Sheduled for release on April 20, "The Challenge" will be the first film of its kind, with the actors and director being sent up to space for the production, according to the Daily Mail.
Tom Cruise was hoping to capture this milestone with a project scheduled to be directed by Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman, with the help of Elon Musk's SpaceX and NASA in 2020. However, the project has not yet taken to the skies.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos announced that it had hired the services of actress Yulia Peresild for the massive project, who plays a cardiac surgeon tasked with rocketing to the ISS to save an astronaut's life.
The Mail reported that all stages of the film were displayed on Channel One, a state-controlled TV channel, in an effort to "popularise Russia's space activities and glorify the cosmonaut profession."
The film was shot in October 2021, just months before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's space chief Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, has reportedly given himself the title of producer of "The Challenge."
Peresild was joined by co-star and director Klim Shipenko, along with two professional cosmonauts, on the space adventure.
Shipenko reportedly said that the project was "an experiment," noting that there is "nobody to get advice from."
"There is not a single cameraman who could answer how to work with light from a porthole," he said, discussing the unique difficulties with the project.
The budget for "The Challenge" cost roughly 1.115 billion roubles (~$14.5 million). However, Cruise's project was given a much higher budget, coming in at around $200 million.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine wrote on Twitter in 2020 that "NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station!" However, the tweet has since been removed.
Bridenstine said: "We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA's ambitious plans a reality."
In October 2022, The Mail reported that Universal chairwoman Donna Langley had confirmed that Cruise's blockbuster production was still in the works.
She shared with the BBC: "We have a great project in development with Tom that does contemplate him taking a rocket to the Space Station."
"Hopefully, he will become the first civilian to do a space walk outside of the International Space Station."
"He will play a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth."
Though Cruise's ambitious film appears to have hints of Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" laced throughout, there is currently no date available on when this project could be finished.
