Tom Cruise Says They've "Been Working On" New Universal Movie That'll Literally Send Him to Space

Is Tom Cruise still on track to tackle his most ambitious stunt yet by becoming the first-ever civilian to perform a spacewalk with a movie that will literally send him into orbit?

"We’ve been working on it diligently and we’ll see where we go," the actor told Variety while on the press circuit for the latest Mission: Impossible film, going on to say that there is no official start date yet for the currently-untitled movie.

Doug Liman (who previously worked with Cruise on Edge of Tomorrow and American Made) is on board to direct the reported $200 million feature for Universal Pictures. When news first broke in March 2020, it was reported that both NASA and SpaceX would have a hand in the tricky shoot aboard the International Space Station. The vast majority of principal photography, however, will take place on solid ground.

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“Things come out of our mouths like, we’re going to shoot this scene on Earth, or this scene won’t be shot on Earth,” Liman said in early 2021. "That just gets uttered casually and often during prep meetings. That’s not lost on me, and I don’t think it’s lost on Tom. I think the reason that Tom is such a superstar is, as much as we’re talking about making a movie not on Earth, I think Tom very much has both of his feet planted on the ground. And more than anyone I’ve ever worked with, he appreciates the extraordinary opportunity he has to go make movies.”

Before he can blast off into the upper atmosphere, though, Cruise needs to finish filming Dead Reckoning Part Two (slated to open next June), for which he and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie will begin location scouting once the Part One press tour concludes.

"We finish this tour, and on our way back to the U.K. we stop to scout along the way," McQuarrie said to Variety. "We hit the ground running as soon as we get back. I get two days of vacation between here and Tokyo and I’m back on."

Cruise returns to the big screen today (July 12) in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. The seventh installment in the long-running espionage franchise finds Ethan Hunt and his fellow IMF agents battling a rogue artificial intelligence known simply as "The Entity." According to early box office projections, the film could open to $250 globally in its first five days. 

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Want more blockbuster thrills in the meantime? Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Da Vinci Code, The Hunger Games, Fast Five, Jurassic World, Knock at the Cabin, Cocaine Bear, Renfield, and more are now streaming on Peacock!