If all goes well, Russia will be the first country to shoot a movie in space ahead of the United States. Russian space agency Roscosmos on Thursday announced Russian actress Yulia Pereslid and filmmaker Kilim Shipenko will join cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov on the International Space Station (ISS) on Oct. 5 to film scenes for a movie called “Challenge.” Pereslid and Shipenko will undergo elements of Russia’s cosmonaut training.
“The feature film ‘Challenge’ is a part of a large-scale scientific and educational project, which also includes a series of documentaries to be shot about the rocket and space industry enterprises and specialists involved in the manufacturing of launch vehicles, spacecraft, and ground space infrastructure,” Roscosmos said in a news release. “The project will become a clear example of the fact that spaceflights are gradually becoming available not only for professionals, but also for an increasingly wider range of those interested,” the space agency said.
Russia late last year put out the call for an actress to film the scenes in space shortly after NASA announced it was working with actor Tom Cruise to film a separate movie on the ISS. Cruise and director Doug Liman are due to travel to the ISS in October to work on a film, the details for which have been kept under wraps. The project is being developed in collaboration with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. It’s unclear whether the American duo or their Russian counterparts will make it to space first.
