HOUSTON — The producers behind Tom Cruise's future movie in space have contracted Axiom Space to build a studio that will attach to a portion of the International Space Station.
UK-based Space Entertainment Enterprise, co-founded by Elena and Dmitry Lesnevsky, says the undertaking will create "the world’s first content and entertainment studios and multi-purpose arena in space."
SEE-1 will be an inflatable space station module targeted to launch in 2024. Once in space, Axiom Space says the multi-purpose entertainment and content studio will attach to its segment of the ISS.
"The microgravity media venue will comprise one-fifth of Axiom Station’s initial configuration when it is completed and ready to separate from the ISS," a press release reads.
Axiom Station will be the first commercial destination module for the International Space Station in an effort to double the "useable volume" of the orbiting laboratory.
Space Entertainment Enterprise says SEE-1 will allow artists, producers and creatives to develop content that "maximizes the Space Station’s low-orbit micro-gravity environment." This includes things like films, music, sports events and TV, according to a press release.
“SEE-1 is an incredible opportunity for humanity to move into a different realm and start an exciting new chapter in space,” the Lesnevskys said. “It will provide a unique, and accessible home for boundless entertainment possibilities in a venue packed with innovative infrastructure which will unleash a new world of creativity."
Current estimations have SEE-1 operational by the start of December 2024.
The Lesnevskys are noted to be film producers behind the "first-ever Hollywood motion picture" filmed in space. A spokesperson for Space Entertainment Enterprise told CNBC more specifically that the company is "in production on the upcoming Tom Cruise movie."
While little has been shared about the "Mission Impossible" star's space film debut, in 2020, then-NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shared it would be filmed aboard the International Space Station.
"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," Bridenstine tweeted at the time.
While the feat will be a first for Hollywood, a Russian crew beat the United States to film in space when it sent an actress and producer to the ISS for a movie of their own.
The movie, which translates to "Challenge," is about a female doctor who flies to the International Space Station due to the "dramatic circumstance" of needing to save an astronaut.
Actress Yulia Peresild, producer Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov launched to the orbiting laboratory on Oct. 5 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They filmed scenes for 12 days before returning to Earth.
