Tom Cruise, the Hollywood A-list actor, could end up making history as he is now slated to be the first civilian to spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.
The star of “Top Gun: Maverick” alongside the famed director of “The Bourne Identity,” Doug Liman, reportedly put forth a new film idea to Universal Filmed Entertainment Group which would see Cruise being sent to space.
Donna Langley, the chairwoman of Universal Pictures, announced the recent pitch this past week as part of an interview that took place with BBC News.
“Tom Cruise is taking us to space — he’s taking the world to space,” expressed Langley. “That’s the plan.”
Langley stated that the new project, which is now in development with Cruise, has thought to see the “Mission: Impossible” headliner boarding and taking a rocket up to the ISS, “hopefully” ending up with Cruise as “the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station.”
However, Langley put heavy emphasis that the majority of the film itself would take place on earth until the character Cruise is slated to play, who she has explained as “a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth,” goes off on a heroic journey to space in order to save the earth.
A report from Fox News stated that both Liman and Cruise had first put forth the film idea to Langley via a Zoom call in the middle of the pandemic.
She stated that Cruise directly spoke to her, stating, “Guys, I’ve got this great project, and here it is.”
Just two years ago, Space Shuttle Almanac stated via a social media post that Axiom Space and Nasa would be able to take both Liman and Cruise on a tourist mission to space via Elon Musk’s SpaceX Crew Dragon. With a single seat remaining to fill at the time of the launch, the crew would have launched back in October 2021.
So its confirmed that @CommanderMLA is flying the @Axiom_Space @SpaceX #CrewDragon tourist mission with Director @DougLiman & Tom Cruise. One seat still to be filled. They are to launch in October, 2021. pic.twitter.com/dn6SLvCOGz
— Space Shuttle Almanac (@ShuttleAlmanac) September 19, 2020
A report from Variety stated that Universal chose to go along and back the Cruise space project by offering a budget in the range of $200 million.
Cruise and Liman have worked together in the part on various films such as “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014) and “American Made” (2017). However, this project would be marked as the first in which the pair, or anyone for that matter, would officially film outside of Earth’s atmosphere.
“When a producer proposes something crazy to you, like, let’s try to shoot a movie in outer space, and NASA and SpaceX sign on, and Tom Cruise signs on… you’re just a little bit more receptive,” Liman explained to Thrillist.