iStockphoto
- Russian filmmakers are planning to make a movie in outer space
- The news comes less than a year after Tom Cruise teamed up with Elon Musk and NASA to do the same
- The Russian team is slated to leave on October 5th—the same month Cruise is planning to blast off
When you consider the only thing Tom Cruise loves more than doing his own wild stunts is the religion founded by a science-fiction writer based on the idea humanity can trace its back origins to a galactic overlord named Xenu, it was only natural that he would decide to take his talents to outer space at some point.
Last year, NASA gave Cruise and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman the green light to make the trip to the International Space Station this October for a six-month stay. The actor had previously tried to punch his ticket to the cosmos with James Cameron over 20 years ago before the project fell through, and while it looked like he was still set to be the first actor to film a movie hundreds of miles above the Earth’s service, things took a very interesting twist earlier this week when Russia revealed we might have a new Space Race on our hands.
According to The Guardian, it appears the Country Formerly Known as The Soviet Union will once again attempt to blow up America’s spot and beat the United States to the extraterrestrial movie punch by sending a couple of representatives of its own up to the ISS this fall. On Thursday, officials announced actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko will make the trek when they lift off on October 5th to film Challenge, a drama that hopes to “popularise Russia’s space activities as well as glorify the cosmonaut profession.”
It’s worth noting Cruise’s departure date hasn’t officially been set, and while I imagine changing your plans to blast into the heavens is a bit more involved than rebooking a plane ticket, I wouldn’t be shocked to see NASA alter the timeline out of sheer pettiness.