Tom Cruise is one of the most successful movie stars ever. He's known for pushing the limits of what we can put on film, and was planning to shoot a movie in space with director Doug Liman. He would have been the first professional actor to do such a thing—until Russia got there first.
See, Cruise and Liman are supposed to be on the International Space Station in late October 2021. But on October 5, 2021, Russian is going to send an actress and director there first, in order to make their own movie, weeks before Cruise.
Take that, Tom!
It started this past November when Russian space agency Roscosmos listed a casting announcement searching for “a real superhero to go to the stars… at the same time as becoming a big international star.”
How do you qualify for such a gig? Well according to The Guardian, "Potential candidates for the female lead in the film needed to be between 25 and 40 years old and a Russian citizen, to weigh between 50kg and 70kg and have a 'chest girth' of up to 112cm."
As the casting call elaborates, “Additionally, she must be able to run 1km in three and a half minutes or less, swim 800 meters freestyle in 20 minutes, and dive from a 3-meter springboard with an impressive technique.”
One thing missing? Anyone with acting experience. Although, I guess you have to start somewhere.
Well, we are pleased to announce that advertisement has been answered, and the role of actor and director has been filled. Actor Yulia Peresild, 36, and director Klim Shipenko, 37, have been chosen to spearhead this galactic project. The movie is called Challenge.
Don't worry, both have experience in cinema. Peresild has been on a lot of Russian TV and was in the epic war movie, Battle for Sevastopol. Shipenko was in Salyut 7, which was a disaster movie about the 1985 Soyuz T-13 mission to retrieve a space station. The movie shot in space will be a drama aimed to “popularize Russia’s space activities, as well as glorify cosmonaut profession,” according to Roscosmos.
I look forward to checking it out in a possible double-feature with Cruise and Liman's work. Of course, their movie will play second.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
