The Challenge tells the story of a cardiac surgeon, Łena (played by Julija Peresildová), who is sent to work on a space station with a team of doctors. Her patient is an astronaut (played by real-life cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky) who passed out on the space station.
Filmed in Earth orbit, the movie was made in 2021 and will hit theaters next month, making it the first movie in history to have a crew fly to work in space. Pereseldova, film producer and director Klim Shipenko, together with cosmonaut Anton Skaplerov, flew into space in October 2021 and filmed for 12 days.
American actor Tom Cruise had a similar plan in 2020, who, along with producer Doug Liman, also wanted to shoot a movie on board the International Space Station. Elon Musk’s SpaceX was supposed to fly it there. But at the moment there is no new news about the cruise project.
The last time the film was mentioned was Donna Langley, president of Universal Studios, In an interview with BBC on October 5, 2022. At the time, she hoped Cruz would be “the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside the space station.” Only revealed the film’s plot is that it will largely take place on Earth, but then the film’s protagonist has to “go into space to save the day.”
