A Russian actress is set to take off to the International Space Station (ISS) next week to shoot the first movie in outer space.
Yulia Peresild, 37, will launch alongside Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and director and actor Klim Shpenko, 37, aboard the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft on October 5, to the space station orbiting Earth at an altitude of about 220 miles (354 km). .
This comes just weeks after the launch of the first all-civilian crew aboard a SpaceX rocket and capsule.
The director said in a press conference last week that filming of the movie “Vesuvius”, which means “challenge” in Russian, will take two weeks aboard the space station. He added: “The events of this film revolve around the story of an ordinary person … a doctor who has nothing to do with space exploration and has never thought about it, who is offered to travel to the International Space Station … and save the life of an astronaut.”
The professional astronaut crew will also appear in the film. “I’m not going to star in the movie, but I still need to figure out how to make a movie in an unusual place like outer space,” said commander Anton Shkaplerov.
The film’s lead actress, Yulia Peresild, stated that things would not be on the same level as they are on Earth, “but we will do our best”.
It is noteworthy that Ross Cosmos announced the project in May. The civilian flight crews spent weeks training, including zero-gravity tests and Sokol KV-2 flight suits, and worked with equipment that will be operated aboard the International Space Station.
The launch will take place towards the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the world’s largest space launch facility, located in Kazakhstan.
Several reports also indicate that American actor Tom Cruise, 58, plans to shoot his own movie in space as well, later this year, after traveling there aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.
The Mission Impossible star, known for his many stunts, will be joined by 55-year-old director Doug Lyman.
More details about this work are kept tightly, although Lyman already wrote a draft script for the film.