Russian film beats Tom Cruise’ space movie, to become first feature shot in outer space

New Delhi, September 20: After beating the United States 60 years ago in the Space race, Russia again beats the US and this time Hollywood who are planning to shoot the movie in International Space Station (ISS).

 

 

According to media reports, Roscosmos is sending Russian crew of two cosmonauts and two cinema professionals to the International Space Station (ISS) ahead of Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise. The Russian crew for the movie titled ‘The Challenge’ will blast off to the ISS on October 5.

 

A Russian crew of two cosmonauts and two cinema professionals to be launched on a Soyuz MS-19 craft on Oct. 5 to be delivered to the station, which orbits Earth at an altitude of around 220 miles (354 km). If all goes according to plan, the production team will lift off next month on a 12-day mission to pull off the historic first.

 

The production team has done the course in space travel earlier this year and now the commission of medical and safety experts has given them their approval.

 

"This movie is built around a story of an ordinary person... a doctor who had nothing to do with space exploration and never thought about it is offered to travel to the ISS... and save a cosmonaut's life," director and actor Klim Shipenko told a news conference.

 

 

 

Their launch will come just weeks after that of the first all-civilian crew riding aboard a rocket and capsule developed by SpaceX, which adds an element of decades-long Russia-United States competition to the flight.

 

Last year NASA announced that it was partnering with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Tom Cruise to shoot a movie that would be partly filmed aboard the International Space Station. Directed by Doug Liman, the untitled film was rumored to have a budget of $200 million.

 

 

Russian space agency Roscosmos then announced its plans to shoot an out-of-this-world (literally!) feature, hoping to achieve liftoff before its Hollywood counterpart.

 

A collaboration between Roscosmos, public broadcaster Channel One, and leading studio Yellow, Black, and White, 'The Challenge' will be directed by Klim Shipenko, whose blockbuster comedy 'Son of a Rich' is Russia's highest-grossing film of all time.

 

The space movie stars Yulia Peresild, a veteran screen, and stage actor, who was cast after a country-wide talent search last spring. The production team underwent a crash course in space travel earlier this year at the Yuri Gagarin Centre for Cosmonaut Training. On Thursday, a commission of medical and safety experts from the center gave the project approval to go ahead.

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