Russia wants to reach into space before Tom Cruise:
Tom Cruise is back in the spotlight. But this time, things are a little competitive. Cruise has been real busy when it comes to work, his upcoming films roster includes Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible: 8, where the latter one is currently in production. On top of that, Top Gun: Maverick is completed. The sequel to the 1980s classic would have seen its release this year if it weren’t for the ongoing COVID pandemic. It’s now set to come out in July 2021, a handful of months before Mission: Impossible 7. And after that, he’s got something even bigger planned. Speaking of how hardworking Cruise is, his efforts have never gone unnoticed and the entire film industry is continuously impressed. With this comes the big news.
Known for completing many death-defying stunts across the world, Cruise is now scheduled to shoot a movie in outer space with Doug Liman, whom he worked with on Edge of Tomorrow. The film, currently known as the SpaceX Project, is expected to start production late next year with the help of NASA, as well as a technology innovator and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
SpaceX Project boasts a $200 million production budget and will shoot on the International Space Station. It’s certainly an ambitious project, but Cruise could get beaten to the punch depending on how things play out. But as we know, something so major can never be carried out so easily and effortlessly, right? Cruise has severe completion on its way, and the competitor is stupendous with its moves.
Sky News has reported that Russian space agency Roscosmos and Channel One are looking to start production in October 2021 on Challenge, a film that Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst says “is not science fiction, this is a very realistic version of what may happen in the near future”. They have also put out a casting call for an actress to appear in the film, who will ideally be a Russian citizen, have no criminal record, and have a “chest girth of 112 cm”, to be trained as a cosmonaut-researcher. Plot details of Cruise’s space film are currently unknown, except that he will be in a starring role, also planning to begin production in October 2021. You know what this means – The space race is back on, and we are dying to see who wins.
The space race is back on. While this fun film battle may not carry the same repercussions as that of the Cold War, Cruise is clearly a very determined, and at times aggressive, film producer, as evident by his recent on-set rant concerning crew members not following COVID guidelines. Though the Russians’ casting call isn’t very telling in terms of Challenge’s plot, it is still slightly more information in terms of what audiences might be seeing in the near future, meaning Cruise, Musk, Liman, and NASA have a bit of catching up to do.
After the Edge Of Tomorrow duo of Cruise and Liman demonstrated potential for great action spectacle in that film, their outer space film has the slight edge of a proven track record, as opposed to the Russian film casting unknowns. However, audiences will have to wait for a long time to find out.
Tom Cruise’s SpaceX Project is mounting tough competition from Russian Roscosmos and Channel One. Challenge hopes to find its “big international star” soon in order for training to begin for outer space travel. Whichever film shoots on the International Space Station first will no doubt have audiences’ full attention for being a historical moment, provided all the principal photography goes smoothly. Tom’s COVID rant was widely considered to be a publicity stunt but the news still goes a long way in indicating that Cruise and his team will rise to the challenge of being the first narrative film production crew to ever shoot in space.
With such promising content pouring from Tom’s end, we can see even a brighter future for the 58-year action movies icon. The Mission” Impossible film series has undoubtedly pushed further with every release, and Top Gun: maverick is only going to add more feathers to Tom’s hat.
Topping all this, our favorite action hero is going into space to shoot a feature film? When will he ever stop? Or rather, to what extent can Tom push his ideas and career is the real question. Regardless of what it is, Tom is here to stay and we are happy to see him set for new endeavors.
