STARS.CAMERA.ACTION!(LITERALLY!)
THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL BE THE SET.
Yes, you heard that right!
The new space race would finally bring us what we really wanted — a sci-fi blockbuster shot in actual space.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted on May 6, 2020, “NASA is excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA’s ambitious plans a reality.” Musk, whose SpaceX company is collaborating with NASA to stage the US’s first manned space launch since 2011, confirmed his involvement in the project by replying to Bridenstine: “Should be a lot of fun!”
As per a report on Deadline, director Doug Liman, who directed Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, is on board to helm a new action film that will enlist the help of NASA and SpaceX for at least some of the filming.
NASA has been looking to open the International Space Station to wider commercial use, beyond scientific research for new drugs and novel materials that can only be grown in zero-gravity conditions. That includes space tourism. It declined to provide additional details. “Not at this time,” Matthew Rydin, the press secretary for Mr. Bridenstine, wrote in an email. “We will say more about the project at the appropriate time.”
“We’re announcing the ability for private astronauts to visit the space station on US vehicles and for companies to engage in profit-making opportunities,” said NASA’s then-chief financial officer, Jeff DeWit. Seven months later, the agency entered negotiations with Axiom Space, a space services company based in Houston, to attach at least one new module to the station as a precursor to Axiom establishing its own commercial outpost. Axiom has not said if it is involved in Cruise’s plans, but Bridenstine confirmed the company’s involvement in an interview with the Off-Nominal podcast posted online on June 15: “Axiom is working with Tom Cruise in the making of a movie,” he said.
MISSION: (IM)POSSIBLE ?
In 2008, video game developer and space tourist Richard Garriott paid $30 million for a ticket on the Soyuz to spend two weeks on the International Space Station as a private citizen, he also shot and edited the 5-minute short film Apogee of Fear while he was in space.
Shooting in space is way harder and slower than you think. “You plan out every shot, so once you have a large expensive crew onsite, you can be as efficient as possible in recording it. In space, that’s going to be far worse. Because not only is every moment of the crew far more expensive, but also every shot is far harder to get.”, said Garriot. Movement is hard to plot, your props don’t stay in place and dealing with sound is a nightmare. The fans that circulate air on the ISS make for terrible audio. “Everything in space, the real stuff in space, is not action movie fast, it is slow and deliberate,” he says.
The rise of private space travel and vessels like SpaceX’s Crew Dragon could make it easier and less expensive to get into space.
Considering the budget
This kind of innovation does not come cheap. Sources said the production budget has been set at $200 million in the most optimistic projections. Cruise could earn somewhere between $30 million and $60 million, according to insiders. This would cover his services as a producer and star. The inherent marketing value around a global event like this is obvious. The stakes are also high from a film-making standpoint. “NASA doesn’t want to be the owner and operator of the hardware. We also don’t want to be the only customer,” said Bridenstine after SpaceX’s history-making launch. “We want SpaceX and others to go get customers that are not us.” Actor Tom Cruise doesn’t even have a script for his upcoming history-making film to be shot in space, but managed to convince Universal Pictures to shell out $200 million (nearly Rs 1500 crore) to produce it. The $200-million seems a little light, given that big-budget blockbusters can easily cost up to $350-million these days. But if they’ll actually be in space, perhaps the visual effects budget will be less than is usually needed, and Universal can balance the budget that way.
“The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”- Elon Musk
