Russia claims victory over Tom Cruise in race for film shot in space

Russia has released a trailer for the first feature-length film to be shot in space, beating Hollywood actor Tom Cruise's project.

The film titled The Challenge has been shot 250 miles (400 km) above Earth on the International Space Station (ISS).

Upon its scheduled release date on April 20, the film will become the first feature-length movie where the actors and director were flown out to space for filming.

The plot of the film centres around a female cardiac surgeon Zhenya, played by Yulia Peresild, who is part of a team of seven surgeons sent to operate on a cosmonaut who loses consciousness while on the ISS.

The film has an official budget of about 1.115 billion roubles (£12.4 million).

Cruise and the director Doug Liman revealed plans to board the ISS for a feature film in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and NASA in May 2020.

A few months later adverts, not linked to Cruise's project, appeared in Russia seeking a lead actress for an upcoming space film.

Filming for The Challenge took place on the ISS in October 2021, four months before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ms Peresild, the director Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov launched on the Soyuz MS-19 from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The filming was part of a joint mission of the space agency Roscosmos and Channel One, Russia's main state television channel.

Russia has since declared it will quit the ISS entirely and create its own orbital outpost, nicknamed Ross.

Despite sanctions on the ground relating to the war in Ukraine, space missions have stayed as outliers of co-operation and Nasa and Roscosmos restarted operations in September.

The only woman cosmonaut in active service for Roscosmos, Anna Kikina, is currently in space after launching thanks to SpaceX in October.

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