This film crew beat Tom Cruise to shoot a movie in space

When NASA and Roscosmos get involved in movie making, things are bound to be exciting!

We have only watched movies about Outer Space so far. Star Wars, though about a distant galaxy, was been shot in Nefta  desert in Tunisia. And the upcoming sci-fi thriller Dune has been shot in Standlandet in Norway, Wadi Rum in Jordan, Abu Dhabi and Budapest in Hungary.

But NASA’s announcement of shooting movies aboard the International Space Station has taken things to another level (literally!). NASA made an announcement last year that they have partnered with Tom Cruise and Elon Musk to shoot part of the unnamed project aboard the ISS. The project is estimated to be 200 million dollars. The entire shoot schedule would have been super exciting to watch.

However, in an interesting twist to the tale, a Russian film crew has beaten Tom Cruise in this race. A Russian production team is scheduled to fly to the ISS on October 5th to shoot the movie titled, “The Challenge”. The Challenge is a story about a doctor who is commissioned to save the life of a cosmonaut. Similar to Tom Cruise’s project, The Challenge is a collaboration between Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, Channel One and Yellow, Black and White. This is reminiscent of the space race between erstwhile Soviet Union and the USA.

While Tom Cruise’s movie will be directed by Doug Liman (although the project remains unnamed), The Challenge is directed by Klim Shipenko, who has become a household name in Russia after his blockbuster comedy Son of a Rich, became the highest grossing movie of all times in Russia.

Speaking at the press conference, Shipenko quipped about learning to use spoon in zero gravity. When asked whether he is afraid of the outer space, he remarked that the time of fearing the space is over for him.

Whoever wins the race to shoot, fans will certainly enjoy both the movies when they come to screens.