Actor Tom Cruise who is known for his roles in Mission Impossible and Top Gun, could hitch a ride aboard SpaceX's Dragon capsule to make a movie at the International Space Station.
Making a Hollywood film in space will require some fearlessness, raising millions of dollars and tedious planning.
U.K. producers said they hired a Houston space tourism company to build out a studio on the space station to shoot the movie. No financial details of the cost to construct a studio or make a movie in space were provided.
New Film Production Venue on ISS
Space Entertainment Enterprise (SEE), a UK-based film company, said that by the end of next year the company will have a media venue ready to produce films in space.
The UK company said it contracted with Houston-based space tourism company Axiom to construct an inflatable space station location "targeted for launch to the Axiom segment of the International Space Station at the end of 2024."
The site is named SEE-1 and will be docked on the commercial wing of the space station, the Axiom Station. It will produce and host sporting and music events as well as films and television.
The first launch is expected to occur in December 2024 and will "dock with Axiom’s world’s-first commercial space station, Axiom Station, while it is connected to the International Space Station," the company said.
Space Entertainment Enterprise said the company is a co-producer of Cruise's space film.
Founded by Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky, SEE said it is raising capital "shortly" and in discussions with its commercial partners and investors in a statement.
A New Frontier For Entertainment
"It will provide a unique, and accessible home for boundless entertainment possibilities in a venue packed with innovative infrastructure which will unleash a new world of creativity," they said. "With worldwide leader Axiom Space building this cutting-edge, revolutionary facility, SEE-1 will provide not only the first, but also the supreme quality space structure enabling the expansion of the two trillion-dollar global entertainment industry into lowEarth orbit.”
Axiom received a $140 million NASA contract in the past to attach its first habitable module to the space station.
The module that will be constructed for the movie will have a nearly 20 foot diameter.
Private space companies have used inflatable modules to develop space stations in order to construct living areas that are large enough. These modules can be expanded once they reach space.
A spokesperson for the studio said the company is “in production on the upcoming Tom Cruise movie, which will be filmed in space,” according to CNBC.
SEE said its advisors, consultants and partners "include senior media industry figures such as the former Senior Vice President of Sports and Pay Per View at HBO, the former CEO of Endemol Shine UK, and the former Vice President of Technology at Viacom, alongside NYC-based investment bank GH Partners."
Back in 2020, Jim Bridenstine, a NASA administrator, confirmed that Cruise was chosen as the actor to film a movie on the International Space Station, but did not provide more details.
Cruise is no stranger to taking risks and has performed his own stunts in the "Mission: Impossible" film series.
A trip to the International Space Station has been rumored to cost at least $55 million, plus the fees that NASA charges private astronauts for going aboard the space station.
Last year, a SpaceX rocket carried the first privately-crewed mission to the space station ever.
