Russian crew lands back on Earth after shooting in space
A Russian film crew just completed the production of a movie literally out of this world! Filmmaker Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild returned to Earth (precisely Kazakhstan) late Sunday after shooting the first film in space. The duo spent 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS) and returned with Russian ISS crew member Oleg Novitskiy. Here are more details.
The movie 'Challenge' features medical drama on the ISS
Apparently a brainchild of the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, the feature-length movie has been titled Challenge. Not much is known about the plot but Peresild's character is a doctor who treats a sick cosmonaut (played by Novitskiy) on the ISS whose illness prevents him from returning to Earth and get treated, reported CNN. This seems to be a part of the story.
The actor-director duo was sent to rehab upon landing
A Soyuz MS-18 space capsule carried the trio back. After landing safely in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, the actor-director duo was sent to Russian Star City, located on the outskirts of Moscow for their post-flight recovery. They will stay there for about a week to 10 days. Novitskiy, on the other hand, had been in space for 191 days as per ISS.
Check out their farewell video from the ISS here
Russian crew defeated Tom Cruise-led movie to achieve this feat
While movies based in the outer world are numerous, we also have had some films shot in space before. But Challenge is the first feature film to achieve this feat, thereby beating Tom Cruise's ambitious space movie to become the first one. Announced in 2020, Doug Liman was roped in to direct the project, made in cooperation with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX.
William Shatner became world's oldest person to space travel recently
Boosted with Universal Pictures' $200 million budget, Cruise might fly off to ISS soon, given he is finally done with the Mission: Impossible 7 shoot. Separately, Star Trek star William Shatner became the world's oldest person to space travel at 90. He undertook the space mission along with three other people on Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin's New Shepard spaceflight a few days ago.
