NASA has confirmed the Hollywood rumor that Tom Cruise is planning to film a movie in outer space and added the news that the filming will take place aboard the International Space Station.
Since it's 2020 and this is how our government communicates with us now, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine confirmed the news in a tweet.
Bridenstine is all hyped up about getting into show business, writing "NASA is excited to work with @TomCruise on a film aboard the @Space_Station! We need popular media to inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists to make @NASA's ambitious plans a reality."
This event seems predestined. Space program fans will remember that Cruise narrated the 2002 IMAX documentary "Space Station 3D," the first 3D live-action movie to be filmed in space. The 47-minute movie tells the story of the ISS assembly in space and has played in IMAX theaters at museums around the world for most of the last two decades.
The International Space Station has been continuously occupied by American, Russian, Japanese, European and Canadian astronauts since 2002. The 20th anniversary of its first occupancy is coming up on Nov. 2.
The ISS measures 357 feet end-to-end, making it approximately one football field long. Its normal crew is only six astronauts, so just how Tom Cruise, other actors, a director, cinematographer and the rest of a Hollywood crew are going to find living quarters on board is a mystery.
The ISS has been featured in popular movies before. It's a key player in Roland Emmerich's 2004 sci-fi thriller "The Day After Tomorrow" and Alfonso Cuarón's Oscar-winning 2013 space drama "Gravity," which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. It's even home base in the 2017 horror film "Life," starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Guess what, though. None of those movies was actually filmed in space.
Depending on his launch date, Cruise could become one of the three oldest humans in space. The No. 3 slot is held by space tourist Dennis Tito, who at age 60 paid $20 million for the chance to spend eight days aboard the ISS. The No. 2 slot is held by 61-year-old NASA astronaut Franklin Story Musgrave, who flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1996.
Former astronaut Sen. John Glenn, of course, holds the record. He flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1998 at age 77.
If Tom's going to break that record, he'll need at least four sequels to this first movie to make that happen.
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