Hollywood was about to take a huge step and put a stamp on its history by commencing a movie to be shot in real space for the first time. Early this month, NASA confirmed their partnership with SpaceX to film a movie in the International Space Station (ISS). The movie would feature the Mission Impossible star, Tom Cruise, although it would not be part of the Mission franchise, according to CNET. But unfortunately, the dream is shattered and an utter disappointment to the fans. Doug Liman was the director, known for films like Edge of Tomorrow, Mr.&Mrs. Smith, Fair Game, etc.
The movie would have been a huge success with the exhibition of the complexities and the enigma of the outer world and the magic of space. But now, it seems like a distant dream. And the reason is very much valid and practical. With no first-hand experience and amateur crew members, a beyond-atmosphere motion picture would be nearly impossible.
The legacy was started back in 2008 when a video game developer and space tourist Richard Garriott and a son of NASA Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott, shot a 5-minute short movie Apogee of Fear, investing $30 million, an insane amount for the sake of a few minutes. Garriott’s odyssey taught him that the shooting is apparently slow, the anti-gravity and vacuum making it harder. He shared his happening with CNET and said “If you think about a movie, the pre-production is critical.” He also said that the experience of having every shot while in space is far worse than when doing it on-site, even with a large crew. In space, every moment of the crew is more expensive, and “every shot is far harder to get.”
One should applaud Richard for taking such a risk and becoming an inspiration for many, as well as a lesson for the SpaceX crew members. Laying the cash on a movie, only to fail in the end, wouldn’t definitely be worthwhile. Hollywood has always impressed the world with its advanced graphics, visual effects, animation, cinematography, making it surreal and realistic. An outer-space is a whole another spectrum and not a joke. Richard Garriott prepared his storyboard and full shot list while on Earth. He also plotted out the astronauts he would need in the scene. He even included movements and dialogues with translations for the Russian cosmonauts. If a 5 minutes short film can cause such trouble, let alone a 2 hours feature film.
“The reality of filming in space may mean that either they will find that filming a lot of those action scenes will have been easier on Earth, where it’s more controllable, or they will have to adjust what they mean by an action movie.”
Various controversies rose around the issue, and critics criticized that wasting this range of money would be a high risk and a waste of time. Some things should be considered before diving into something.
At this age and point in his career, Tom Cruise is more into continuing his legacy rather than doing the action scenes. And it is justifiable for such a huge action movie star, and shooting an outer space movie will mark his position in the pages of cinema. CNET further says that the shooting might also cost the health of the members.
Adding to that, one needs to move delicately and carefully, or else someone will smack their head on the hard objects. Things will definitely slow down meanwhile.
Several memes came up with the news.
Hollywood never ceases to surprise us. Fans are still hoping that some way should come up and make this ‘Mission Possible’. This movie was supposed to inspire the next Elon Musks.