Tom Cruise will (whenever movies start filming again) win his unofficial Hollywood space race with the Fast and Furious franchise to make the first narrative feature filmed in outer space. He’ll do so by reteaming with director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow, American Made) to film on the International Space station with NASA’s blessing. The project will also be a partnership with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, and who knows when this will actually happen, given that Cruise is currently entrenched within Mission: Impossible franchise productions. However, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has opened up on his hopes for the space-filmed movie, and he may be onto something.
Bridenstein spoke on camera ahead of Wednesday’s now-delayed SpaceX Demo-2 mission, as transcribed by the New York Post from within hours of footage. In short, the NASA chief revealed that his own career was inspired by Cruise’s Top Gun performance, and he hopes that the space-set film will inspire the next Elon Musk:
“I don’t admit this very often… but I was inspired to become a Navy pilot because when I was in elementary school, I watched the movie Top Gun… The question is, ‘Can Tom Cruise make a new movie that inspires the next generation Elon Musk?’ And if he can do that, then we’re all for it. NASA is all in.”
Sure, a next-gen Elon Musk might bring more bizarre baby names into the world, but the innovative soul that comes along with that would be priceless. Speaking of which, the SpaceX Crew Dragon launch has been rescheduled for Saturday. If it gets off the ground, the mission will make history with NASA astronauts onboard, so let’s hope for a safe liftoff, as well as for Tom Cruise movies to start shooting again soon.
(Via NASA & New York Post)