Tom Cruise Is Literally Going To Outer Space To Shoot An Action Movie With Elon Musk's SpaceX [Update]

Update: NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine says that this project will involve the International Space Station.

Our original story from May 4, 2020 continues below.

Tom Cruise is defying gravity.

The global superstar is set to literally leave the globe to star in a new movie which will be shot in space – and he's teaming up with Elon Musk's SpaceX company to make it happen.

Deadline reports that this new Tom Cruise space movie is not a Mission: Impossible project, and that no studio is involved yet because it's still early in development. But Cruise and SpaceX are working on the action/adventure project with NASA, and if it actually happens, it will be the first narrative feature film to be shot in outer space.

This is not the first time Cruise has flirted with leaving the Earth to make a movie. Twenty years ago (context: the same year Mission: Impossible II came out), none other than James Cameron approached Cruise and asked if he'd be interested in heading to the great unknown to make a movie together.

"I actually talked to [Cruise] about doing a space film in space, about 15 years ago," Cameron said in 2018. "I had a contract with the Russians in 2000 to go to the International Space Station and shoot a high-end 3D documentary there. And I thought, 'S—, man, we should just make a feature.' I said, 'Tom, you and I, we'll get two seats on the Soyuz, but somebody's gotta train us as engineers.' Tom said, 'No problem, I'll train as an engineer.' We had some ideas for the story, but it was still conceptual."

Obviously that project never came together, but it sounds like Cameron may have planted a seed that some other filmmaker might get to harvest.

The fact that Musk, who is often the butt of jokes about how it seems like he could be a villain in a James Bond movie, is involved here (or at least his company is, so one assumes he will at least get an executive producer credit) is almost too perfect. Remember Moonraker? Bond went to space in that one. It's...pretty bad. Fingers crossed this will turn out much, much better.

My favorite thing about Cruise is that he is in constant pursuit of perfection. He doesn't always achieve it – see: Mummy, The – but by God, the dude is willing to lay it all on the line to entertain worldwide audiences, and he's really effin' good at it. Here's hoping this actually comes together, and I'm extremely curious if this will end up being another Cruise/Christopher McQuarrie collaboration or if Cruise trusts any other director to lead him to these unprecedented heights.