Tom Cruise to make history with spacewalk stunt
Tom Cruise will “hopefully” become “the first civilian to do a spacewalk” outside the International Space Station as part of a new action movie.
The Hollywood actor, who is renowned for his ambitious action stunts and high-speed risks, is expected to take his ideas, literally, out of this world when he teams up with director The Bourne Identity Doug Liman for a Universal Pictures project.
Universal Pictures chairman Donna Langley teased Cruise’s space venture this week in an interview with the BBC, claiming the blockbuster star planned to fly and film outside the ISS for the project – which reportedly has a budget of $US200 million ($319 million).
“Tom Cruise is taking us to space. He’s taking the world to space. That’s the plan,” Langley confirmed to the BBC.
“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.”
Langley revealed Cruise and Liman pitched her the film’s plot over Zoom during the pandemic, explaining while the movie will send Cruise to space, it “actually takes place on Earth, and then the character needs to go up to space to save the day”.
Cruise’s taste for performing his own ambitious stunt work was last seen on his 60th birthday in July, when the Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie shared a rare photo of one of the actor’s death-defying acts.
Cruise could be seen outside the cockpit of a red, vintage WWII biplane, dangling himself off the wing as the plane does a nose-dive and barrel roll.
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The Hollywood veteran’s career continues to reach new heights with each daring performance, leading the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick to record-breaking success.
It became the third highest-grossing film of all time in Australia since its May release and has earned more than $US1.4 billion ($2.2 billion) at the global box office.