Tom Cruise will continue performing gravity-defying stunts in his upcoming projects, as more details about the plot and filming details for his space-set feature have emerged. The Academy Award-nominated actor is set to shoot part of the untitled movie on the International Space Station, with some footage also being obtained on a rocket, Variety is reporting. Most of the footage for the film will be shot on Earth, however.
The feature, which as initially announced in May 2020, will be made in conjunction with Elon Musk’s aerospace manufacturer-space transportation company, SpaceX. Palme d’Or-nominated filmmaker, Doug Liman is set to direct the movie, for which he’s also co-writing the script for with Christopher McQuarrie.
Liman previously worked with Cruise on such films as Edge of Tomorrow and American Made. McQuarrie also collaborated with the actor on Edge of Tomorrow, as well as such features as Jack Reacher and its sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back; Valkyrie; The Mummy; and the Mission: Impossible entries Rogue Nation and Fallout.
Universal Pictures is reportedly intending to begin production on the trio’s untitled space feature sometime next year; the studio is just waiting for Liman and McQuarrie to deliver the script.
The studio is expecting the movie to be the next project that Cruise works on next after he and McQuarrie finish shooting Mission: Impossible 8; the sequel began production shortly after the franchise’s seventh installment wrapped its filming in September. [The follow-ups’ release dates were recently pushed back to July 14, 2023 and June 28, 2024, respectively.]
The collaborators’ upcoming space film is being described as an action-adventure project, rather than a sci-fi-driven one. In the feature, Cruise is set to play a down-on-his-luck man who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth.
Despite its initial announcement in 2020, and original plan to begin shooting last October, production on the movie was ultimately delayed. The upcoming Russian docudrama, The Challenge, ended up becoming the first big screen feature to shoot in the International Space Station, where it filmed for 12 days in October.
Cruise, Liman and McQuarrie are determined to overcome any scheduling conflicts to make the space movie together. The writers didn’t even have a script when they initially pitched the idea for the feature to Universal, but the studio was impressed enough with the concept that they offered the filmmakers a $200 million budget for the project.