A Russian actor and director have boldly gone where no film crew has gone before: to space to make a feature film. Sorry, Tom Cruise.
Actor Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov headed to space on Tuesday on the Soyuz MS-19, blasting off from Kazakhstan, The Associated Press reports. They'll be filming scenes for a movie called Challenge, which is set to become the first feature film ever shot in orbit. Peresild will star as a surgeon who has to save a cosmonaut at the space station.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
With this mission, Russia has also beaten Tom Cruise to the punch, as the actor had also been plotting his own movie shot in space. NASA last year revealed the historic partnership with Cruise and SpaceX to shoot a Doug Liman-directed film aboard the International Space Station, and it was reportedly set to have a budget of around $200 million, Variety reported. Then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said, "We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA's ambitious plans a reality."
At the time, this production was expected to make history as the first feature film shot in space, only for Russia to later reveal its own plans to do so. It hasn't been revealed when Cruise will blast off for his no-longer-historic mission, though if he'd like some words of advice on rocketing into space from a fellow actor, he can always check in with William Shatner next week.
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Kim Jong Un’s triumph: the rise and rise of North Korea’s dictatorIn the Spotlight North Korean leader has strengthened ties with Russia and China, and recently revealed his ‘respected child’ to the world
-
Crossword: September 13, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
SpaceX breaks Starship losing streak in 10th testspeed read The Starship rocket's test flight was largely successful, deploying eight dummy satellites during its hour in space
-
Rabbits with 'horns' sighted across Coloradospeed read These creatures are infected with the 'mostly harmless' Shope papilloma virus
-
Lithium shows promise in Alzheimer's studySpeed Read Potential new treatments could use small amounts of the common metal
-
Scientists discover cause of massive sea star die-offSpeed Read A bacteria related to cholera has been found responsible for the deaths of more than 5 billion sea stars
-
'Thriving' ecosystem found 30,000 feet underseaSpeed Read Researchers discovered communities of creatures living in frigid, pitch-black waters under high pressure
-
New York plans first nuclear plant in 36 yearsSpeed Read The plant, to be constructed somewhere in upstate New York, will produce enough energy to power a million homes
-
Dehorning rhinos sharply cuts poaching, study findsSpeed Read The painless procedure may be an effective way to reduce the widespread poaching of rhinoceroses
-
Breakthrough gene-editing treatment saves babyspeed read KJ Muldoon was healed from a rare genetic condition
