Tom Cruise, Elon Musk to shoot movie in space: Report
Tom Cruise is leaving the planet, but for a very good reason. The global superstar (57) is working with Elon Musk's aerospace company SpaceX in collaboration with US aeronautics agency NASA to bring us a movie shot in outer space, reports Deadline. If it happens, the planned action-adventure flick will become the first-ever narrative feature film to be shot out of Mother Earth.
The project is in its 'early stages of lift-off'
However, no studio is attached with the deal as of yet, and the project is still in "the early stages of lift-off," the report adds. But one thing that's certain is that Cruise is the perfect man for the job. From scaling the skyrocketing Burj Khalifa to hanging outside an airborne jet plane, the man has pulled off numerous daredevil stunts in past movies.
Not the first time Cruise wanted to shoot in space
But this is not the first time that Cruise has toyed with the idea of filming a movie in the unknown void. Nearly two decades ago, Avatar director James Cameron had approached Cruise with a similar plan. "I actually talked to [Cruise] about doing a space film in space, about 15 years ago," the filmmaker said in 2018.
However, Cameron's project never saw the light of the day
"I had a contract with the Russians in 2000 to go to International Space Station and shoot a high-end 3D documentary there. And I thought, 'S***, man, we should just make a feature'." After the filmmaker approached Cruise, the latter said, "No problem, I'll train as an engineer", Cameron revealed. "We had some ideas for the story, but it was still conceptual," he informed.
Cruise to star in 'Top Gun' and 2 'MI' movies
Before the ridiculously ambitious idea came to Cruise, the three-time Academy award-nominated actor completed shooting for action film Top Gun: Maverick. It is scheduled to release in theaters this December. He had also been filming the seventh and eighth Mission Impossible films back-to-back, before the coronavirus pandemic halted movie productions all across the globe. The release dates for both the movies were subsequently pushed.