Russia Sends Actress To Space To Film Movie In Historic Move

Actress And Producer Go To Space

NASA/Bill Ingalls

Sure, William Shatner just went to space – but he didn’t film a movie! No, that happened last month aboard a Soyuz rocket. The rocket carried none other than director Klim Shipenko, actress Yulia Peresild, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. Their mission? Film a movie in space! After the spaceship docked at the International Space Station (ISS), Russia’s space agency Roscosmos tweeted, “Welcome to the ISS!”

Following the docking, the team spent 12 days aboard the ISS, shooting just 35 minutes of the movie, titled The Challenge. Peresild plays a doctor in the film, one who must race to save the life of an ISS crew member. Before heading into outer space for the movie, the actress described her role as “a miracle, an incredible chance.” Two Russian astronauts already on the ISS, Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, are also expected to appear in the film.

But these Russians are not the first to ever film in space – that’s right!

Russian Crew Breaks Movie Boundaries

ISS/Facebook

How did this Russian filmmaking mission come to be? Well, the country announced The Challenge last year, just weeks after NASA declared it would work with SpaceX and actor Tom Cruise on a movie set aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Of course, the United States and Russia have endured a long space-based competition dating back to the early 1960s.

According to Deadline, the director of Cruise-starring film Edge of Tomorrow, will helm the new, U.S. space-action movie. While little is known about the plot, Deadline has reported that the film will not come out any time soon. Between Cruise’s current projects, the ongoing pandemic, and the training the actor and director will need to go through, the currently untitled film will likely debut in 2023, if not later.

Believe it or not, however, the Russians are not the first to film a space-based film in space. That’s right! In the ’80s, astronauts onboard the early Space Shuttle flights shot some stock footage with IMAX cameras. Since then, the ISS has allowed a few tourist flights over the years, some of which have filmed their own movies. Most notably, video game developer Richard Garriott shot the short film Apogee of Fear when he visited the ISS in 2008 as a paying customer.

Now, The Challenge will become the next film shot in space and the first feature fictional film. However, we’re still waiting on the Tom Cruise movie above all. Mission Impossible In Space just sounds too perfect!