the ordeal, particularly in relation to Jeff Bezos’ recent trip to space.
“It’s good. If we can inspire kids to study science. I grew up dreaming about going into space,” Liman said. “I’m a bit snobby about it because Blue Origin is not going very high. Like, it’s space, but it’s not. I really think the moon or beyond is space.”
What do you think of a Russian film crew making a movie in space before Tom Cruise and Doug Liman? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!