This week's Your Nerd Side Show:
Cruise reiterated his plans to produce and star in a film shot at least partly in the Earth's orbit once he's fulfilled his commitments to the Mission: Impossible franchise in an interview with Variety. "We've been working on it diligently and we'll see where we go," he said. Universal Pictures first announced the as-yet-untitled project, which will see Cruise portray "a down-on-his-luck guy who finds himself in the position of being the only person who could save Earth," in May 2020. Further details regarding the production are currently thin on the ground, although Edge of Tomorrow's Doug Liman is officially onboard to direct.
Should Cruise's space movie become a reality, it will break new ground -- not just for filmmaking, but for humankind itself. The star intends to become the first non-astronaut to perform a spacewalk during the production, a milestone that Universe is already talking up. "Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He's taking the world to space. That's the plan," Universal Pictures Chairwoman Donna Langley said in October 2022. "We have a great project in development with Tom, that does contemplate him doing just that. Taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting and hopefully being the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station."
Mission: Impossible 7 Director Talks Tom Cruise's Stunts
However, Cruise will first have to survive the eighth Mission: Impossible installment before he can head off-world. That's not necessarily guaranteed given the Hollywood icon's insistence on performing his own stunts, although Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two director Christopher McQuarrie remains adamant that rigorous safety protocols mean that Cruise has the best chance of survival. "You can't make these movies without taking risks and without doing extremely dangerous things," McQuarrie explained in a recent interview. "But you could be very, very, very smart and very, very considerate about the way you do it."
For his part, Cruise seems unphased by the possibility that his Mission: Impossible stunts could cut his career (and life) short. On the contrary, Cruise recently declared that he hopes to keep making movies until he's 80, citing Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny star Harrison Ford as his inspiration.
Tom Cruise's untitled space movie does not yet have a release date.
Source: Variety