They announced it, and they did! A Russian crew made up of an experienced cosmonaut, a director and an actress, took off from the Baikonur base for the ISS, where they will shoot for twelve days a film called “The Challenge”. The joint project between Space X, NASA and Universal, with Tom Cruise as the star of the first film shot in space, has just had its politeness toast.
Roscosmos: 1 – Space X: 0
As we knew, a race was launched to find out who would be the first to make a fictional film in space. While Space X, Nasa, Universal and Tom Cruise had been the first to announce their project, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had also declared itself a party, and it was ultimately she who would be the first to launch its filming of the movie The Challenge. A historic moment.
Indeed, it is this morning of October 5, 2021 that the director Klim Chipenko and the actress Yulia Peressid, accompanied by cosmonaut Anton Chkaplerov (in the center of the photo), flew from Baikonur in a Soyuz rocket to join the ISS. And they will be greeted there by the new station commander, French Thomas Pesquet. Filming will last for twelve days, before starting the return journey. October 17.
A titled film The Challenge
Tom Cruise, whose space film project with Doug Liman in the direction is also scheduled for a takeoff in October, thus finds himself capped to the pole by the Russian project. The 37-year-old actress Youlia Peressild will therefore be the first actress to work in zero gravity for The Challenge, in the role of a surgeon in charge of operating a cosmonaut. She has more than thirty films to her credit, since her debut in 2003. Director Klim Chipenko is 38 years old and stood out in 2017 for the film. Salyut-7.
This film was about a space mission launched in 1985 to try to prevent the Salyut-7 station from crashing to earth. Obviously, everything had been shot on earth for this film. If the director has already dealt with the space theme, it will be entirely different this time, with the staging of a drama shot in the ISS.
A new star wars
Along with the announcement that William Shatner would soon be passenger of the next Blue Origin launch, the company of Jeff Bezos, this Russian takeoff marks a new acceleration in the race for exploration and space tourism. All the national and private agencies are engaged in fierce competition to win a war of image, contracts, and important technological issues. No doubt Space X and NASA have not said their last word. But their project with Tom Cruise and Doug Liman, now behind on The Challenge, will have to offer an even more ambitious experience. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
