If it wasn’t for the pandemic, then Tom Cruise probably would have been to outer space by now, which isn’t a statement you can make about a lot of actors. Last year it was announced that the star, along with his Edge of Tomorrow and American Made director Doug Liman, were partnering up with NASA and Elon Musk’s Space X to make the very first feature film shot entirely beyond our atmosphere.
Realistically, it was the only thing left for Cruise to do, given the way he constantly seeks to one-up himself when it comes to death-defying daredevil stunts. The marketing would have touted the project as the first of its kind, but the Mission: Impossible figurehead has now been beaten to the punch by a Russian film crew.
As per Variety, Director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild are teaming up with two cosmonauts to shoot The Challenge, which will see the crew take off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 5th, an event set to be streamed online and presumably form the basis of what will surely be one of the most unique behind the scenes documentaries ever made.
The Challenge revolves around an untrained astronaut and doctor who finds herself being offered the chance to travel to the International Space Station to save the life of an injured resident. Tom Cruise would have much rather seen his $200 million blockbuster get there first, but it would be fair to say that he and Liman’s effort will be on a much grander scale than Shipenko and Persild’s more modest project.